Transport Topics February 05, 2015 View the original piece The top negotiator for West Coast terminal operators and ocean carriers said the region’s docks are nearing “complete gridlock” and raised the prospect of a lockout in as few as five days unless a contract deal is reached. Pacific Maritime Association President Jim McKenna told reporters productivity has declined 50% because of International Longshore & Warehouse Union slowdowns. As congestion builds, and several dozen ships can’t reach...

Mark Davis The Kansas City Star February 06, 2015 View the original piece Trucking giant YRC Worldwide Inc. on Thursday reported a $6.2 million profit in the final months of 2014 as its national freight business turned in stronger operating results. The fourth-quarter profit compared with a $400,000 profit in the same quarter a year earlier. Click here to read more at The Kansas City Star. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article9354956.html#storylink=cpy  

Peter Tirschwell The Journal of Commerce February 02, 2015 View the original piece A Superior Court judge on Thursday ruled that seven drivers working for Pacer Cartage at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are employees and are owed a total of more than $2 million in damages.   The ruling was a victory for  labor activists and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters who see misclassification of drivers as their latest opportunity to unionize the...

Rick Karlin Albany Times Union February 02, 2015 View the original piece Anyone who thinks that congressional votes, federal regulations and the machinations of Wall Street have no bearing on their day-to-day lives should talk to John Raffiani Sr. The Greene County resident is getting a hard lesson in what could be called the downside of deregulation, the decline of unions and the lingering effects of the 2008 recession. He's one of at least 50...

Al Bradbury Labor Notes January 28, 2015 View the original piece Last summer Teamsters for a Democratic Union raised the alarm that President James Hoffa was coming after rank and filers’ right to vote for the union’s top officers. Now TDU is celebrating a win: the right to vote will be permanently enshrined in the Teamster constitution. That’s the central provision of a settlement agreement the U.S. government and the Teamsters announced January 14—replacing the 1989 consent decree as a...

Transport Topics January 28, 2015 View the original piece Driver turnover remained at elevated levels for truckload fleets of all sizes, inching up one percentage point to 97% at larger carriers and remaining at 94% at smaller fleets, American Trucking Associations reported. The numbers compared to the second quarter of last year showed sequential stability in both the truckload fleets with revenue of more than $30 million and those with revenue below that benchmark. Click here...

Brian Dowling The Hartford Courant January 27, 2015 View the original piece The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has placed its local at Sikorsky Aircraft into trusteeship, accepting the recommendation of an independent review that found a systemic lack of financial controls that investigators said resulted in thousands of dollars being embezzled by a former president. The union's failure to adequately document expenses also led to millions of dollars being spent without approvals from the executive...

Austin Alonzo Kansas City Business Journal January 26, 2015 View the original piece YRC Freight is looking to increase its use of purchased transportation to increase its profitability, according to a leaked internal memo. A Dec. 18, 2014, memo obtained by theKansas City Business Journal, details a change-of-operations request to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that would allow the company to increase its use of interline carriers — third-party transportation providers — in areas currently...

Richard Verrier Los Angeles Times January 26, 2015 View the original piece Members of Teamsters Local 399 have approved a new contract, avoiding a strike that would have shut down commercial production in Los Angeles. Location scouts, animal wranglers and drivers on Saturday ratified a revised contract negotiated Tuesday between the union and the Assn. of Independent Commercial Producers. Click here to read more at the Los Angeles Times.

Russell Grantham The Atlanta Journal-Constitution January 26, 2015 View the original piece When Sandra Presley’s husband died four years ago, the couple’s retirement income from decades of working for trucking companies dropped by over half. Now, the 72-year-old Forest Park woman fears her $634-a-month pension from working at Yellow Freight could shrink another 30 percent. Click here to read more at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.