Day of Solidarity in Connecticut
August 13, 2010: A convoy of beer trucks with horns blaring and Teamsters drivers flashing the thumbs up would not normally bring a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye. Then again, the scene at Hartford Distributors Inc. on Wednesday morning was not just another day at the warehouse. It was a remarkable moment of unity, all the more so because it was one of three memorable events happening at the same...
Keegel Defects, Rocks Hoffa’s Re-Election Campaign
The defection of Tom Keegel, Hoffa’s running mate, from the Hoffa re-election campaign has sent shock waves through the Teamster political scene. In a July 15 letter to the General Executive Board, Keegel distanced himself from Hoffa, and criticized Hoffa’s direction and isolation from local officers and members. He plans to serve out his term and then retire in early 2012. The letter states that “continuing down the same road as the IBT has traveled...
Judge Orders Carrier to Pay $150,000, Reinstate Fired Driver
March 16, 2010: In a decision issued on March 15, 2010, Department of Labor Judge Daniel Leland ruled that New Prime, Inc. (also known as "Prime") illegally fired Cynthia Ferguson because she refused to continue operating a commercial vehicle in hazardous weather. In Ferguson v. New Prime, Inc., Ferguson, a leased driver for Prime, was fired shortly after she refused to drive through Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with a loaded tractor-trailer set...
D.O.T. to review Hours of Service Regs
October 27, 2009: The Department of Transportation has agreed to abandon its defense of longer working hour standards for truck drivers issued in 2003. This could possibly lead to a return to the ten-hour daily driving limit, though there is no guarantee of that outcome. Click here to read the press release from Public Citizen.
LaHood Says Government to Ban Truckers’ Texting
October 1, 2009: The Obama administration will ban texting by truck drivers and restrict the use of other in-cab technologies as part of its effort to eliminate distracted driving, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday. LaHood, at the conclusion of a two-day hearing here on ways to combat driver distractions, said the Department of Transportation would “ban text messaging altogether, and restrict the use of cell phones by truck drivers,” as one of a series...