January 10, 2008: The power is in the hands of freight Teamsters, who will vote on the tentative agreement and all supplements. Voting will include all freight Teamsters, including ABF, except DHL. ABF and other freight Teamsters will vote because the Freight Division intends to hold ABF to the same standard contract.

Freight Teamsters will get two ballots: one for the master, and one for the regional supplement. If you are opposed to the agreement, it makes sense to vote No on both. (On the recent UPS agreement, three supplements were rejected in Pennsylvania and New York. In all three cases, members quickly won gains there).

Ballots are mailed on Jan. 14 and must be received in Washington by Feb. 8. Majority rule will prevail. Your vote is secret.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union members have gone to court several times to win the right to fair contract votes. We won the right to obtain all supplements and the NMFA on the date they are given to officials at the “two-person” meeting. Because we post them on the web, now even the IBT posts them!

TDU fought for and won the right to majority rule in contracts (previously it took two-thirds to reject) in 1988, and won the right to a separate vote on the supplements in 1991. Leaders in the Hoffa administration fought against both of these reforms.

We urge all freight Teamsters to use their right to vote.