October 6, 2011: An overwhelming 97 percent majority of BLET members have voted to authorize a strike when a mandatory 30-day cooling off period under the Railway Labor Act comes to an end later this week. Locomotive engineers would walk off the job at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on October 7, 2011, unless President Obama intervenes and appoints a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB). A PEB would halt any strike or lockout by the parties,...

September 28, 2011: How many votes will it take to beat Hoffa and elect Sandy Pope? 150,000. We know the support is out there. Unfortunately, many Teamsters don’t bother to vote. That means the side that does turn out its vote, wins. Click here to read more at Sandy Pope's Campaign website.

September 22, 2011: The Hoffa administration is using members' dues money to pay for its reelection efforts. Protests have been filed with the Election Supervisor. But the best protection against Hoffa’s dues rip-off is a strong rank-and-file campaign to get out the vote for Sandy Pope. The Hoffa administration announced plans to use members' dues to pay a mailing to every Teamster member to vote in the election. The mailing doesn’t say that voting is...

September 20, 2011: Hoffa’s surprise announcement at UPS isn’t the first time that he’s made empty promises to Teamster voters to try to get elected. Hoffa has a history of promising big. The Hoffa election year playbook is to talk big before the ballots go out and to settle short after the votes are counted. He’s done it every year that he’s run for office. 2006 UPS Freight Sellout In 2006, Hoffa and Hall told...

September 20, 2011: After years of ignoring runaway production harassment and 9.5 violations, the Hoffa administration is launching a desperate effort to save face with UPS Teamsters before the ballots go out on Oct. 6. Hoffa’s own polls show that UPS Teamsters across the country are fed up with production harassment and are backing Sandy Pope. Click here to read more at Sandy Pope's campaign website.

September 15, 2011: I’m on the plane headed back to New York after a week on the campaign trail. I talked to thousands of Teamsters. And the response is incredible. In Pennsylvania I had breakfast with over-the-road drivers who are spreading the word about our campaign terminal-to-terminal. In Kentucky and in Maryland, I talked with UPSers who are tired of having a Teamster General President who is in love with management. And in Tennessee, I...

September 15, 2011: Sandy Pope has a proven record of delivering for Teamster members. A Proven Leader A 33-year Teamster, Sandy Pope rose from the ranks as a freight driver in Cleveland Local 407 and has worked at every level of our union, as an organizer, a business agent, Local Union President, and International Representative. Negotiating Strong Contracts When management at Fordham University tried to make Local 805 members pay for part of our health...

September 15, 2011: Hoffa can’t defend his record, so he’s lying about Sandy Pope’s. The Hoffa campaign is preparing a blitz of negative campaign mailers to spread his lies about Sandy Pope’s record. Hoffa knows how to twist the facts. He was a corporate lawyer after all. It’s time to set the record straight. Hoffa Lie: “Sandy has presided over the collapse of the Local 805 Pension Fund.” Sandy Pope has faced the pension crisis...

September 20, 2011: Why He Can’t Win and Why That’s a Good Thing.... Who is Fred Gegare? Fred Gegare is an officer from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and a long-time Hoffa operative who has served for 13 years as a Vice President in the Hoffa administration. Gegare is most well known for being the Chair of the Central States Pension Fund while the fund lost billions of dollars, imposed the worst pension cuts in Teamster history,...

September 15, 2011: Freight Teamsters know Hoffa has shown no real muscle or stomach for defending our jobs or our future. There is no leadership and there is no plan. It starts with enforcing our contract. ABF, YRC and Holland came after us long before the economy took a dive. For supervisors, it was open season on trashing the contract. They know they get most of what they want at the grievance panels. And when...