January 15, 2014: YRCW Teamsters are asking: where are Hoffa and the IBT Freight Division?  YRCW terminal management personnel are working over Teamsters, asking them to call the IBT and request a re-vote, while hinting of a possible closure. The IBT Freight Division has stated there will be no re-vote of the same proposal. We can all agree on that. Hoffa and Freight Director Tyson Johnson are MIA, leaving YRC Teamsters to fend for themselves....

January 15, 2014.   Today is the 50th anniversary of the National Master Freight Agreement, first signed on this date in 1964.  It covered 400,000 Teamsters and was the culmination of decades of organizing, starting with the courageous Minneapolis strikers of 1934. It was also the high-water mark of Jimmy Hoffa, who came up from the streets of Detroit and fought his way to the top of the Teamsters Union, with the help of the mob....

January 9, 2014. 5 p.m. The counting of YRCW ballots has ended with the contract extension rejected by a vote of 12,028 to 7,623. You can see the results by local union here. The votes in most of the biggest locals counted are decisively No, and many smaller locals voted No also. What is the Plan B? Since rank and file opposition to the concession deal has been widespread and well-known, the International Union and...

January 9, 2014: The YRCW contract extension has gone down to defeat. What’s next? The company has hinted that it could be bankruptcy, and we sincerely hope for the sake of 26,000 Teamsters, their families and their communities that they will not take that route. The International Union should step up to the plate and bargain immediately with YRCW, while simultaneously dealing with the banks to save Teamster jobs without completely gutting the contract. There...

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...