ABF Contract Shows Hoffa-Hall Have Given Up on Teamster Power
August 20, 2013: Hoffa and the Freight Division are parroting management's line, aiming to divide, discourage and defeat members. In early August, ABF Teamsters in the Central Region, Carolinas, Western Pa., and a couple of other supplements are voting again on the contract. A number of Teamsters are speaking out against the concessionary deal. Some have made up leaflets comparing the concessionary deal to what Hoffa initially said they would bargain for. The initial contract...
From Tough Talk to Contract Concessions
"We're not paying $90. We're notpaying $9. We're not paying 9¢.We're not paying premiumsfor health insurance for a companythat made $4.389 billion."— Ken Hall, Conference Call withUPS Shop Stewards, Feb. 2, 2013 "What we need to be doing issending a message and makingsure that our members understandthat we're not going to be talkingabout concessions, we're goingto be talking about improvements."— Ken HallSpeech on UPS ContractIBT ConventionJune 30, 2011 August 9, 2013: The UPS...
Is YRC Going for a Two-Year Extension?
August 8, 2013: Reports indicate that YRC executives have asked Hoffa and Freight Director Tyson Johnson for a two-year extension to the present five-year deal, with a wage and pension freeze extending until 2017. And Hoffa's appointee to YRC's board, Harry Wilson, is trying to broker the deal. An August 7 press release, following YRC's second-quarter earnings announcement, referred to a potential refinancing of debt arranged by Credit Suisse and the Maeva Group. This announcement...
UPS Freight Teamsters Stand Strong
August 9, 2013: A 69% No Vote and a company that made billions in profits adds up to a strong bargaining position for our Teamster negotiating committee. But after the members did the heavy lifting in the coast-to-coast rejection of the first offer, Hoffa and Hall went missing. Hall sent a short memo to local officials saying the Negotiating Committee had met, but reports from that meeting indicate not much happened. Hoffa and Hall hired...
Contract Smoke & Mirrors: the Prequel
Hoffa waives Ken Hall's "surprise"neutrality agreement with UPS Freightwhile Hall celebrates in the background. August 26, 2013: This is not the first time Ken Hall has played politics with members' contracts and turned contract negotiations into a scripted performance. In the last bargaining round, Hall made a surprise announcement at the Teamster Convention that he had just reached a neutrality agreement to unionize UPS Freight. Hoffa-Hall supporters immediately said the announcement proved there shouldn't be...
Standing Up to UPS
August 9, 2013: UPS Teamsters have shown they have more fight than Hoffa-Hall and the International Union when it comes to taking on concessions. After voting down 18 supplements, members are continuing to organize to rebuild union power at UPS. Philadelphia: Taking on UPS. Taking Back Their Local. After rejecting their supplement 756 to 227, Philadelphia Local 623 launched a petition drive to defend their healthcare and win improvements in their supplement, including more full-time...
Plan to Cut Pensions Coming to Congress
August 27, 2013: Workers' pensions are under attack. Chicago's mayor says earned pensions must be cut. Detroit has declared bankruptcy, and Michigan's governor says 21,000 retirees should pay the bill for it. One of the biggest attacks is aimed straight at Teamster retirees, especially the 211,000 in the Central States Pension Fund. And if corporate America gets away with cutting their pensions, it's going to spread like cancer. And the worst part is, the Hoffa...
Teamster Retiree Writes to the Pension Funds
By: John Brose, East Liberty, OhioRetired, Local 413 I'm a retired truck driver of thirty years. I worked for Smith Transfer in Columbus, Ohio, in 1977 till they went bankrupt in 1988. I went to Consolidated Freightways till they went bankrupt in 2002. Then Roadway Express until they merged with Yellow Freight and I was laid off never to be called back. So I had to retire in 2009 with over thirty years of service....
Why is the U.S. DOL Re-Running the L.A. Local 848 Election?
August 15, 2013: There's a rerun election in the 5,000-member Local 848 in Los Angeles in progress, as a result of a federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Labor Department due to serious election violations. The Labor Department is conducting the election. The sad truth is, the exact same violations were brought before Joint Council 42, headed by International vice president Randy Cammack, and then to the International union. Instead of enforcing the members' right...
Court Blocks the 30-minute break reg for city drivers
August 5, 2013: The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has upheld all of the new Hours of Service regulations for DOT-regulated trucking operations, except one: the requirement of a 30-minute break during the first eight hours of work for short-haul drivers. This is of particular note to some UPS package car drivers, who may want to take their lunch break at the end of a shift to escape some measure of...