March 8, 2010: Teamsters can take a small step to protect our pensions. The International Union has started an online petition to build up support for legislation to strengthen multi-employer pension plans. Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would strengthen union benefits. Under House Bill 3936, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) would finance the pensions of some retirees whose companies have gone out of business. In its current form, this legislation, called the...

March 8, 2010: Senator Bob Corker, who represents FedEx Corp.’s home state of Tennessee, said he will block legislation funding the Federal Aviation Administration because a provision may be added later making it easier for workers at the company to join unions. Corker’s action extends a years-long fight in Washington between the mostly non-union FedEx and its unionized rival United Parcel Service Inc. over how workers at both companies should be treated under U.S. labor...

March 5, 2010: Union officers often think of union democracy as a threat to their power. But union democracy is about member power, and member power means union power. Click here to read two articles from the Association for Union Democracy, including a transcript of a talk by TDU counsel Barbara Harvey.

March 5, 2010: The former president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has pleaded guilty to bribery charges for accepting $20,000 in bribes from a St. Louis lawyer. Edward Rodzwicz, 63, of Avon, Ohio, pleaded guilty to one felony count of bribery in connection with a federally funded program and one felony count of interstate travel to carry on unlawful activity. He appeared before U.S. District Judge Charles Shaw in St. Louis. Click...

March 5, 2010: Mayor Daley today shook off a 3-to-1 strike-authorization vote by city of Chicago truck drivers and vowed to keep O’Hare and Midway Airports open even if the drivers walk off the job. “You know what? There’d be 50,000 people applying for these jobs,” Daley said. “I mean, there’s so many people out of work. If you were ever to open employment, there’d be 50,000. These are good-paying jobs. Everybody would like to...

March 5, 2010: The Election Supervisor has been named for the 2011 election for International Union officers. And proposed Election Rules—which will go into effect on May 1—are now available for comment before they are finalized. Richard Mark will be the Election Supervisor for the 2011 IBT officer and convention delegate elections. Mark served as the E.S. for the 2005-2006 delegate and IBT officer elections. The final Election Rules will be submitted to federal judge...

March 4, 2010: United Parcel Service has agreed to pay a $53,931 civil penalty to EPA Region 7 to settle a series of alleged violations of federal laws regarding the management of hazardous wastes at its freight facility in Lenexa, Kan. According to a consent agreement and final order filed today in Kansas City, Kansas, several violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) were noted during a February 2007 inspection of the...

March 3, 2010: For many years, Jim Santangelo ruled Los Angeles Local 848 with an iron hand. Now the members realize their local belongs to them and it's paying off. Last weekend, a packed union hall shouted a big NO vote to a motion to approve spending $59,000 on a new GMC Yukon for Eric Tate, the local secretary-treasurer. Tate was appointed to the position last October as the chosen successor to Santangelo, who was...

March 2, 2010: United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) said the total compensation paid to Chief Executive Scott Davis fell about 0.6% last year, to $6.24 million. Davis's 2009 base salary was flat at $1 million, in keeping with the package delivery giant's move to freeze management salaries amid the economic downturn. In addition, the value of stock awards included in the calculation of his total compensation slipped to $3.89 million, from about $3.97 million in...

March 2, 2010: A grand jury is looking at allegations that top Teamster officials working at the city’s convention centers intimidated witnesses in assault cases involving union members, sources say. The grand jury, working in conjunction with Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office, has reportedly grilled a number of people tied to Teamsters Local 82, a union long embroiled in factional fights. Click here to read more at the Boston Herald.