April 11, 2007: Santiago Rafael Cruz, an organizer for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), was found bound and beaten to death yesterday in the group's Monterrey, Mexico, office. FLOC doesn't believe it was a random killing. Click here to read more at the AFL-CIO blog. Click here to read to read more from FLOC.

April 11, 2007: Canadian conductors are back on strike against the Canadian National line after UTU members rejected a tentative agreement by 79 percent, with over 80 percent of members voting. The UTU International has called a rotating strike, starting with CN sites in Oakville, Ontario and Vancouver and Kamloops, British Columbia. The UTU hasn’t said when other CN trainmen will join them on the picket lines. This strike is the second time UTU members...

April 11, 2007: Canadian National Railway Co.'s 2,800 union conductors and yard workers rejected a proposed one- year contract from the country's biggest railroad and voted to strike. Read the full story at Bloomberg.

April 10, 2007: Traffic World—A union vote count that will be released at the close of the business day on April 10 could allow a strike in Canada to quickly flare back up against Canadian National Railway. The United Transportation Union, representing 2,800 CN conductors and yard workers in that country, planned to release the count at 5 p.m. eastern time, amid indications that many union members might reject the tentative one-year contract. The UTU...

April 9, 2007: McDonald's Corp. on Monday said it has agreed to pay an additional penny per pound for Florida tomatoes, ending a two-year campaign for the increase by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Read the full story at Reuter's. Click here to read more at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers website.

April 6, 2007: Associated Press: Allied Holdings scored two victories this week, winning bankruptcy court approval of its Chapter 11 plan-disclosure statement and its request to enter into a $15 million financing arrangement. Read the full story at Forbes.com.

The longshoremen of Local 1588 in Bayonne, NJ knew their place—they worked and kept their mouths shut. When your past union president, an exboxer named John DiGilio, is found floating in the Hackensack River with two bullet holes in his head, you don’t ask too many questions. When the man who usurped the local from him threatens to settle disputes with a blowtorch to the crotch, you don’t go to the union office to voice...

April 2, 2007: Since 2003, our Teamster benefits have been under attack. But the coming year gives our union the opportunity to take the offensive. Our pension funds’ assets are already way up due to recent strong investment returns. This opens the door to benefit gains if our union can win sufficient increases in benefit contributions in the 2008 UPS and freight contracts. These contracts are sure to set records for benefit contributions, in part...

April 4, 2007: When Teamster members at Allied got their ballots to vote on proposed concessions, they were told "There is Only ONE Plan to Save Allied." But another investment, Sopris, has released a proposed term sheet to buy Allied. Local 604 Secretary Treasurer John Thyer has written a letter to Hoffa demanding that he send a written retraction to every member. Click here to read Local 604's letter.

April 2, 2007: Our Teamster negotiators have exchanged proposals on language and economics with UPS. Now it’s time for them to exchange information with the members. Pontiac, Mich.: A UPS Teamster signs up to get email updates from Make UPS Deliver.Our negotiators and UPS suspended further national bargaining until May after swapping proposals on wages, pensions and benefits. Bargaining over local supplements and riders will be held throughout the month of April. UPS has dug...