February 8, 2006: Allied management sent thousands of carhaul Teamsters a letter dated January 31 stating that, unless they are given more concessions from Teamsters, then they may “seek appropriate relief from the bankruptcy court…to set aside an existing collective bargaining agreement and authorize reductions in pay and benefits.” It looks like they are testing the waters to see if they can get concessions from the International Union. We cannot have our national master contract busted in court. If the largest carhaul employer could break the contract using bankruptcy court, then other employers under the master agreement would demand parity, and the downward spiral would only worsen. We cannot allow the new corporate tactic of using bankruptcy court to destroy decades of union struggle to win good contracts and decent family benefits to spread into our union and the trucking industry. Allied’s letter does not mention that Teamsters have already gave in to a two year wage freeze, have been hit with pension accrual cuts, and slapped with the destruction of retiree health care benefits. Carhaulers know the industry problems are real. But the answer is not open-ended concessions with no union plan to protect jobs and job security.