April 24, 2009: Is the Hoffa administration quietly raising the dues of road drivers without a vote? It looks that way. “We got a pay cut, now our dues go up?! Maybe it’s time Hoffa and his appointees took a cut,” Cliff Roberts, YRC road driver in Local 407, told us. Road drivers in Cleveland Local 407 have just been hit with a big dues hike this month, just three months after hundreds of them...

No Body

April 24, 2009: Few trucking companies have the financial artillery to seek and acquire rivals as demand falls and capacity-rich customers drive down rates, but Arkansas Best is one of them. By the end of April, the Fort Smith, Ark.-based parent of ABF Freight System, the country’s No. 2 national less-than-truckload freight carrier behind YRC Worldwide, expects to have a formal acquisition plan — which took six months and $800,000 to draw up — allowing...

April 22, 2009: YRC’s plan to defer making contractually-required payments on behalf of their employees to Teamster pension funds is moving forward. They have the approval from their banks, including J. P. Morgan Chase, to use real estate as collateral for the money they would owe the pension funds. Reportedly, they also have a handshake deal with the Hoffa administration to try to finalize the deal with various pension funds. This plan would allow YRC...

April 21, 2009: The battle to save union contracts and conditions continues at the Minneapolis Star Tribune where the employer, which has filed for bankruptcy, is attempting to force union-busting demands on its unions. Contracts with the Teamster drivers, custodians in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Newspaper Guild remain unsettled. Workers at the newspaper want to stand up and make a difference while their bargaining committees meet. More than 100 rank-and-filers participated in...

April 21, 2009: International Brotherhood of Teamsters President James P. Hoffa April 15 imposed an emergency takeover of Teamsters Local 747, citing the Houston-based local's “failure to perform its duties” as bargaining agent for some 4,000 pilots at a dozen small passenger and cargo airlines. In a message to Local 747 members posted on the local's Web site April 15, Hoffa also said in the course of investigating complaints about its representation, he received “credible...

April 20, 2009. YRC today announced that its major banks, including J. P. Morgan, agreed to allow the company to use real estate as collateral and defer making payments to Teamster pension funds. However, YRC still needs to get the approval of the Teamster leadership, and of the various pension funds involved. The announcement came in a form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. YRC has some 40,000 Teamster employees in various Teamster...

April 17, 2009: Teamster Mark Jones gave his wedding list to his boss thinking it would be used for fundraising in a local union election. But the folks on that list, who would usually get Christmas cards and invitations to Halloween parties and summer barbecues from Jones and his wife, started getting union election ballots sent to their homes. Jones, who has pleaded guilty in a wide-ranging scheme that included efforts to steal two Teamsters...

April 17, 2009: U.S. automakers said they are open to considering participation by auto haulers in the newly announced multibillion-dollar federal program aimed at stabilizing key parts suppliers. “We’re now considering including haulers as an exception to the Tier One ‘production and raw materials’ supplier requirement,” said Chrysler spokesman Dave Elshoff in an April 9 e-mail to Transport Topics. “While the Treasury program is mainly focused on Tier One direct material suppliers, GM is willing...

April 15, 2009: YRCW has issued a corrected memo backing off their claim that our union has agreed to a plan that would use real estate as collateral to Teamster pension funds to defer making pension contributions. In related news, the Central States Pension and Health & Welfare Funds' director, Thomas Nyhan, reports that they are negotiating with YRC over pension deferral, but have demanded immediate payment of past-due health and welfare payments. YRC management...