January 6, 2009: In December, Congress passed a new law to help multi-employer pension plans ride out the financial crisis. Most Teamster pension plans were hit hard by the meltdown on Wall Street. Teamster leaders and members demanded relief. The Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 loosens some of the strictest requirements of the Pension Protection Act and may prevent new cuts. But it gives no relief for Teamster members who are already...

January 8, 2009: However they voted, many Freight Teamsters are mad about concessions and concerned about the future. If you're one of them, you face a choice: complain in the break room or do something about it. Our union's power is on the decline in the freight industry. Our problems predate the Hoffa administration to be sure. But the current leadership, which came into office promising to Restore Teamster Power, has utterly failed to meet...

January 8, 2009: The vote count for the concessions at Yellow Roadway is in its third day, and no results are available as of Thursday afternoon. We will update our website with results as soon as they become available.

January 6, 2009: There is no doubt that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a labor secretary who could be a transformative force in a long-neglected arena. The question is whether he will let her. Hilda Solis, a United States representative from Southern California, is the daughter of immigrant parents with union jobs. She has been an unfailing advocate of workers’ rights during eight years in Congress and before that, in California politics. Ms. Solis has...

January 2, 2008: For the first time in its 35-year history, FedEx is getting smaller. From its signature air express network to the trucks in its far-flung domestic business, FedEx is starting 2009 by grounding aircraft, parking other equipment, cutting capital spending and even cutting executive pay to get the company's scale in line with a declining shipping market. The cost reductions add up to about $1 billion in FedEx's current fiscal year, which ends...

January 2, 2009: Teamsters drivers are in their third month of a bitter strike against Oak Harbor Freight Lines, a large regional freight carrier in the Northwest. The day after the strike began in September, the company cut health care to workers and retirees. Some have been forced to pay three times more to maintain coverage. The company forced the strike by attempting to eliminate sick leave and seniority rights in contract talks last summer....

December 31, 2008: In light of YRC Worldwide Inc.'s change in plans that could provide long-term viability for the company, members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters locals representing some 40,000 YRCW employees will now have until Jan. 6 to ratify a proposed modification to the National Master Freight Agreement, according to a Dec. 27 union statement. The union also cited the high volume of ballot requests, holiday mail volume, and bad weather that shut airports,...

December 30, 2008: Yellow Roadway management has given the union a second proposal, as part of its mega change of operations to blend Roadway and Yellow. This "Velocity Change" proposes to eliminate 83 percent of the 410 existing Utility Employee positions, cutting UE's to 70. The 19-page proposal, which would establish 16 Velocity Centers, was submitted to the IBT Freight Division on December 22 Click here to see the proposed Velocity Change. Click here for...

Local 804 members beat concessions and pension cuts, won new rights in their local bylaws, and organized to rebuild union power. Local 804 members got an early start on building Teamster Power in 2008—by defeating concessions and pension cuts in December 2007. Members held a series of rank-and-file meetings and launched a Vote No campaign—after UPS and Local 804 negotiators cut a concessionary contract deal that included pension cuts. Members voted the contract down by...

December 26, 2008: Rank-and-file freight Teamsters will have their own observers at the concessions vote count, thanks to TDU members who won that right. The International Union has changed the deadline for ballots; the count date will now be Jan. 6. Ed Brogan and Ed Taylor, both members of Philadelphia Local 107, will observe the vote count in Lanham, Md. Freight Teamsters at YRCW are voting on a 10 percent wage cut that will last...