Central States Fund: $18.7 Billion
June 20, 2014: The overdue year-end 2013 report on the Central States Pension Fund shows that it grew by $1 billion to $18.7 billion on the rising stock market. However the report stresses the fund trustees’ goal of changing federal law to allow them to cut the pensions of current retirees, and active Teamsters with earned vested pensions. The Teamster officials who are trustees are at odds with the official position of the International Union,...
ABF Road Driver Bret Subsits: 'Supporting Hoffa was The Biggest Mistake of My Life'
June 13, 2014: Bret Subsits is an ABF road driver in Local 710, a truck driver for over 30 years, formerly in Chicago locals 703 and 705. Bret was a Hoffa supporter in 1996 and 1998. He says that was “the biggest mistake of my life.” He’s been active in fighting back against concessions, and wants to rebuild Teamster power in trucking. What's the situation in trucking like right now? “I see...
80th Anniversary Celebrates Historic '34 Teamster Strike
June 13, 2014: Eighty years ago, in a defining moment for the American labor movement, the Teamsters Union defeated employers in a titanic truck strike in Minneapolis. It made Minneapolis a union town, spurred over-the-road organizing across the Midwest and paved the way for the Teamsters to become a powerhouse international union. The strike will be celebrated in Minneapolis in July with two events: A street festival on Saturday, July 19 from 4 to...
Top 10 Tips for Protecting Yourself from Harassment
June 20, 2014: Harassment isn’t an accident at UPS. It’s a strategy, called management-by-stress. Under management-by-stress, the company uses harassment to try to intimidate us into working faster. Sometimes, they’re trying to provoke you into losing your temper. In extreme cases, they’ll try to harass workers into quitting. TDU asked experienced package car stewards for suggestions on how Teamsters can protect themselves from harassment at UPS. Here were their Top 10 tips. ...
New UPS Contracts Available from TDU: Get the Contracts Hoffa and Hall Don’t Want to Send You
June 13, 2014: The Hoffa-Hall administration has not made the new agreement available to members as a contract book or even online. So TDU is making the new UPS contract available to help Teamsters know their rights and enforce the contract. TDU created the 2013-2018 contracts by combining the new negotiated changes with the old language. These contract downloads are unofficial documents for use by UPS Teamsters, stewards, and local union reps. ...
Sign the Petition to Protect Our Pensions!
June 16, 2014: Teamsters, along with many other groups, are fighting back against a proposal Congress is considering to allow troubled pension funds – like the Central States Fund – to slash existing benefits. You can help by signing a petition to the U.S. House of Representatives Education and the Workforce Committee. Help preserve the federal anti-cutback law to protect our pensions. Click here to sign the petition. Call TDU: 313-842-2600 to get petitions to...
Make UPS Deliver on Surepost Promises
June 20, 2014: How to document violations and make Hoffa-Hall and UPS deliver on their SurePost promises. The new contract includes restrictions on SurePost that are supposed to mean fewer packages diverted to the Post Office and more fulltime Teamster driving jobs. So far, drivers report a different story. “I deliver to the Post Office on my route,” said Michigan Local 243 Teamster Marty Labut. “I still see SurePost packages on dead-end streets where...
NLRB Tells UPS: Hands Off Teamster Voice
June 13, 2014: Tom Glidden, a UPS driver at the Maple Grove, Minn. UPS facility, has passed out Teamster Voice for years. He does it in the parking lot before and after work and leaves a few copies in break areas. UPS management told him to stop. Now the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has directed management to back off and respect the rights of Teamster members. In May 2013 Tom’s supervisor told...
Got Union: New York Dairy Teamsters Taking Back Their Local
June 13, 2014: A group of rank-and-file reformers, Local 584 Members First, are organizing to empower members, defend their jobs, and take back their union. Dairy Teamsters in Local 584 have had a rough go of it. A change in state law has allowed nonunion competitors to flood the New York City milk market. Aside from the nonunion competition, the big winner in this has been Elmhurst Dairy. Local 584 officials gave concessions to...
Teamster Viewpoint: International VP Cost 166 Teamsters Their Jobs
June 13, 2014: International vice president Bill Hamilton has apparently cost up to 166 Philadelphia Teamsters their jobs, good paying jobs at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (PCC). Six labor unions were employed there. The Teamsters can no longer count themselves among them. Was it because of tough negotiating, or a refusal to take concessions? No! Bill Hamilton has never had an issue capitulating to management. We need to look no further than his coercive...