May 24, 2013: In April Hoffa's Carhaul Director, Roy Gross, blocked from going to arbitration a work preservation grievance which challenged Jack Cooper's new substandard division.

Instead the International and the employers routed the grievance—which was researched and filed by Local 89—to the national panel, where they can quietly bury it.

Why would our International union want to help Jack Cooper set up an owner-operator division that operates without terminals, assigns drivers in the Midwest to Local 251 in Rhode Island, and pays sub-contract pensions and rates?

Carhaulers and their local union reps should ask that question of Gross and Hoffa.

Jack Cooper Specialized Transport claims to be hiring 200 drivers, although they seem to have only succeeded in hiring a small number so far under the terms they are offering and the International union has approved.

Now Jack Cooper has opened Jack Cooper Logistics, which brags on their website that they can "tap over 400 [nonunion] trucking companies." They trip lease loads which should be hauled by Teamsters.

The point of having a union is to defend good union jobs. The Carhaul Division is failing that basic obligation, and will continue to fail unless pressure is put on them to change.

Allied Systems To Be Sold

In a letter to all employees, Allied CEO Gendregske announced that Allied will be sold to the company's primary lenders, or to a higher bidder. He said he expects the sale to take place in late July or early August.