February 15, 2012: The United States Department of Transportation ("Department") has issued an Hours-of-Service ("HOS") Final Rule, that is meant to reduce the excessively long work hours of Commercial Motor Vehicle ("CMV") drivers. The Department wants to ensure drivers have enough time to obtain adequate rest on a daily and weekly basis, because excessive driving hours increase the risk of fatigue-related crashes and long-term health problems for drivers. The objective of the final rule is...

February 7, 2012: A Chicago-based local of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters can be held liable for wages lost by union members after the local failed to properly request negotiations with the employer under the wage-reopener clause of the bargaining unit's contract with the employer, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled (Begeske v. Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters Local 673, N.D. Ill., No. 09 CV 4009, 1/31/12). Judge Robert M. Dow...

February 20, 2012: Employers are trying to push rising healthcare costs onto workers and their families. Teamsters speak out on company tactics to look out for in contract negotiations—and what you can do to protect your benefits. Is your employer asking you to pay for healthcare? You’re not alone. With the economy in recession and healthcare costs on the rise, employers are increasingly trying to shift the cost of healthcare onto workers. TDU talked to...

January 31, 2012: YRC Inc. is getting out of the next-day delivery business as it continues to shift its focus to being a pure-play long-haul carrier. The company, the national less-than-truckload division of Overland Park-based YRC Worldwide Inc. (Nasdaq: YRCW), mailed a series of proposed work changes to dozens of International Brotherhood of Teamsters union locals last week. They have to approve the changes, which are likely to mean job cuts. Click here to read...

January 30, 2012: LONDON, Ontario—Outside a rail locomotive factory owned by Caterpillar Inc. here, locked-out workers have set up a trailer and a wooden shack to keep warm between bouts of waving union flags and shouting slogans. In a high-profile test of union clout in Canada, they are digging in for what looks like a long struggle. The workers, who are resisting a new labor contract that would slash their wages by about 50%, hope...

January 23, 2012: America’s unionized workers, buffeted by layoffs and stagnating wages, face another phenomenon that is increasingly throwing them on the defensive: lockouts. From the Cooper Tire factory in Findlay, Ohio, to a country club in Southern California and sugar beet processing plants in North Dakota, employers are turning to lockouts to press their unionized workers to grant concessions after contract negotiations deadlock. Even the New York City Opera locked out its orchestra and...

January 9, 2012: YRC, looking to restructure its operations as the trucking operator seeks to rebuild its finances, is preparing for talks with the Teamsters union on a redesign of its freight terminal network and how its union employees handle shipments. The redesign is the next step in a restructuring at the nation’s third-largest less-than-truckload carrier started last year by new YRC President Jeff Rogers. It’s part of a broader overhaul of the YRC Worldwide...

January 6, 2012: Trying to persuade locked-out workers in Canada to accept a sharp cut in pay, Caterpillar Inc. is citing lower wages elsewhere. But instead of pointing to the usual models of cheap and pliant labor, such as China or Mexico, it is using a more surprising example: the U.S. Wage and benefit costs at a Caterpillar rail-equipment plant in LaGrange, Ill., are less than half of those at the company's locomotive-assembly plant in...

January 6, 2012: Trucking company YRC Worldwide Inc. said Thursday it is selling the former Roadway headquarters in Akron to the developer of the new Goodyear headquarters and expects up to 100 people will lose their jobs in upcoming months. About 100 other YRC Worldwide employees will transfer to office space at company truck terminals in nearby Copley and Richfield, with another 50 getting offers to relocate to jobs in Kansas, South Dakota and Iowa....

January 5, 2012: President Obama Jan. 4 announced his intent to recess appoint two Democrats and a Republican to serve as members of the National Labor Relations Board, restoring a quorum on the five-seat board that was lost Jan. 3 with the departure of Member Craig Becker. Obama will appoint as board members Terence F. Flynn (R), Sharon Block (D), and Richard Griffin (D). The president nominated Flynn to the board Jan. 5, 2011, and...