February 28, 2014: YRCW announced their 2013 annual and fourth quarter numbers and it’s clear that the regional carriers are pulling their weight. Operating profits were up to $22.7 million in 2013 for the regionals – Holland, New Penn, and Reddaway - while YRC Freight posted a 2013 loss of $15.4 million. YRC claimed losses due to weather, workers’ compensation claims, and weaker rates. In late 2013, Jeff Rogers was removed as president of YRC...

Feb 26, 2014: Local 745 members held a TDU meeting in El Paso, Texas to talk about enforcing their contracts, the future of the union and rebuilding Teamster Power. Teamsters in El Paso are members of Local 745 in Dallas which is 635 miles away! That kind of distance takes the “local” right out of local union. So members decided to cook up some Teamster Unity of their own and organized a TDU meeting in...

Active and retired Teamsters in northeast Ohio are organizing a meeting for Saturday, March 8 to address pension issues. The meeting is sponsored by TDU and will be held at the Days Inn - Richfield at 10 am. Ann Curry Thompson, an attorney well versed in pension law, will be a guest speaker. The meeting comes in response to Congress considering changes to pension law. Teamsters are encouraged to invite co-workers and spouses to learn...

February 24, 2014: The Hoffa-Hall administration is trying to intimidate UPS Teamsters with phony strike votes. But the scare tactics aren’t working. Last Friday, UPS Teamsters in Local 710 Voted No by 73% to reject a weak contract, which was patterned after the national agreement. The Local 710 ballot stated it was a strike authorization vote. But there will not be any strike. Why? Because the “strike vote” was only a scare tactic to try...

February 21, 2014: Get the latest news on the third vote on the Ohio Rider, Hoffa-Hall threats against UPSers in Philadelphia and Western PA, the upcoming national grievance panel and the information brownout on the IBT-UPS pension. UPS Bargaining: Brownout and Threats The information brownout has reached a new low. UPS Teamsters in Ohio, who have rejected their rider twice, will get a third ballot mailed to them on February 27, without any input or...

February 21, 2014: Teamsters who are ready to retire are being held hostage by UPS and the Hoffa-Hall administration. One of the selling points of the UPS contract was that 50,000 full-time UPSers who get a substandard pension from the IBT-UPS Pension Plan would get a $200 increase, retroactive to August 1. But UPS Teamsters who call the IBT- UPS Pension Plan about retiring are being told a different story. Plan reps are still telling...

February 21, 2014: The UPS National Grievance panel will meet in Fort Lauderdale, March 3-6.  The National Grievance Panel Docket is a whopping 116 pages. Subcontracting, the failure of UPS to post and replace full-time 22.3 jobs, and supervisors working are some of the most common violations cited. The Air Committee Docket is overloaded with grievances filed by locals across the country that management is directing Air Drivers to pick up ground packages, but refusing...

February 21, 2014: The information brownout has reached a new low. UPS Teamsters in Ohio, who have rejected their rider twice, will get a third ballot mailed to them on February 27, without any input or even information about changes to UPS’s offer. Meanwhile, Hoffa and Hall are using threats and rumors to try to get Teamsters in Western Pennsylvania and Philadelphia to accept their supplements, which members have decisively rejected twice. Hall’s office is...

February 21, 2014: Over sixty Teamsters attended a February 15 meeting near St. Louis to hear Paul Taylor, lead attorney for the Truckers Justice Center, speak on truck safety issues. The crowd included UPS feeder and package drivers as well as UPS Freight road drivers, freight Teamsters, and carhaulers. Taylor discussed various issues involving trucking safety and the protections available to truck drivers. Taylor recently won two major decisions against UPS on behalf of feeder...

February 20, 2014: Teamster bus drivers held a contract speakout yesterday and press conference in Burlington, Vt. They have voted 53-4 to reject a contract offer from the Chittenden County Transportation Authority. “We will not let the public down by driving under unsafe conditions,” said driver Rob Slingerland, speaking at the news conference. “Driver fatigue is a leading factor in accidents in the transit industry.” Management wants to be able to force drivers to work...