Local 533 union treasurer charged with stealing from 2,000 fellow members
July 28, 2010: The former treasurer of Local 533 Teamster's Union is accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his fellow members. Local 533 represents about 30 industries. From UPS to Waste Management, there are about 2,000 local members who pay their dues. And now, one of their own, is charged with stealing about $125,000 of their money. On Tuesday, Mark Tracy made a brief appearance in U.S. District Court. Tracy is charged...
BNA DLR: Hoffa Picks Hall as New Running Mate
July 28, 2010: International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James Hoffa has named Ken Hall to be his running mate as general secretary-treasurer for the IBT election in 2011, replacing Thomas Keegel, who recently announced he will retire at the end of his term, the union announced July 23. Hall currently serves as international vice president at-large, the director of the package division, representing more than 250,000 workers at United Parcel Service, and principal officer...
Hoffa Campaign Re-starts Petition Drive
July 27, 2010: The reelection campaign of James Hoffa has discarded thousands of accreditation petitions which local officers collected for the Hoffa-Keegel Slate, following Tom Keegel’s July 15 defection from the Hoffa camp. Hoffa’s new campaign accreditation petitions, which are available on his campaign website, list 21 candidates out of a total of 28 positions up for election next year. Notably, only one of the twenty-one members of the Hoffa Slate is African American, one...
Yellow told to turn over workers' list
July 27, 2010: Yellow Transportation must turn over the names and phone numbers of black employees who worked at the company's Chicago Ridge terminal as part of a federal lawsuit filed last year, alleging racial discrimination, according to a court ruling. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Yellow in December, alleging that black workers at the terminal, which closed last year, were subjected to insulting messages, including hangman's nooses and racist graffiti. Click here...
BNA Daily Labor Report: Report Finds Unions Must Make Changes To Avoid Risk of Losing Young Female Talent
July 26, 2010: Unions must begin to make changes now or today's young activists, and their younger colleagues, will abandon the labor movement and pursue social justice in other organizations with more welcoming cultures and values, according to a report released July 16 by the Berger-Marks Foundation. While there have been significant gains for women in workplaces and the labor movement, a two-day summit in March 2010 in New Orleans among 30 women activists from...
BNA Daily Labor Report: Seventh Circuit Upholds Reinstatement of Roadway Driver
July 26, 2010: The Labor Department's Administrative Review Board properly concluded that Roadway Express Inc. failed to show it would have fired a truck driver even if he had not testified in a co-worker's grievance hearing, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled July 22 in the case's second trip to the appeals court (Roadway Express Inc. v. DOL, 7th Cir., No. 09-1315, 7/22/10). Writing for the unanimous three-judge panel in denying...
NPRM on Hours of Service to go to OMB by Monday
July 26, 2010: The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for a new Hours of Service rule will be in the hands of the Office of Management and Budget on time. A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation said Friday that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had “committed to sending a draft Hours of Service NPRM to OMB by Monday, July 26 and will be meeting that obligation.” Click here to read more at The Trucker.com...
Teamsters Hispanic Caucus Passes Resolution to Protect Workers at FreshDirect
July 23, 2010: The National Teamsters Hispanic Caucus passed a key resolution at its annual conference last week, committing to fight the exploitive business practices by online grocer FreshDirect as its workers seek union representation. FreshDirect has been at the center of controversy surrounding its warehouse in Queens, N.Y., for more than three years. Over that time, elected officials and organized labor have exposed the company as union-busters and of possibly alerting immigration officials to...
FedEx Increases Lobbying Spending to Fight FAA Union Provision
July 23, 2010: FedEx Corp., trying to defeat legislation that would make it easier for its employees to unionize, almost doubled its lobbying spending in the first six months of this year compared with the same period a year ago. Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx spent $11.6 million on lobbying between January and June, up from $6.1 million during the first six months of 2009. It hired two new lobbying firms this year to buttress its effort....
UPS Quarterly Profits Nearly Double
July 22, 2010: Profits are skyrocketing at UPS while working conditions continue to bottom out. UPS executives announced that Brown hauled in more than $854 million in the second quarter. Brown’s profits increased by 90 percent compared to the second quarter last year. That’s $400 million more in profits. In all, UPS made nearly $1.4 billion in profits after taxes in the first six months of this year alone. Package volume continues to increase. UPS...