March 23, 2009: The national petition drive to make UPS create more full-time times is picking up steam. UPS is violating Article 22.3 of our contract which requires the company to maintain 20,000 combo jobs nationally. The company is thousands of jobs short of the 20,000 quota—and is eliminating more full-time combo jobs every day. Petitions are circulating in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, Sacramento, San Diego—and...

March 20, 2009: USF Holland is closing terminals and directing freight to YRC and New Penn. USF Holland announced it is closing terminals in Albany, Allentown, Baltimore, Bedford, Mass., Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Syracuse, Wilkes-Barre, Penn., Dubois, Penn., Richmond, and Wichita. These locations represent operations that USF Holland absorbed from the former USF Red Star and also the former home terminal for USF Dugan. The last day of work for most Teamsters at these terminals will be...

March 18, 2009: President Hoffa has named Brad Slawson, Sr. to replace the only woman on our union’s top leadership. Cheryl Johnson, the lone woman on the Teamster General Executive Board, is retiring and has resigned as a Central Region Vice President. Hoffa has appointed Slawson, the principal officer of Minneapolis Local 120, to replace her. The General Executive Board is the highest leadership body in our union. It has 26 members: 25 white men...

March 17, 2009: United Parcel Service Inc. boosted Chairman and CEO Scott Davis’ total compensation by 115 percent in 2008. This is the same year that UPS Teamsters got a 35 cent raise. In all, Davis made a whopping $5.6 million last year, including $3.2 million in stock awards. Davis’s salary was hiked to $1 million, including a $40,000 bonus. Chief Operating Officer David Abnet also got a healthy pay hike in 2008. His total...

March 16, 2009: TDU members and other Teamsters met this weekend in Sacramento and Tracy, Calif. to talk about how to beat apathy and get members involved in building a stronger union. “I learned a lot and came away from the meeting inspired—and so did the other members I came with,” said Richard Andazola, a shop steward at Safeway. “We’re taking the information we got back to the warehouse,” Andazola said. UPS Teamsters from Sacramento...

March 16, 2009: Teamsters in Northern California are fighting to save their jobs after Northern Distribution announced it will replace 45 Teamsters with nonunion drivers. Northern Distribution delivers groceries to Foods Co. stores throughout Northern California,. Foods Co. is dropping Northern Distribution as of March 28 and bringing in Scully Transportation Systems, a low-wage nonunion operator. Scully does not intend to hire the drivers from Northern—a move that would put 45 Teamsters who have serviced...

March 11, 2009: Yesterday, lawmakers in both houses of Congress introduced a new law that will make it easier for workers to form unions. You can help pass it. The Employee Free Choice Act will make it easier for workers to join a union when a majority of workers support unionizing, and it will penalize employers who harass and fire union supporters. Help give other workers a voice at work. Click here to send a...

March 11, 2009: More than 80 members packed the house at New York Local 814 on Monday. They were there to discuss proposed changes that would help New York movers win a strong contract. At the meeting, members turned in petition signatures from 150 members who are proposing changes to the local union bylaws that would give members a stronger voice in contract bargaining. Specifically, the proposed changes would: Give members the right to elect...

March 11, 2009: A change in the YRCW concession deal has just cost Teamster members $9.91 million. But it was agreed to by the International Union without so much as a whimper, let alone any vote of the affected Teamsters. A March 4 amendment to the stock option deal has changed the date for setting the stock option price to February 12, 2009. In the memo from the International Union announcing this new deal, there...

March 11, 2009: A federal judge in New York March 9 dismissed Cintas Corp.'s racketeering and trademark infringement claims against UNITE HERE, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and their labor federation Change to Win (Cintas Corp. v. UNITE HERE, S.D.N.Y., No. 08cv2185, 3/9/09). Even accepting as true the allegations in the 105-page amended complaint, Judge William H. Pauley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held that the “corporate campaign”...