January 9, 2014: Updated 6 p.m. Below is the YRCW vote count. The count is based on reports from observers and maybe subject to change Local City Yes No 2 Butte, Mont. 7 1 5 Baton Rouge, La. 6 7 7 Kalamazoo, Mich 0 1 17 Denver 57 97 20 Toledo, Ohio 125 80 24 Akron, Ohio 182 362 25 Boston 57 74 26 Danville, Ohio 11 37 29 Waynesboro, Va. 28 9 41 Kansas...

January 8, 2014. 3:30 p.m. The ballots for the YRCW contract extension will be counted today and tomorrow. At the first postal pick up at 8 am, the post office count was 19,483 ballots. The final pick up at Noon brought about 150 more. The postal estimates may be subject to correction when the ballots are counted later. They are sorting the ballots into the various local union trays, and starting to open some ballots,...

UPDATED January 8, 2014: 69% voted NO on the first offer. We can do it again, and this time can win real improvements. Be at the meeting this weekend to cast your vote—your one chance in five years for a better contract. Click here to download the new leaflet and help spread the word. The new UPS Freight deal is very little changed from the first proposal, which members rejected by 69%. Basically they put...

January 3, 2014: Millionaires like Harry Wilson are getting rich off the concessions that are destroying good union jobs. Our union should be leading the fight, but Hoffa Jr. is no Hoffa. He has turned his back on freight, UPS freight, carhaul, and trucking Teamsters. Complaining in the break room won’t save our pensions or our union. But rank-and-file Teamsters standing together can take back our union.In some locals, TDU members have defeated pension cuts,...

January 3, 2014: The labor movement is launching a national effort to raise the minimum wage. But Teamster wages and benefits are bottoming out under Hoffa and Hall. The labor movement is launching a national effort to raise the federal minimum wage to more than $10 an hour and to boost local and state minimum wages even higher. In the meantime, Teamster wages are bottoming out under contracts negotiated by James Hoffa and Ken Hall....

January 3, 2014: Teamsters head into 2014 with a full plate of challenges. Hoffa and Hall have spent 2013 doing nothing for Teamsters at UPS, UPS Freight, ABF and YRCW. Our pensions are under attack. Many of our local leaders are discouraging or burned out. TDU members are working to make real changes in the direction of our union, starting in our shops and locals and right up to changing the IBT leadership. Contact TDU...

January 3, 2014: It has been one of the biggest failures of leadership in Hoffa’s 15 years in office. YRCW Teamsters were mailed a ballot for a five-year contract extension, without the union leadership even bargaining for them. Whatever the outcome fo the vote is, we know this for sure: the Hoffa-Hall leadership has abandoned freight Teamsters. For 15 years they have done nothing to defend our union or to organize in freight, or in...

January 3, 2014: UPS Freight Teamsters have been attacked by their own union leadership in the worst way: the denial of the right to a fair vote. The question is, what will you—and other Teamsters nationwide—do about it? The Hoffa-Hall leadership has announced that they will not allow a mail ballot vote on the UPS Freight contract. For decades, this is how all contract votes have been done for UPS package, for freight, for carhaul,...

January 3, 2014: Meet Harry Wilson. Hoffa appointed this Wall Street tycoon to the YRC Board of Directors. Now Wilson is making millions on the YRC concessions deal. Hoffa appointee Harry Wilson has received, or stands to receive, as much as $15 million for dealing with distressed companies that bargain with the Teamsters since he was first tagged by James Hoffa to work on YRCW’s 2011 restructuring. This includes a $5.5 million bonus if YRC...

January 3, 2014: ORION takes more decision-making out of the hands of drivers and gives management another tool to harass UPS Teamsters. UPS is implementing new technology, the Orion Solution. It’s telematics on steroids. ORION takes EDD and makes it dynamic. Your package car is still loaded according to the PAS system. But ORION rearranges your EDD to tell you where to  deliver and do pick-ups stop-by-stop based on the shortest mileage for the day....