February 18, 2011: Rank and file leaders in Local 901 have won a federal court injunction returning them to full membership and their steward positions. Local 901 officials illegally expelled Migadalia Magriz and Silvia Rivera from the Teamsters for the “crime” of showing solidarity with striking Coca Cola workers. But yesterday, a federal court issued an injunction reinstating them to full membership rights and their shop steward positions. It’s the latest legal victory for Teamster...

UPDATED February 17, 2011: The docket is now available for the first UPS national panel of the year, March 7-9 at the Westin Beach Resort in Ft. Lauderdale. Click here to read the docket of cases that will be heard. Click here to read the docket for the Joint National Air Committee. The UPS National Grievance Committee settles disputes and other grievances that have been deadlocked at both the local and regional levels. The panel...

February 1, 2011: UPS profits soared to $5.8 billion after taxes in 2010, the company announced on Feb. 1. Brown’s profits hit $1.8 billion for the fourth quarter, including peak. In all, the company had $49.8 billion of revenue for the year. The corporation’s profits went up much faster than its revenue—a 48 percent increase in profits, compared to an 8 percent rise in revenue. Why? Because UPS is squeezing more profit out of each...

The 2011 TDU Convention will be held the weekend of Sept 30 - Oct 1-2 at the Cleveland Airport Sheraton, a recently remodeled hotel conveniently near the Cleveland Airport. Make your plans now to be there! The Convention will be approximately three weeks before the ballots are mailed in the International Union election.

January 24, 2011: Wall Street greed and the corporate attack on unions has triggered a crisis in our pensions. Teamster officials didn’t cause this crisis. But they have a responsibility to put forward a plan to address this problem and defend our pensions. A survey of 18 Teamster multi-employer pension funds, including all of the largest funds and several smaller funds in the East, reveals that all but one are in either “critical” or “endangered”...

January 24, 2011: A coalition of Teamster locals is fighting to protect warehouse distribution jobs in the Northeast. Local 863 members are leafleting to warn customers about the destruction of good jobs when our communities need them most.C&S, the largest third party warehouse distributor in the country, is threatening Teamster jobs up and down the East Coast. The company has issued a WARN Act notice and announced plans to eliminate 1,400 Teamster jobs. For years,...

When TDU was founded in 1976, Teamster members didn’t have the right to vote for top officers and the union was controlled by organized crime. TDU members turned in over 100,000 signatures demanding the Right to Vote at the 1986 Teamster Convention.TDU set out to change that. In 1985, over a hundred thousand members signed a petition demanding the Right to Vote. Then in 1988, the Justice Department went to court against the union’s leadership...

January 24, 2011: With the help of an inflatable rat, Local 804 members are blowing the whistle on UPS management. Local 804 package car driver Tony Lawrence is back on the job thanks to solidarity from his fellow members and an assist from an inflatable rodent. Local 804 Teamsters erected a giant inflatable rat in front of UPS to protest the firing of Lawrence, a shop steward and 30-year member. Lawrence invoked his “Innocent Until...

January 24, 2011: The Central States Pension Fund will totally eliminate retirement before age 57, effective July 1. A Central States bulletin, available here, states that “No participants, including those covered by a collective bargaining agreement under the ‘Primary Schedule’ of the rehabilitation plan, will be allowed to retire prior to achieving age 57” (unless they retire before July 1, 2011). Most Teamsters want to work past age 57, but this change will be disastrous...

February 1, 2011: Can a new plan with a blank slate help organize new members into our pensions? The New England Teamster Pension Fund has launched a new plan, in a move aimed at enrolling new employers into the fund. This “Alternative Schedule” would have no unfunded liability, no withdrawal liability, and no rule requiring that contributions increase annually. It amounts to a clean sheet, to facilitate growth in the pension fund. The new plan...