April 4, 2011: Local 320 represents over 11,000 public sector workers across Minnesota. The Anyone But Hoffa Slate just swept the Local 320 delegate election. We asked elected Teamster Convention Delegate Erik Jensen about the attacks on public sector Teamsters and what our union can do to meet the challenge. Q: What are the challenges that public sector workers in Minnesota are facing? Erik Jensen: Our governor has said he will veto any Wisconsin-style legislation,...

March 25, 2011: Support Teamsters warehouse workers and drivers who are fighting for their jobs. C&S, the largest third-party warehouse distribution company in the country, has announced it will close the Giant Foods warehouse distribution center in Jessup, Md. If C&S isn’t stopped, 650 Teamsters will lose their jobs. C&S is demanding $26 million in concessions per year. That’s $40,000 in concessions per union employee per year. C&S recently closed its A&P/Pathmark operations in New...

April 4, 2011: TDU interviewed TDU members who are mobilizing against the anti-union attack. WISCONSINOur Labor Movement Is Reignited! “I never thought I’d be part of this kind of labor history in my lifetime. “It was great to see public workers, Green Bay Packers, purple haired punks, management people, firefighters and cops on the same picket line, along with Teamsters (old guard and TDU) from all over the country. “When even EMTs and police take...

March 25, 2011: Corporate America is after our contracts, our benefits, even our right to bargain. Is Hoffa up to the challenge? Employers and corporate politicians are taking advantage of the recession to come after union members like never before. Good jobs with good benefits that generations of union members fought to win are under attack. As North America’s most powerful union, the Teamsters needs to take the lead in fighting back. As we go...

March 25, 2011: Hoffa turned his back on grocery Teamsters fighting the nonunion competition and 1,300 members in New Jersey have lost their jobs. Now hundreds more jobs are on the chopping block in Maryland/D.C. The time to fight is now. For more than a decade, the Hoffa administration has turned a blind eye to the growing nonunion threat in the warehouse distribution industry. Now Teamster members are paying the price. As we go to...

Michigan Teamsters Protest Anti-Union Legislation If we do not protest when they come for our neighbors’ union, no one will be left to protest when they come for our union. About 30 Local 299 members and retirees went to the state capital, Lansing, to protest the anti-union legislation on the agenda, joining up with about 1,500 other union members. We need more. Our union rights are under attack. Michigan and across the nation, no member...

March 25, 2011: Sandy Pope took on C&S and saved Teamster jobs by winning a groundbreaking neutrality agreement. Hoffa let that agreement expire—and Teamsters are paying the price. C&S has always been a threat to Teamster jobs. The difference is our union leadership used to fight this threat. When C&S first took over A&P’s distribution work in New Jersey in the 1990s, the International Union sent in Sandy Pope to deal with the threat. At...

March 25, 2011: Central States is totally eliminating early retirement for YRC Teamsters and dropping them into the rock bottom plan. Hoffa told YRC Teamsters to take givebacks. He never told them they would lose their already-earned pension credits. On March 22 the Central States Pension Fund made it official: they slashed the pensions of YRCW Teamsters. YRC Teamsters still working or who retired after Sept. 24, 2010, will be put on the Central States...

March 25, 2011: The warehouse where C&S is moving Teamster work from across the East is not just a nonunion warehouse. It’s an automated warehouse. In this multi-million dollar facility, work normally performed by a thousand Teamsters can be done by around 150 employees. Automated technology is used to select cases, prepare orders, and wrap pallets. This technology is a scary job-killer. But C&S has an Achilles heel. C&S is a third-party provider. Grocery chains...

March 30, 2011: Judge Kenneth Conboy held a third hearing on March 24 to consider the appropriate punishment for a scheme in which James Hoffa and three International vice presidents were caught using union funds to try to buy-off political rivals. The hearing was the result of appeals filed by TDU co-chair Frank Halstead and by Fred Gegare that the Election Supervisor’s remedy was inadequate given the seriousness of the violations. Hoffa Offered Extra Salaries,...