UPS Split From Central States Would Weaken Union, Experts Say
August 20, 2007: Industry experts say that pension assets are up, but our union’s power will be down if UPS is allowed to break out of Central States. Industry experts report in this month’s Traffic World that the assets of the Central States Pension Plan are on the rise. They warn that the Teamsters Union will lose long-term power in dealing with employers if we UPS split from the fund. Traffic World is a leading...
Traffic World: ABF to Withdraw from TMI
August 18, 2007: From Traffic World: ABF Freight System is seeking its own road toward a new Teamster contract and single employer pension plan. The LTL carrier Aug. 17 said it is pulling out of Trucking Management Inc., the multiemployer bargaining unit that negotiates the National Master Freight Agreement, and plans to seek its own contract with the Teamsters union. That decision is a step toward withdrawing from the union's multiemployer pension plans, a company...
Logistics Management: Teamsters and UPS Move Forward on Central States Withdrawal Plan
August 17, 2007: Industry journal Logistics Management reports that the IBT has made "substantial progress on the union’s talks with UPS, its largest employer." But according the to the journal: "There has been little if any progress with the unionized freight carriers such as YRC Worldwide and Arkansas Best." Click here to read the full story at Logistics Management.
ABF Makes Bid to Bolt NMFA
August 16, 2007: Teamster master contracts and benefit funds are under attack—at UPS, freight, DHL and Carhaul— and now ABF is moving to break out of the National Master Freight Agreement. It’s now official: ABF has pulled out of Trucking Management Inc (TMI), the employer association which bargains the National Master Freight Agreement. Freight members need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder to maintain one freight standard and one freight contract. ABF management has let it be known...
’97 UPS Strike Anniversary: Victory Fueled by Member Involvement
August 16, 2007: Labor expert Michael Schiavone credits rank-and-file mobilization and the influence of Teamsters for a Democratic Union with winning the 1997 contract victory at UPS. “With this being the tenth-year anniversary of the Teamsters’ historic strike with United Parcel Service (UPS) it is a good time to revisit the strike and determine how it was won,” says labor writer Michael Schiavone, the author of Unions in Crisis? The Future of Organized Labor in...
FedEx Truck Drivers are Employees, Not Independent Contractors, Court Rules
August 15, 2007: BNA Labor Report: Delivery drivers are employees entitled under state law to reimbursement for work-related expenses, despite their description as independent contractors in an operating agreement they signed with FedEx Ground Package System Inc., a California appellate court ruled Aug. 13 (Estrada v. Fedex Ground Package Sys. Inc., Cal. Ct. App., No. B189031, 8/13/07). Writing for a three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal, Justice Miriam A. Vogel observed that "the...
Central States Pension Assets Up $700 Million
August 13, 2007: The assets of the Central States Pension Fund have jumped $700 million in the first six months of this year, reaching $21.4 billion, and could reach $22 billion by the end of 2007. This is according to the fund’s latest Financial and Analytical Report, obtained by Teamsters for a Democratic Union. Now is the time to restore affordable retiree health and welfare and get a timetable for improved pension benefits, in the...
Judge Conboy Challenges Hoffa’s Firing of Virtue
August 12, 2007: Election Appeals Master Kenneth Conboy has issued a decision that could result in a victory for Teamster democracy. The decision is a blow against retaliation aimed at Teamsters who run for IBT office. The decision questions the legality of Hoffa’s firing of Dan Virtue and Carlos Ramos last January. The firings came days after the 2006 IBT Election was certified, an election won by Hoffa’s slate against the reform slate headed by...