The following is an interview with Bill Gibson, the President of Local 96 in Washington, D.C. Why is it important for your local to be involved in this activity? Basically to help out other locals that are having problems with employers. In turn we expect their help when we have problems. We do that through the Washington metro Central Labor Council (CLC), AFL-CIO and through other community agencies such as the Gray Panthers, ACORN and...

The following is an interview with Frank Halstead, a grocery worker at Ralphs in Los Angeles Local 572. What are some examples of solidarity, within the IBT and without, that your chapter has been involved in? Our solidarity work is all within the Teamsters. We have our hands full right here! Currently we have a project around organizing a contract campaign for the Sysco facility. This has tremendous promise because we have numerous issues to...

Teamster members are taking action now to protect our pensions from dangerous proposed legislation that makes it easier for multi-employer plans to cut retirement benefits. Your urgent action is needed to contact the leaders of the Senate’s Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee — and your Congressional Reps and Senators — to ask them to stand up for our retirement security. he Red Zone Amendment to the Pension Protection Act would allow troubled pension...

The Western Conference Pension Fund has announced a big cut in pension accruals, effective July 1. This cut, if it stands, will seriously diminish pensions of those who retire in the coming years. (By law the fund cannot decrease pension credits already earned.) Teamsters in the West have formed the Western Teamsters Pension Improvement Committee (WESTPIC) and are calling on the trustees to rescind the cut. The trustees are insisting that they must have “full...

The pension justice movement has won an important victory for UPS Teamsters in the Central States Pension Fund. After refusing for 2 years to respect language in the 2002 UPS contract, Central States has now agreed to fully credit members for years they worked as part-timers. This will mean earlier retirement and larger monthly checks for many Teamsters who have worked as both part-timers and full-timers at UPS. Agreement Broken Central States and the UPS...

Article Content: Members of Local 407 received the letter below from their local. It’s a short summary of information provided to the local by the Central States Pension Fund. From the letter, its clear that the CSF is still spinning the numbers—if the fund’s financial situation is improving, isn’t it time to improve Teamster retirees’ financial situation? Of course spun information is better than none at all. Thanks to member pressure over the last two...

September 15, 2005: The federal Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled on Sept. 8 against Teamster retirees who were fighting to broaden their right to work to supplement their Central States pension. The appeals judges upheld a decision that favored the Central States Fund, which a few years ago started to crack down hard on retirees taking jobs at boat marinas, golf courses, family farms, auto repair shops, or hardware stores. The trustees of the...

James Hoffa and Tom Keegel have apparently failed to file the International Union’s 2005 LM-2 financial report, which by law was due on March 31. As of April 7, U.S. Department of Labor personnel report that no form has been filed, either in paper form or electronically. A spot check of the Department of Labor website reveals that nine of the other ten largest unions have 2005 forms posted. A request to the International Union...

March 2006: New York City Teamsters rallied on the steps of City Hall on March 5 to protest comments by the head of the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) calling Teamster warehouse workers “the lowest rung workers” whose jobs should be scrapped. Local 805 members have been fighting the city’s EDC, which is trying to shut down the last working port in Brooklyn. Teamster Local 807 jobs are also on the chopping block. Carrying signs...

This is my first-ever movie review, and ladies and gentleman this film is a doozie! Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.Since you are reading Convoy you may already know some information about Wal-Mart, but after seeing this movie you will know ALL the dirt! For a small investment of $12.95 and 98 minutes of your time you can be a part of stopping this huge worldwide greed machine. This film was created to get...