October 17, 2013: Hoffa and Hall are dishing out concessions as fast as employers can serve them up. After spending the summer cutting the healthcare of 140,000 UPS Teamsters, the Hoffa-Hall administration is now targeting Teamster pensions.

The Central States Pension Fund is lobbying Congress to eliminate key pension protections and give Central States the power to cut retirees' pensions.

Hoffa and Hall's standing with the members has never been lower. So how do they stay in office?

The $150,000 report explains part of the answer. A record 146 Teamster officials make more than $150,000 a year, and 137 get multiple Teamster salaries.

This patronage system gives Hoffa and Hall a national political machine to raise campaign funds and get out the vote at election time.

If Teamsters want to take back our union, we need a national network for the members—one that involves and unites rank-and-file members to organize for change in our locals and in the International union.

That's what TDU is all about.

It's not enough to get angry and active at contract time but then let everything go back to business as usual after the ballots are counted. We've got to get the reins of power out the hands of the concessions crew.

The next International Union election will kick off in less than two years with Convention Delegate races beginning in the Fall of 2015.

It will take 150,000 votes to win. That's an achievable goal, but it will take rank-and-file committees in local unions across the country  and a national organizaton that links us all together.

Change won't happen on its own. If we want to dump Hoffa and Hall, we have to build an organization to make it happen.