Central States Fund: Where are the Quarterly Reports?
May 22, 2012: The Central States Pension Fund last issued a quarterly financial and analytical statement for the second quarter of 2011, which is nearly a year behind. The Independent Special Counsel to the Fund prepares these reports, and they are provided to Paul Alan Levy, counsel to TDU members and retirees who went to court to end the secrecy about this information. Teamsters for a Democratic Union makes the information available. But late last...
International Union to Increase Payments to Officer Only Fund
May 22, 2012: The amount of members' dues money that goes to an officer-only pension fund will nearly double next year to $9 million. And an even more exclusive plan, which is reserved for International officials only, is taking another $12.5 million in dues. This announcement came in the April Funding Notice of the Teamster Affiliates Pension Plan. The International Union will pay $5 million in dues money in 2012, and increase the annual payment...
Freight Teamsters: Time to Unite for the 2013 Contract
May 22, 2012: Freight Teamsters need to get organized into a national contract network before the upcoming negotiations, to defend what we have and improve what we can. Freight Teamsters are starting to come together. It's no secret we've been on a rough road. Now is the time to get involved and put an end to concessions in our industry. If we sit back, we'll continue to slide downhill. But we don't plan to sit...
Subcontracting Problems Grow Worse
May 22, 2012: Subcontracting remains rampant throughout the UPS Freight system, and the International Union seems unwilling or incapable of protecting jobs. In the next contract we need firm language on job protection, as good as in the National Master Freight Agreement. If ABF and YRC can do their road work with Teamster labor, why can't UPS? The International union has again sent out a memo to local unions regarding the Dallas Local 745 grievance...
Truck Load Division Ripe for Organizing
May 22, 2012: UPS Freight Teamsters around the country wonder why the UPS Freight Truckload Division isn't part of the union. Now that the clerks have been organized, it seems obvious that the TL section of the UPS Freight workforce would be the next target to bring into our union. After all, the slogan for organizing at UPS has been "one company, one union" and these TL drivers can be seen in UPS Freight tractors...
Done Sitting at the Back of the Bus
June 22, 2012: Thousands of New York City school bus drivers and aides safely transport kids every day. But many Teamsters work under substandard contracts with lower wages and benefits than other workers in their same industry, and even in their same union. Local 854 drivers and school aides are working to change that. Workers at Empire State/Allied Bus Corporation started their campaign for a fair contract by circulating a membership survey to get members...
Bus Drivers Steer Toward Solidarity
May 22, 2012: Vermont bus drivers welcome their new boss with a show of rank and file unity. For years, Teamster bus drivers in Vermont were at odds with their General Manager, including a bitter battle over their last contract which ended in a rank-and-file victory. So members were happy to get the news that a new General Manager was on the way. Then, stewards received letters at their homes from management telling them not...
CEOs Got a Pay Raise, How About You?
May 22, 2012: Runaway CEO pay is out of control and inequality is on the rise. The ratio of CEO-to-worker pay between CEOs of the S&P 500 Index companies and U.S. workers widened to 380 times in 2011. Back in 1980, the average large company CEO only received 42 times the average worker's pay. In 2011, average wages increased just 2.8 percent and average worker pay totaled $34,053. Average union wages, including Teamster wages, are...
How NOT to Build Teamster Power: The Kane Family Locals to Merge
May 22, 2012: New York Local 111 is merging into Local 202. Why would a local of office workers in the telecom industry merge into a local based in the big produce central market? Because Dan Kane Sr. is in the process of turning the family business over to his son, Dan Kane Jr. Kane Sr. heads Local 111, and Kane Jr. heads Local 202. Between them they made nearly $400,000 in total compensation last...
Will Chrysler Get into the Carhaul Business?
May 22, 2012: Teamster carhaulers have heard the rumors that Chrysler will start an in-house operation to haul its cars. The fact is that Chrysler has already started at its Windsor, Ontario van plant, and it may well spread to the U.S. Chrysler has a number of driveaway workers at the Windsor plant, and a small number of Chrysler-owned car carriers, with more rigs coming soon, to move cars over the Ambassador Bridge to Michigan...