November 19, 2008: The Central States Pension Fund suffered a loss of $2.6 billion in assets during the third quarter of 2008, according to fund documents obtained by TDU. The CSPF lost a total of $5.6 billion in assets during the first nine months of 2008. Despite the record losses, the Fund did not report any plans for further cuts in their quarterly report. But under new fund rules, more than one out of every...

November 19, 2008: The Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has adopted as final a December 2007 interim final rule on driver hours, scheduled for publication in the Nov. 19 Federal Register, despite complaints from some advocacy groups that the rule compromises transportation safety. The final rule will take effect Jan. 19, 2009, 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. The final rule allows commercial motor vehicle drivers to continue to drive...

November 19, 2008: In response to a court-ordered stay, the Department of Transportation once again is making it optional, rather than mandatory, for employers to require transportation workers to be directly observed when providing urine specimens for follow-up and return-to-duty drug tests. According to a notice to be published Nov. 19 in the Federal Register, DOT is returning to the language of 29 C.F.R. § 40.67(b) that existed prior to Nov. 1, when the controversial...

November 18, 2008: How can we punish employers who break the law when workers try to join a union? That’s what the Employee Free Choice Act would do. The proposed law would make it easier for workers to join a union—and make employers pay when they break the law to intimidate workers who want to unionize. Now our union and other unions are coming together to get the law passed by the new Congress. President-Elect...

November 17, 2008: A report on the Bush administration’s cross-border trucking program found that participating Mexican trucks have good safety records, but that so few carriers have signed up, it’s difficult to evaluate the program effectively. Click here to read the full article from Transport Topics.

November 17, 2008: In its final hours, the Bush administration is preparing to release its final rule on truck driver hours of service, and Democrats in Congress are setting up a roadblock. “The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is again planning to expand by 10 percent the number of hours a truck driver can drive without adequate rest, threatening the safety of all drivers,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote on her website. Click here...

November 17, 2008: The world's largest national economy is not large enough, it appears, for three private parcel carriers. DHL's announcement last week that it will entirely scrap its domestic air and ground delivery business in the United States ends a five-year, $10 billion effort to mount a new competitive challenge to FedEx and UPS, sending shippers looking for alternatives at the busiest period of the year and toward a new competitive landscape. Although the...

November 17, 2008: Shareholders of Fort Lauderdale-based Republic Services and Phoenix-based Allied Waste Industries on Friday overwhelmingly approved a deal for the two waste companies to merge. Also Friday, a union-supported group that says it advocates for competition in the waste industry issued a report challenging the merger. Click here to read more at The Miami Herald.

November 14, 2008: Employers are looking to trim costs and cut Teamster jobs in 2009. Our union needs an action plan to protect our job security. In 2008, Teamster employers got the Hoffa administration to agree to record concessions. The same employers are gearing up to cut Teamster jobs in 2009. Yellow Roadway Corporation is consolidating its operations in a move that will eliminate thousands of Teamster jobs. UPS has announced plans to “right-size” in...

November 14, 2008: Oak Harbor Freight is refusing to bargain in good faith. Striking Teamsters are turning up the heat and making the company pay. Over 600 drivers in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho have been on strike since Sept. 22 over unfair labor practices at the regional freight carrier. Company revenue is down 35 percent since the beginning of the strike—and they have temporarily lost half their customers. Striking drivers have sent roving pickets to...