April 30, 2010: John Youngermann, a TDU member and UPS feeder driver out of the Earth City, Missouri, hub won an important OSHA ruling that supported a driver’s right to refuse to drive unsafe equipment. On April 22, 2010, OSHA awarded Youngermann compensatory and punitive damages as well as back pay with overtime and interest. Youngermann phoned the company to try to get the equipment repaired without success, and finally refused to pull a trailer...

April 29, 2010: The IBT is mailing ballots to all ABF Teamsters—active and on layoff—on Friday, April 30, and they will be counted on Monday, May 24. Contact your local if you don’t receive a ballot by Friday, May 7 and be sure to get a replacement ballot. TDU has won the right to have independent Teamster members as observers at ballot counts. For further information on being an observer, contact TDU. Opposition to ABF...

April 28, 2010: Watch the new Teamster video and take action to win organizing rights and level the playing field at FedEx. The Teamsters Union has launched a new website to expose FedEx’s ridiculous claim that they are an airline and they deserve different treatment than rival package companies like UPS. The website, FedExDriversArentPilots, is part of a campaign to close the FedEx loophole which helps FedEx stay nonunion and pay substandard wages and benefits...

April 28, 2010: Waste Management and Teamsters Local 174 have reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract. Union officials said they will recommend that members approve the new contract when they take a ratification vote on Sunday. Click here to read more at Seattle PI.

April 28, 2010: More than 34 Teamsters in Puerto Rico have won justice after they were illegally fired for striking to defend their union rights at Coca Cola. And Teamsters Local 901 has been ordered to reinstate three reform leaders who were illegally banned from union membership. When Local 901 members at Coca Cola in Puerto Rico went on strike, the company retaliated and so did their own union officers. More than three dozen Teamsters...

April 27, 2010: UPS executives announced that the company hauled in $533 million in profits after taxes in the first quarter of 2010. Brown’s profits are up by 33 percent or $132 million compared to the first quarter last year. Package revenue is up even more—spiking 46 percent compared to the first quarter last year. Brown execs say that daily package volume increased by 2.7 percent and they expect it to climb again in the...

April 23, 2010: Striking garbage workers in King and Snohomish counties said Thursday afternoon they'd return to their jobs at midnight to prevent a "public health crisis." Union representatives said in a statement they expect 700 sanitation workers to resume normal operations Friday morning to catch up on the backlog created by the walkout, which began Wednesday. Click here to read the full article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

April 22, 2010: A strike Wednesday by Waste Management garbage haulers could affect garbage collection throughout Renton, although company officials have said they planned to hire replacement drivers in the event of a strike. The drivers went on strike at about 10:30 a.m. Allied Waste also serves a portion of Renton, but that hauler earlier reached an contract agreement with Teamsters Local 174. Click here to read more at Seattle PI.

April 21, 2010: Local garbage haulers for Waste Management say they are going on strike because the company is refusing to discuss contract terms with the union. Pickets went up at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Waste Management facilities, said Union spokesman Michael Gonzales. Click here to read more at Seattle PI.

April 20, 2010: Yes, garbage workers are lucky to have jobs in these tough economic times. But The Times seems a little tone-deaf with such statements as “incomes are even burnished by mandatory overtime” [“Quit talking trash; sign a fair contract,” Opinion, April 15]. You try working “mandatory overtime” at a physically demanding job and see if you would rather have that time to be with your families or just to live your life instead...