May 22, 2009: Jack Cooper Teamsters got a new boss in May, when Active Acquisitions bought a majority stake in Jack Cooper Transport.

Michael Riggs is the principal owner of Active. But Tim Cooper, in a letter to Jack Cooper employees, says that he is retaining his role with the new company. Insiders say that is likely to continue. Jack Cooper will operate separately, at least for now.

The combination could make it a stronger union company. Active’s small carhaul division grew last year when they got traffic formerly hauled by PTS out of Lorain, Ohio and New Jersey.

Jack Cooper recently closed most of its western operations, which run under the name of PMT. Jack Cooper also just lost the Chicago Ford plant traffic to Cassens. Teamster carhaulers there have retained their seniority at Cassens.

Teamsters remain apprehensive about Active’s history; it broke the union in the driveaway industry. JHT Holdings, which owns Active, hauls some 90 percent of all new heavy trucks, but the majority of the operation runs nonunion or under sweetheart deals with company-favored unions. The International Union treated that loss as business-as-usual, and failed to protect the Teamster jobs and contract.

Dennis Troha, who ran JHT while busting the Teamsters, later sold the business, and Riggs became its principal. Troha later was convicted of illegally passing large sums of money to the campaigns of the Wisconsin Governor and President Bush, to attempt to further his casino interests.