November 5, 2009: A top West Coast Teamsters official who headed a chapter representing almost 130,000 members has resigned his post amid allegations that he sexually harassed a former union secretary and offered to be her "sugar daddy." James A. Santangelo, a 50-year Teamster veteran who also served as an international vice president, resigned Friday from his membership in Local 848 in Covina and was automatically removed from three elected positions, said Bret Caldwell, a...

November 5, 2009: The decisions from the October meeting of the UPS National Grievance panel in San Diego are now available online. This was the final national panel for 2009 and the results for UPS Teamsters on the critical issues of excessive overtime and full-time combo job elimination were grim. Seventeen locals brought cases to the panel charging UPS with eliminating full-time combo jobs and refusing to put those jobs up for bid in violation...

November 3, 2009: DHL Teamsters will soon be voting on a management-proposed mid-contract change which would include buy outs of Teamster to allow the hiring of low-wage drivers and dock workers. Half of the full-time DHL Teamsters currently working would be offered $75,000 to sever ties with the company while other seniority Teamsters would be offered $25,000. Then 75% of the remaining currently working active seniority list would be guaranteed 40 hours per week at...

November 3, 2009: Commercial mover Walter Taylor has been fighting for a stronger Local 814 since 1987. His efforts bore fruit in their 2009 election when Local 814 voted 72% for new leadership. TDU interviewed Walter about how they made it happen. How did you get involved? I didn’t choose activism. I guess you could say activism chose me. I got my union card in 1987. The first company I worked for started adding people...

November 3. 2009: Berkshire Hathaway Inc., controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett, said Tuesday it will buy freight railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. for $100 a share, in a transaction worth about $44 billion. Berkshire Hathaway, which has trucking and other transportation interests, already owned about a 22% stake in BNSF and said it will split its stock 50-to-1 as part of the deal. Click here to read more at Transport Topics.

November 3, 2009: YRC Worldwide Inc. shocked its shareholders Monday by asking them to surrender 95 percent ownership of the embattled trucking company to its lenders as the “final step” in a recovery plan. Investors drove down the Overland Park-based company’s share price by 64 percent, more than on any day since at least 1980, according to Bloomberg News. The stock fell $2.33 and closed at $1.32 a share. Click here to read more at...

November 2, 2009: DHL Teamsters report that IBT officials have met with management over proposed contract changes that would include buy outs of Teamster to allow the hiring of low-wage drivers and dock workers. Reportedly, DHL Teamsters currently working would be offered $75,000 to sever ties with the company while those remaining on lay off status would be offered $25,000. 75 percent of the remaining currently working active seniority list would be “red circled” and...

November 2, 2009: YRC Worldwide Inc.’s bondholders are on track to own 95 percent of the company, which could mean the resignation of seven of YRC’s nine directors, if a debt-exchange offer planned to start this week is successful. The announcement appears as an “out-of-court restructuring and a positive for YRCW’s long-term viability at the expense of current shareholders,” Longbow Research analyst Lee Klaskow said in a Monday note. Click here to read more at...

The chairwoman of the National Mediation Board has sharply criticized the federal agency's proposal to change a decades-old election rule that would make it easier for airline and railway employees to unionize, exposing a sharp rift at the agency's three-person board. In a letter sent to more than a dozen Republican senators Monday, NMB Chairwoman Elizabeth Dougherty said the process by which the proposal was drafted by her two colleagues is "flawed," and she questioned...

October 30, 2009: After years of sell-out contracts and benefit cuts, members of New York Local 814 voted by 73% to elect Jason Ide and the New Directions Slate. New Directions told members that “it’s time to get back to negotiating strong contracts and enforcing them.," and the overwhelming vote showed that the commercial movers of Local 814 agreed. Jason Ide, the president-elect, works at Sotheby’s art auction house, where he was instrumental in leading...