December 3, 2008: The International Union announced it will achieve the organizing goal of 40,000 new members in 2008.
UPS Freight was the single largest company organized by our union this year. Twelve thousand UPS Freight drivers and dockworkers joined the Teamsters this year. More than 8,700 First Student workers also joined the Teamsters this year as well as 8,500 United Airlines mechanics.
We’ll have the chance to maintain this momentum in the coming year by pushing for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to form a union. Teamsters need to be in the front lines pushing for this legislation’s passage.
More Teamster organizing can mean more Teamster Power if we win strong contracts that bring the nonunion competition up to union scale.
At UPS Freight, the new contract allowed the company to keep the 12,000 new Teamsters out of union pension and medical plans. UPS Freight also maintained substandard work rules that other Teamster freight employers pushed for and won in the 2008 National Master Freight Contract.
It’s good to see the membership numbers of our Teamsters Union growing. We can grow Teamster Power too—passing the Employee Free Choice Act, organizing the nonunion competition in our core industries, and launching strategic contract campaigns to bring newly organized companies up to union scale.
Click here to sign a petition in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act.