Trash Talks Make Progress
July 17, 2007:San Francisco Chronicle: East Bay garbage company officials and union leaders met Monday with Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums declaring progress toward ending a 2-week-old garbage driver lockout that has resulted in piles of accumulated garbage. Meanwhile, an Alameda County Superior Court judge postponed a hearing Monday on whether to compel Waste Management Inc. of Alameda County to end the company's lockout on the grounds that it is a threat to public health and...
AP: Oakland leaders go to court to try to get trash picked up
July 11, 2007: Oakland, Calif (AP) - Mayor Ron Dellums and other city officials went to court Thursday in an effort to settle a trash company labor dispute and get piles of stinky garbage picked up. But officials with the company, Waste Management Inc., said the city's quest for an injunction is unnecessary because the company has already hired more temporary workers to replace locked out garbage truck drivers. The problem started in early July...
PR Newswire: Teamster, Political Leaders Pledge Support and Solidarity With Locked Out Workers
July 11, 2007: PRNewswire-USNewswire: Hundreds of union members locked out by Waste Management Inc (WMI) on July 2 turned out at a rally held in front of the company's Davis Street Transfer Station to hear pledges of support from local politicians and labor leaders from across the country. Workers from Teamsters Local 70, Machinist Local Lodge 1546 and International Longshoreman and Warehouse (ILWU) Local 6 are in their second week of an ill-conceived lockout by...
UPS Bargaining Suspended
July 13, 2007: National negotiations with UPS again went nowhere this week, and are now temporarily suspended. Bargaining in some supplemental areas is scheduled for the week of July 16. Read the full story at MakeUPSDeliver.org
UPS Freight Attacks Teamsters Union
July 9, 2007: In a June 28 letter to all UPS Freight employees, Senior Vice President Jack Holmes lashes out at a “campaign of deception” by some Teamster locals. Management's anti-union diatribe requires a strong response by our union. Stating that the company needs to “deal with the untruths spread by Teamster locals,” Holmes states “there is no current card check agreement with the Teamsters” and that no master agreement will be signed. Holmes further...
Is Hoffa Giving Up On Our Master Contracts?
July 12, 2007: Master contracts are the foundation of our union’s power. Will Hoffa let that foundation crumble? And what can concerned Teamsters do about it? Master contracts cover about 25 percent of Teamsters, but they set standards for the majority. They are the foundation of Teamster power. Jimmy Hoffa Sr. understood this principle and built up our national contracts. Is Hoffa Jr. giving up on the master contracts that were his father’s greatest legacy?...
Name That Lucky Local!
July 12, 2007: General President Hoffa is the sugar daddy to many, but when it comes to multiple salaries Local 63 officials have a special place in Hoffa’s heart. Led by International Vice President Randy Cammack, no less than ten Los Angeles Local 63 officials get a second union salary from the International Union. Together, these ten took home more than $1.4 million from Local 63 and the International Union in 2006. Multiple Salaries Hoffa...
VP Under Investigation for Payments from HMO
July 12, 2007: The International Union and New York Local 237 are investigating International Vice President Carroll Haynes over tens of thousands of dollars in payments he received from an HMO that does business with the Teamsters. The union investigation came in response to a report in last month’s Convoy Dispatch. Research by Teamsters for a Democratic Union uncovered that Haynes received $54,500 as a “consultant” to Health Insurance Plans (HIP) of New York, the...
UPS Cartage Services: Teamster Success Not Secure
July 12, 2007: The International Union has cited its agreement covering UPS Cartage Services Teamsters as a model for success at UPS Freight. But, despite this enthusiasm and IBT Secretary-Treasurer Tom Keegel’s misstatement to the 2006 IBT Convention that UPS Cartage Services Teamsters had “secured the same wages and benefits as their UPS brothers and sisters,” Teamster standards and security in this part of the Brown Behemoth remain imperiled. The August 2005 Addendum to the...
What Will It Take to Organize FedEx?
July 12, 2007: On June 29, the House Transportation Committee voted to make it easier for FedEx employees to organize by passing an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration bill that would allow FedEx Express drivers to organize under the National Labor Relations Act. Absurdly, FedEx, the nation’s second largest trucking company, is currently treated as an “airline” under federal labor law—thanks to a provision management snuck into legislation ten years ago. FedEx is covered...