October 30, 2009: Just days after hundreds of Local 848 members came to the union hall to call for Jim Santangelo to resign, he was driven out of office. On Oct. 29, Santangelo resigned as the secretary treasurer of Local 848, the president of Southern California Joint Council 42, and International Vice President. Santangelo’s fate was sealed on Oct. 25, when nearly 500 members attended a meeting called to explain the $500,000 settlement of a...

October 30, 2009: The decisions from the October meeting of the 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 of...

October 22, 2009: The states of New York, New Jersey and Montana intend to sue FedEx Ground Package System Inc. (FedEx) over its policy of classifying drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, the attorneys general of the three states said Oct. 20. “Our offices have examined the work done by FedEx drivers and have concluded that these workers are in fact employees of FedEx and are not simply independent contractors,” according to the letter...

October 22, 2009: UPS announced after-tax profits of $549 million for the third quarter of 2009 (July-Sept), up from $445 million in the second quarter. It’s no surprise that in this economy, UPS’s profits are down from last year. UPS made $970 million in the second quarter of 2008. But UPS is still making big money—and still beating the competition. In a terrible economy, UPS has hauled in $1.4 billion in after-tax profits since the...

October 21, 2009: Nobody wants to admit it, but the next casualty of the Wall Street meltdown will probably be your golden years. For years corporations have been trying to choke the life out of traditional pensions, working hard to get out from under the risk—and the cost—of providing for their retirees. Between last year’s credit crunch and changes to federal pension laws, they may get their wish. Nearly $4 trillion worth of retirement savings...

October 16, 2009: The president of a national locomotive engineers union based in Cleveland has been placed on leave after being arrested on federal charges that he accepted $20,000 in bribes from a lawyer who wanted to keep representing injured members. Edward Rodzwicz, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which has about 55,000 members, has been on leave since Thursday, according to the union's Web site. Union spokesman John Bentley declined to...

October 16, 2009: Tens of thousands of Puerto Rican public workers protesting layoffs shut down the center of the capital San Juan on Thursday in a one-day strike that closed many government offices, businesses and schools. Labor unions in the U.S. Caribbean island territory called the 24-hour stoppage to protest the firing of thousands of workers by the government, which is trying to shrink a $3.2 billion budget deficit. Click here to read more at...

October 15, 2009: In votes counted today, some 1,000 YRC dock workers again rejected the concession proposal, and by a larger margin than in August. The rejection among dock workers was by a vote of 486-242. The janitors rejected it by 9-2, and the office workers passed their contract by a vote of 59-46. A number of concerned Local 710 Teamsters, from the office and dock, showed up to observe the count. “We had a...

UPDATE October 16, 2009: Ed Rodzwicz has taken a leave of absence from his union post after being arrested for accepting a $20,000 bribe. BLET First Vice President Paul T. Sorrow will be the acting BLET President. Rodzwicz made $204,757 in salaries from the BLET and the IBT in 2008. October 14, 2009: Edward Rodzwicz, President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen division of the IBT, was arrested on October 12 on charges...

October 9, 2009: Months after the government bailed out General Motors and Chrysler, some lawmakers are questioning tough contract demands by the two auto companies that union officials argue could lead to the replacement of hundreds of union carhaulers with nonunion drivers. Michigan lawmakers have raised the issue with GM CEO Fritz Henderson and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne in letters during the past week, concerned that the automakers could reduce business with auto transport companies...