September 15, 2011: Local 396 Teamsters at Waste Management in Santa Ana and Irvine, Calif. are in bargaining now for their next contract—and it’s off to a bad start. The notorious anti-union company is demanding that members pay more for their medical benefits and a pension contribution freeze. Members are complaining that Local 396 is keeping them in the dark. It’s a familiar story for waste Teamsters in Southern California: members going up against the...

September 15, 2011: The Hoffa administration has looked the other way while UPS has accelerated its SurePost program—a new service that allows UPS to deliver some residential shipments through the post office instead of package car Teamsters. The SurePost programs targets online shippers with residential shipments that weigh less than 10 pounds. UPS Teamsters pick up and sort their packages. But final delivery is done by the Post Office. The program is a boon for...

September 15, 2011: Letter to Package Division Director Ken Hall from Local 243 Package Car Driver Martin Labut. Report on how SurePost is affecting Teamsters in your area here. Surepost and UPS Basic to the Post Office is eliminating full-time jobs. We have drivers laid off for the first time I can remember in the summer max vacation period. Every day, routes are cut and combined. We lose about three routes a day out of...

September 15, 2011: Nearly 240,000 Teamsters work at UPS. Our votes can elect the next General President—but only if we’re organized. The majority of Teamsters at UPS are voting for Sandy Pope. Half of UPS Teamsters voted for Sandy when she ran for the #2 spot in the last International Union election. Since then, her support has grown and Hoffa’s has plummeted. It will take 150,000 votes to win this election. There are more Teamsters...

September 15, 2011: “We need a President that will stand up to UPS. Hoffa is letting the company walk all over the contract. The grievance panels are a joke. Sandy Pope is our only choice for real change.” Willie Ford, Local 71 Florence, South Carolina       Surrender on SurePost? “UPS is sending our work via SurePost to the Post Office while Teamster drivers are being sent home. We need a General President who...

Teamsters have united in a grassroots army to elect Sandy Pope as our next Teamster General President. The Sandy Pope campaign is bigger than TDU. But TDU members have helped lead the way every step of the campaign. Educating members, raising funds, building the campaign army, and turning out the votes we need to win. For 35 years, TDU has brought together working Teamsters to have a voice and make a difference in our union...

September 20, 2011: Some pretty weird things happen in election campaigns. But how about a “tough” official in the Hoffa camp inventing a story that he was mauled by the wife of a Teamster member and needs police protection? Los Angeles Local 396 president Jay Phillips did just that. The Election Supervisor investigated a protest by David Hoffa and ruled that the charges are a hoax, then issued a fine against Phillips for the fabrication....

September 15, 2011: After the dramatic UPS strike victory of 1997, the Teamsters stood at the forefront of the labor movement. Teamster power was being reborn. But there were tough times ahead. The coming years would see Ron Carey’s reform efforts ended, and the coming to power of James Hoffa and the old-guard officials around him. Some people predicted TDU would die. But TDU stayed the course through difficult times, kept our principles, and built...

Just a word of thanks to Dave Thornsberry and the men and women like him at the Teamsters Convention. I was a proud Teamster in the ‘97 strike and it makes me sick to watch this great union going down the toilet the last decade under this so-called leadership. I may not be able to vote. But I can give my time, and I would like to challenge all the other retirees to contact someone in...

UPDATED September 20, 2011: Hoffa operative Jay Phillips claimed he was assaulted by a Teamster member’s wife—and even went to the police. But an investigation by the Election Supervisor reveals the charges were a Hoffa campaign hoax. Lesson for the Hoffa Campaign. Don’t lie when your actions have been caught on videotape. The charges stem from an incident at Bally’s Casino, during the Las Vegas Teamster Convention on June 28. Phillips, who is the president...