Strike looms for garbage workers in King, Snohomish counties
March 25, 2010: SEATTLE - Millions of people who live in King County and parts of Snohomish County could see their garbage start piling up if trash collectors walk off the job. Waste Management and Allied Waste have been at the bargaining table with Teamsters Local 117 and 174, but talks could soon break down. The unions claim there are two issues at stake: employee safety and pay cuts. Click here to read more at...
Senate Maintains FedEx Loophole
March 23, 2010: The Senate passed the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill yesterday, but excluded a provision that would make it easier for FedEx workers to unionize. The Teamsters and UPS backed a bill that would level the playing field by putting FedEx under the same labor laws that cover UPS. The passage of the Senate bill without this labor reform sets up a possible clash with the House bill. For years, FedEx has used...
Congress to consider YRC pension relief
March 23, 2010: YRC Worldwide Inc.’s push to get relief for its benefits costs picked up momentum Monday as the U.S. Senate began to consider a bill that would address problems with multi-employer pension plans. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania said he would introduce a bill intended to protect the pension payments of retirees of failed businesses while assisting companies such as YRC, whose pension liabilities include non-YRC retirees. Click here to read more at...
UPS National Grievance Decisions
March 19, 2010: The decisions from the first meeting of the National Grievance panel of 2010 are now available from TDU. The most common grievance at the panel dealt with Article 22.3 and the company’s elimination of full-time combo jobs we won in the 1997 strike. Members across the country have filed grievances to save thousands of full-time combo positions that the company is eliminating in violation of the contract. The national panel did not...
Victory on YRC Excess Overtime
March 19, 2010: Just three days after TDU.org exposed a deal between YRCW and the IBT to weaken the freight contract clause requiring the call-back of laid-off Teamsters, the deal appears to be canceled. A management memo dated March 18 and headed “25% O/T methodology – not good news” Holland VP for Labor Relations Steve Blubaugh informs managers that they must return to the “old” (proper) way to calculate recall of laid off Teamsters when...
Teamsters in Puerto Rico Demand Democracy
March 19, 2010: Teamster members in Puerto Rico demonstrated outside their union demanding new elections in Local 901. Members rallied at the union hall and tried to present a petition to the Executive Board. Local 901 officials locked the doors and hired armed security guards to keep members out of their union. The press called the move a “coup d’etat in the union.” If that sounds extreme, consider the extreme circumstances in Local 901. Germán...
Still No “Justice” in Philadelphia
March 19, 2010: A nepotism scandal has exposed an IBT Vice President. But movie work is still being doled out to Local 107 officials and their relatives including on the TV pilot “Justice.” Local 107 members went to the union hall today to meet with the man Hoffa put in charge of restoring seniority rights and fairness in hiring for movie work in Philadelphia. The members wanted to meet with Ron Schwab, Hoffa’s newly appointed...
ABF Concessions: What Protections for Teamsters?
March 19, 2010: The International Union held a conference call on March 18 to inform ABF members that a vote on concessions is likely coming down the pike. Freight Director Tyson Johnson said he has held some 25 conversations with ABF in the past year about their situation, and that concessions are needed to help the company stay healthy. Surveys of members are out to ABF Teamsters, and by March 22 the International will start...
YRC, Teamsters Work on Concession Holdouts
March 18, 2010: As the Teamsters mull concession talks with ABF Freight System, YRC Worldwide is still trying to get some members to accept concessions approved last year. About 10 percent of YRC Worldwide’s 34,000 Teamsters still reject the concessions, the company said in its annual 10-K report, released March 16. Click here to read more at The Journal of Commerce.
How Goldman Sachs Hurt Black, Latino, Female Households
March 18, 2010: William Diaz of the 462nd Transportation Battalion feels like he's fighting a war on two fronts. In April, the 39-year-old U.S. Army Reserve corporal is being deployed to Kuwait for a year-long tour. But for the past few months, Diaz has been fighting another very painful battle in his own backyard: American Servicing Corp., a division of Wells Fargo, is seeking a court order to foreclose on his two-family home in Elizabeth,...