September 25, 2013: You can easily find the postal and email addresses for your Congressional Rep and U.S. Senators here.You can find the names of those on the Education and Workforce Committee here. Please send them copies of your letter.

September 24, 2013: Some members report that business agents have told members that if they don’t vote Yes on the Central Supplement, they will have no health insurance as of January 1. This is an outright lie and contradicts what Hoffa and Hall have put in writing: health benefits will be continuous, and there is a signed contract extension in place. Some of the lies have been spread in the shops, but in Denver Local...

In 2005, the Journal of Transportation Law, Logistics and Policy published an authoritative essay by law professor Michael J. Goldberg, entitled Teamster Reformers: Their Union, Their Jobs, Their Movement.

September 19, 2013: The ballots are in the mail for the second time for some 60,000 UPS Teamsters voting on their contract supplements. Copies of the seven supplements and riders being re-voted are available below for your review. Some 50,000 UPS Teamsters are covered by the Central Region Supplement, which essentially had a change of one word since the first big rejection three months ago. In the hated Article 17(i), which allows management to fire...

September 19, 2013: On this weekend in 1976, a small group of courageous Teamsters met in Kent, Ohio, to form Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). They had little going for them except guts, principles, and a vision of a union driven by rank and file power. At the time of TDU's founding, the IBT General Executive Board and many local unions were dominated by organized crime. Contracts could be imposed even if the majority...

We have a legal right to a fair and informed vote on our national contracts. But our rights have not come without Teamsters for a Democratic Union taking on big battles.  Here is a summary of some key legal – and membership – victories involving our rights in national Teamster contracts. We Won the Right to a Fair and Informed Vote Bauman v Presser.  This case set a precedent for a “fair and informed” vote. ...

September 17, 2013: Jack Cooper Transport has won the bid to purchase Allied Systems, and will now be by far the largest carhaul operator in North America. Cooper CEO Mike Riggs says the combined carrier will have $1 billion in revenue in 2014.  Cooper will pay $135 million – with borrowed money – for Allied, and the deal was approved by the creditors committee overseeing Allied's bankruptcy, with the approval of the Teamsters International Union. This...

September 13, 2013: Momentum is growing to Vote No Again on the UPS Supplements in the Central Region, Philadelphia, Western Pa. and Metro Philadelphia, where all full-time and part-time UPSers are being moved into TeamCare. Contract ratification ballots will be mailed out on Sept. 18 in these supplements. Members in New Jersey Local 177 and the Western Region  are still awaiting the details on their proposed healthcare plan and contract voting timeline. In New York...

September 12, 2013: UPS Teamsters who are in the same health plan should get the same coverage. But that won't happen if Hoffa-Hall get their way with the current Central Region UPS proposal.  Under the new TeamCare proposal, full-time UPS Teamsters who are already in TeamCare will get substandard benefits compared to UPS Teamsters who are being moved into TeamCare. The Company is contributing the same amount of money per week to Central States for...

September 12, 2013: The latest financial report (first quarter 2013) for the Central States Pension Fund is now available, and reflects assets of $18.3 billion as of March 31, 2013. This represents a $517 million gain in the first quarter, due to the big run-up in the stock market during that period. Since that time, the stock market leveled off, and bonds have done poorly, so the current balance is certainly lower. The fund relies...