September 11, 2007: Bobby Hogan, the secretary treasurer of Chicago Local 714, has been charged by the Independent Review Board (IRB) with bringing reproach upon the union. Hogan is charged with hiring a business partner of his father, Billy Hogan. It is up to the Hoffa administration to conduct a hearing, or to pass the matter back to the IRB for a hearing. The Hogan family has run the 9,000-member local for decades as more...

September 11, 2007: Local 743 President Richard Lopez has broken the record for the shortest tenure by any Teamster official. Richard Lopez was appointed Local 743 President on September 1. Nine days later, he was not nominated for any office. In fact, he slinked out of the nominations meeting early. Members, hungry for change in a local notorious for its corruption and weak representation, nominated the New Leadership Slate, a full slate of reform candidates...

September 7, 2007: Local 743 President Richard Lopez and other officials have been indicted on charges of rigging their local election. Now reformers are preparing to run and win this fall. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago announced today that four Local 743 officials were indicted on federal charges of conspiring to steal ballots to rig the 2004 local union election. The local’s top officials are dropping like flies. President Robert Walston mysteriously resigned two...

September 6, 2007: The National Labor Relations Board ordered the reinstatement of a fired Teamster reform activist. The board has also ruled that a Local 854 official violently threatened a TDU member and shop steward. This victory for Teamster reform activists came when the National Labor Relations Board overturned on appeal an earlier ruling by an NLRB administrative law judge. The case shows that even under the worst of circumstances, TDU members can enforce their...

October 9, 2007: Thanks to TDU, International Union Vice President, and former Local 237 president Carroll Haynes is being forced to repay more than $100,000 in improper payments. Haynes received the payments from the company that manages the Local 237 health plan. Local 237 launched an internal probe after Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) brought the improper payments to light. As part of our preparations of the $150,000 Club, our annual report on Teamster...

Freight ‘08: Raise the Wages I’m 58 years old now and I’m back to working casual. Our dock rate is just $16 an hour—that’s unreal. I hope the new contract will bring better wages and stop giving back to these companies. The CEOs are making an outrageous amount of money. We need to get higher wages, increase the pension, and protect our retirees. David Bowers Local 397, Yellow Erie, Penn. Ashamed of Hahs Don Hahs...

If management gets its way in contract negotiations, UPS will soon be diverting packages to UPS Freight, the company's nonunion freight carrier. Sources close to the negotiations have told Traffic World, a leading industry publication, that UPS is pushing for work rule changes that would allow them to move packages from its parcel to freight divisions. Corporate consultants love the idea. “It's nonunion. It would be more cost effective,” said one industry expert. It would...

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August 23, 2007: This year’s analysis reveals that more than $20 million in Teamster dues was paid last year to the highest paid Teamster officials, each of whom bags $150,000 or more a year. Teamster contracts and benefit funds are under attack—and our union’s power is on the decline. But salaries for top Teamster officials remain on the rise, draining dues that could be used to organize the nonunion competition and rebuild Teamster Power. Those...

Ron Carey speaks out in a new book on the 1997 UPS Strike. Read the interview the Hoffa administration did not want you to see. In a book released on the 10th Anniversary of the Teamster strike victory at UPS, author Deepa Kumar spoke with former General President Ron Carey about his struggles with the company and old guard Teamster officials culminating in the 1997 UPS Strike. Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the...