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...
Keegel Distances Himself from Hoffa
July 22, 2010: Tom Keegel, IBT Secretary Treasurer, has issued a letter in which he criticizes the direction of the IBT under James Hoffa, and announces that he will not run for reelection. As a result of Keegel’s defection, Hoffa has taken down his campaign website, and has substituted Ken Hall to be his running-mate for the 2011 International Union election. Read Keegel’s letter to the General Executive Board. (Keegel also sent an official letter...
Tom Keegel Will Not Run
July 14, 2010: General Secretary Treasurer Tom Keegel will not run for re-election next year, according to reports from members of the General Executive Board and officials close to Keegel. Keegel, the number two officer in the IBT, had previously agreed to run with James Hoffa as the Hoffa-Keegel Slate in the 2011 election. But Keegel also has had disagreements with Hoffa, and at times seemed close to breaking away from him. The Hoffa administration...
FMCSA on track to meet HOS deadline
July 13, 2010: The first stage in the paperwork shuffle toward a new set of hours-of-service regulations kicked off in late June when FMCSA sent a draft of a notice of proposed rulemaking to the Office of the Secretary of Transportation for approval. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration submitted a draft of the proposed HOS regs to the OST on June 23 – one day before the agency’s original target date. Click here to...
UPS: Information Brownout Continues
July 12, 2010: Why is our union holding a conference call for UPSers when they’ll still be on the truck? The Package Division is holding a telephone Conference Call on Wednesday, July 14 to update UPS Teamsters on “important information,” but they’ve scheduled the update at a time that makes it impossible for many package car drivers to participate. Why? The conference call is supposed to update all stewards and assistant stewards about “many developments...
FedEx, UPS send out fleet of lobbyists to shape labor law
July 6, 2010: For more than a year, FedEx and its bitter shipping rival, United Parcel Service, have been engaged in one of the fiercest lobbying battles in recent memory, with millions of dollars spent on advertising, Web sites, grass-roots organizing and other tactics more commonly seen in political campaigns. The reason for all the excitement? An obscure, 230-word provision that would require FedEx Express to comply with the same labor laws as UPS, making...
Saving Teamster Pensions
July 1, 2010: Teamster members are paying a high price for the pension concessions negotiated by the Hoffa administration. UPS was making record profits of more than $6 billion a year when Hoffa let Brown pull out of Central States and gave UPS Freight a free pass on paying Teamster benefits. A Teamster Voice report on the Teamster Pension Divide reveals how these givebacks are saving the company billions, but Teamster members are paying the...
We're Supporting TDU
Join Teamster members who are keeping TDU going strong. Dear Brothers and Sisters, It’s not an easy time to be a Teamster. The corporate sharks smell blood in the water. And under Hoffa, our union is a ship without a captain––drifting whichever way the wind blows. Now more than ever, our union needs a new vision and a new direction. We can protect our standards, defend our contracts, and preserve our benefits––but only if we...
More Divisions on the General Executive Board
July 1, 2010: Henry Perry, International trustee and president of Memphis Local 667, has been removed from the Hoffa slate for the International Union election. Perry, who has now refused to endorse Hoffa for reelection, told the Election Supervisor that on May 10, he was approached by International Vice President Tyson Johnson, who told him Hoffa was removing him from the slate. Perry says the reason given was that he lost the 2006 delegate race...