August 27, 2009: YRC Worldwide Inc. has named a turnaround consultant to guide the trucking company’s bid to survive the recession. The board of Overland Park-based YRC (Nasdaq: YRCW) named Richard Williamson, managing director of corporate turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal, as chief strategy officer in a Thursday meeting. Williamson will coordinate and manage YRC’s work to maintain liquidity and fix its capital structure, YRC said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission....

August 26, 2009: Chicago Teamsters are walking the picket line at SK Hand Tools to win back their health coverage. The strikers, members of Local 743, have been working without a contract since March. “SK didn’t even have the decency to let us know they stopped making payments,” commented David Biedrzycki, the union steward. “A doctor told a member there was no coverage last week.” The company is seeking a reduction in wages and employee...

August 24, 2009: "We're prepared to be here all night if we have to." That was the latest word from Teamsters Local 743's Catherine Schutzius, chief negotiator in the union's bargaining with administrators at the University of Chicago Medical Center. I called her nearly two hours after her meeting with managers there was scheduled to begin yesterday afternoon. The union is negotiating over wages and health-care benefits for about 1,400 of its members at the...

August 24, 2009: A review of the second quarter Financial and Analytical Report of the Central States Pension Fund shows that its assets are up, but that the Fund has lost 105,000 participants since Hoffa took office. Central States has also slightly amended its ‘reemployment’ rule which will help some over-65 retirees. Financial Report As of June 30, CSPF assets stood at $17.5 billion, almost exactly the same as the $17.4 billion in assets at...

August 21, 2009: The cancer of give-backs of wages and benefits is spreading in the freight industry. YRCW and the Hoffa administration are now using “salami tactics”: one slice of Teamsters at a time. Meanwhile, ABF is in talks with the Hoffa administration, and also softening up members, to try to get a deal of its own. Teamsters by the Slice New Penn Teamsters are now re-voting on YRCW’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), after voting...

August 20, 2009: Teamsters Local 714 -- long the domain of the powerful Hogan family, and a repeated target of anti-corruption investigators -- soon will cease to exist in its current form. Between 3,000 and 4,000 private-sector workers represented by the Berwyn-based group are being "re-distributed" to 10 other Chicago-area Teamster units: locals 705, 710, 727, 731, 743, 777, 781, 786, 301 and 330, a labor official told ChicagoUnionNews. Click here to read more at...

August 19, 2009: A letter from Tyson Johnson, co-chairman of the Teamsters National Freight Industry Negotiating Subcommittee (TNFINC) to Teamsters members of New Penn, a regional LTL subsidiary of YRC Worldwide (YRCW), suggested that YRCW plans to merge New Penn into YRCW. In his letter to New Penn Teamsters, Johnson said that YRCW called for an “emergency meeting” with the TNFINC which took place on August 11. Click here to read more at Logistics Management....

August 18, 2009: With an open threat to close New Penn—YRCW’s most successful unit—Teamsters will be re-voting on the concessions package that they rejected two weeks ago by a vote of 726-463. The ballots are to be mailed on Aug. 19, and counted Sept. 9. At local meetings held over the past few days, Teamsters discussed the closure threat and their difficult options. At Philadelphia Local 107, where New Penn Teamsters voted No by a...

August 14, 2009: New Penn Teamsters will be soon be re-voting on YRC concessions, after YRCW management and the Hoffa administration agreed upon a plan to threaten their jobs. The threat is a proposed change of operations to dissolve New Penn into YRC’s long haul operations; this would essentially end New Penn, as the operations could not be blended and retain the short-haul freight. Under this threat, most New Penn locals, from Philadelphia to Buffalo...

August 14, 2009: Teamsters Local 2727 will take a strike vote of 1,400 UPS plane mechanics by Sept. 14. The company wants Teamster mechanics and retirees to start contributing to their health insurance premiums. Management also wants to reduce coverage. Because they are covered by the Railway Labor Act, the mechanics can only strike if the National Mediation Board says UPS and the Teamsters are at impasse.