Teamsters Organize FedEx Ground Stations
December 5, 2005: In an historic win, our union has organized two FedEx Ground stations near Boston. Workers voted 22-8 for Teamster Local 25 at the two small stations. Instead of recognizing the union and bargaining, FedEx intends to challenge the union victory at the NLRB and court, to drag it out. FedEx Ground drivers are contractors who buy their own trucks, but the NLRB has ruled that they are employees. The union has lost...
UPS Buys More Congressmen Than Any Company
December 5, 2006: An academic study by three economists entitled “Corporate Political Contributions and Stock Returns” and reported in the New York Times indicates that in recent years UPS has donated PAC money to more Congressional candidates than any other corporation. UPS’s corporate PAC gave to 629 Congressional and Senate candidates from October 1999 to October 2004. The study found that corporate buying of Congressional influence has a positive effect on stock price. It shows...
UPS Quarterly Profits Break Record
December 5, 2006: UPS’s third-quarter after-tax profits rose to $1.04 billion, with strong growth in domestic and international shipments. Profit in the largest business line, domestic packages, rose 8.8 percent and international profits jumped 22 percent. UPS reported only one weak spot: integration of Menlo Forwarding (UPS Cartage Services Inc.) and Overnite (UPS Freight).
Pension Cuts Hit Flagship UPS Local
December 5, 2006: Just two months into early negotiations with UPS to protect Teamster benefits, the company has cut the pensions of thousands of UPS Teamsters in New York City. Local 804 members will be hit with a 30 percent cut in their pension accrual effective Jan. 1. The cuts send a clear signal that UPS management is continuing its offensive against Teamster benefits.The largest UPS local in the East, Local 804, was the first...
TDU Will Continue to Oppose Benefit Cuts and Fight to Strengthen Teamster Benefits
December 5, 2006: While Hoffa can boast of a 65 percent winning margin overall in the IBT election, he would be well advised to look at the big groups of Teamsters who voted for a change of direction—starting with the with 175,000 Teamsters in the Central States Pension Plan (CSPF). These voters sent a strong message that we need new pension and benefit policies. Most Central States participants belong to mixed locals along with the...
Teamsters or CEOs?
December 5, 2006: Jim Santangelo, the same one who holds his conferences at Waikiki Beach, signs his letters as the “CEO” of Local 848. This terrible idea, local Teamster leaders calling themselves the “CEO” of the local, started with him in Los Angeles and seems to be spreading in the West. Should our local unions be imitating the worst in corporations? We don’t think so.
Insurgent Local Puts Members Before Politics
December 5, 2006: On Nov. 15 some 150 Teamsters at Land-o-Sun Dairies in Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia won the right to stay in their preferred local union, stopping International Vice President Fred Gegare from a power grab against Local 549. The IBT Election Supervisor and the Appeals Master ruled decisively that Gegare transferred these Teamsters, without even consulting them, to five other locals in retaliation against their local president for his participation in the...
Democracy Strengthens Our Union
December 5, 2006: Tom Leedham’s campaign for Teamster General President did more than win 35 percent of the vote. It strengthened our union for the future. Since the 1997 UPS strike, employers have been on the offensive against our union. We have lost 150,000 members. Overnite defeated our organizing drive, paving the way for UPS to purchase it and operate it nonunion. And hundreds of thousands of Teamsters have suffered the first big pension and...
A Message From Tom Leedham: Thank You for Working to Rebuild Teamster Power
Decmeber 5, 2006: One year ago, we launched this campaign to rebuild Teamster Power. I want to thank Teamster members for the tremendous support you’ve shown and for the sacrifices you’ve made to strengthen our union. From the beginning, I said “I am the candidate, but this is your campaign.” And you rose to the occasion every step of the way. You collected 55,000 petition signatures in just over a month to officially accredit our...
Kroger Teamsters Fight to Protect Jobs, Contract
December 2, 2006: Kroger Teamsters in Louisville are fighting for their jobs and their future in the wake of the grocery giant’s decision to turn over ownership and operations of its Kentucky Distribution Center to third party logistics companies. December 6, 2006: Just one year into a six-year contract with Local 89, Kroger announced it would sell the warehouse to Zenith Logistics and the transportation operations to Transervice Logistics. Zenith immediately threatened Teamsters with drastic...