YRC Teamsters Denied Overtime Pay
August 11, 2010: Since March, laid off Teamsters on-call for YRC terminals in Cleveland and Copley, Ohio have had weeks where they are working six and sometimes seven days. YRC is telling them they must be available for work at either terminal at any time. But management is refusing to pay them time and a half for a sixth punch and double time on a seventh punch. “YRC shows no respect by stonewalling us on...
YRC Kills the Radios for Three-Million-Milers
August 11, 2010: In a move that can only be called petty and mean, YRC management in the Southeast has ordered some of their best road drivers to remove their AM-FM radios from their assigned tractors. A grievance has been filed in Memphis, to try to protect this years-long practice, but it may not even be heard until October. Roadway Express gave assigned tractors to road drivers with three million safe driving miles, and YRC...
Puerto Rico Local 901 Teamsters Take Legal Action for Justice
August 11, 2010: Local 901 strikers and reformers are fighting for their rights—and they’ve won each legal battle. But officials and management are working together to delay justice. Rank and file reformers and strikers in Puerto Rico Local 901 continue to fight for their rights. They’ve won each legal battle, but Local 901 officials and management at Coca-Cola are working together to delay justice. To speed up the process, workers have now filed suit in...
Carhaulers Ask "Where's the Union Leadership?"
August 16, 2010: Teamster carhaulers have been hit as hard as anyone by the Great Recession, which has drastically cut auto production. With the economy just starting to recover, carhaulers are asking “Where’s the union leadership?” In June, Allied Teamsters returned to full union scale for the first time in three years, a most welcome development. But the International union has signaled that Allied can come back for concessions, and most carhaulers expect that to...
Workers left to rot by U.S. Food Service
August 9, 2010: When Thomas P. Samatas, co-founder of Labor One Inc., was building his business, he turned to a part of the work force that is often shunned. Samatas hired young black men -- some saddled with felonies -- from CHA's Cabrini-Green housing development to unload trucks at U.S. Food Service's Bensenville facility. Click here to read more at Sun-Times Media.
Half Wages? Bring Out the Rat, Say NY Movers
August 6, 2010:The inflatable rat is back, as New York City Teamsters strike to say it’s not fair to pay some movers $16-$22 an hour and others—mostly Black and Latino—just $8. It started when workers at ATM Enterprises, who unload furniture from out of state and put it on the trucks belonging to Trucking Office Products System (TOPS), started raising a stink about their low wages. The TOPS workers make up to $22 an hour...
Teamster Familes Remember Those Lost
August 6, 2010: Bryan Cirigliano was a union steward with the Teamsters, a father, a husband and brother. He was also the first person killed during the workplace shooting rampage at Connectucut's Hartford Distributors. "I can't believe it. I really can't believe it," said his brother Mike Cirigliano. "Yesterday I saw the look on all my friends. For 35 years I worked with them. We'd always joked around. We had always had our good times....
YRC Worldwide stays mum about two looming issues
August 3, 2010: YRC Worldwide Inc. still isn’t ready to announce decisions about two of the biggest issues facing the trucking company — a new pension agreement with its union employees and a reverse stock split. During a conference call to discuss second-quarter results Tuesday, YRC executives said that both issues were being discussed but that the company wasn’t ready to provide an update. Click here to read more at the Kansas City Business Journal....
BLET Members Voting on the Right to Vote
August 2, 2010: The ballots are out and BLET members are voting on whether or not they should keep the Right to Vote for their top officers. The ballots will be counted on Aug. 30. Read the letter that Hugh Sawyer, President of BLET Division 316, sent to every member about this vote. Dear Sisters and Brothers: In 2006, the members of our union voted almost two-to-one for the Right to Vote. Our first ever...
Top local Teamster splits with Hoffa
August 2, 2010: Veteran Twin Cities labor leader Tom Keegel has been at James P. Hoffa's side in the Teamsters union for 12 years. The Hoffa-Keegel ticket -- with Hoffa as president and Keegel as the No. 2 man -- has won three elections and was gearing up for the 2011 campaign for leadership of the giant union. But earlier this month, Keegel abruptly announced his impending retirement and his departure from the 2011 Hoffa...