September 1, 2009: It’s a sad day when Teamsters in a core industry desert our union for another., That is what happened today when nearly 300 Teamster carhaulers employed by Gen Auto in Ontario voted to join the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW).

The 145-47 vote came from carhaulers at three locations, most of them at the Oshawa General Motors plants.

Even worse, 700 Teamsters employed at Allied in Ontario are now petitioning for a similar vote to switch to the CAW.

Local 938 Teamsters, members of our largest carhaul local, are angry with concessions and the recent deals to give up the long-standing border agreement and allow carriers to require US and Canadian Teamsters to deliver across the border. Gen Auto Teamsters were mad about an attempt to force carhaulers into a different pension plan.

Other bargaining units are also petitioning for the CAW; the Teamsters and CAW are battling over members at several locations.

Solidarity Is the Answer

Jumping ship is not the way to right the ship. There’s good reason for North American carhaulers to be in one union. The Teamsters Union needs to make the case to Allied drivers. It’s not too late but needs to happen fast.

Canadian drivers need to hear that the Teamsters Union will stop giving away the border agreement. They need to hear that in the event of a work stoppage, solidarity will span the border, with Teamster on both sides standing together. They need to hear that if members want to say No to concessions, that our union will back them up. And they need to hear that carhaulers can control their own pension plan.

That’s a message that will inspire Teamsters in both countries.

Stay in the loop. Click here to get email updates from the TDU Carhaul Committee.

June 08, 2009: WASHINGTON — Trucking interests Friday took traditional partisan stances over the nomination of Anne S. Ferro to be the next administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Click here to read more at TheTrucker.com.

May 29, 2009: Jack Cooper Teamsters got a new boss in May, when Active Acquisitions bought a majority stake in Jack Cooper Transport.

Michael Riggs in 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.

The new company will be called Cooper Active and employ about 1,000 Teamsters.

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.

May 29, 2009: When Ramp Management tried to bust our union, members fought back—and now they’re back at work.

Members of Local 325 covered by a yard agreement under the carhaul contract are going back to work with nearly $160,000 in back pay, thanks to a National Labor Board settlement.

In September, 2008, Ramp Management took over the yard and rail work for production out of the Chrysler Belvidere, Ill. plant. The company pointedly stated it would not hire any of the Teamsters who had worked for Auto Releasing.

Members and officers took action. Former BA Russ Hanson and union steward Mike McGee filed a charge with the NLRB.

The NLRB ruling forced the company to rehire the workers with back pay and recognize the existing union contract.

Beating the Union Busters

“I’m proud that my fellow Teamsters stood together and beat back this union busting,” commented McGee, “Ramp Management wasn’t playing fair and we made them pay.” McGee made sure to single out Hanson (a current carhauler) for praise.

McGee added, “The new local officers, the IBT, and the Joint Council are all taking some credit but it was really a couple of brave Teamsters by the names of Ryan Schroeder, and James Sanchez and our former agent who made this victory happen.”

Click here to read about the consolidation of Active and Jack Cooper.

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.

April 17, 2009: U.S. automakers said they are open to considering participation by auto haulers in the newly announced multibillion-dollar federal program aimed at stabilizing key parts suppliers.

“We’re now considering including haulers as an exception to the Tier One ‘production and raw materials’ supplier requirement,” said Chrysler spokesman Dave Elshoff in an April 9 e-mail to Transport Topics.

“While the Treasury program is mainly focused on Tier One direct material suppliers, GM is willing to explore opportunities to include logistics providers in the program,” General Motors spokesman Dan Flores said.

The Treasury Department announcement last week about the program that will give at least $2 billion to GM and $1.5 billion to Chrysler originally had been expected to help trucking directly, since car haulers are Tier One suppliers that do business directly with those companies.

“We are glad to see that Chrysler and General Motors are contemplating including their vehicle-carrier base in the guarantee of receivables,” said Robert Farrell, executivedirector of the Automobile Carriers Conference of American Trucking Associations.

“If GM and Chrysler do not allow their vehicle-carrier base to participate, they could increase the risk to the final mile of their vehicle supply chain and thus potential sales,” Farrell said.

“It is important that they [car haulers] be included, because otherwise carriers in need would be scrambling for liquidity to continue operations,” he added.

Chrysler’s Elshoff and GM’s Flores urged car haulers to contact the company if they are interested in participating.

Treasury said in a statement that the action “will help stabilize the auto-supply base and restore credit flows in a critical sector that employs more than 500,000 American workers across the country.”

“We have worked closely with Treasury as the program was developed,” GM’s Flores said. “We are pleased with it.”

Possible omission from the program is the latest adversity for car haulers. Several have filed for bankruptcy protection in recent years, and Performance Transportation Services Inc. went out of business last June after a Teamsters union strike.

The supplier support program, proposed to Treasury nearly two months ago by the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association and its affiliates, is being introduced as the two automakers fight to avoid bankruptcy amid a 38% first-quarter drop in sales.

Suppliers either can pay a 3% fee for a “quick pay” program or a 2% fee to have receivables guaranteed through the program, a Chrysler statement said.

“During this difficult period of restructuring in the auto industry, the supplier support program will provide supply companies with access to liquidity and protect good-paying American jobs,” Treasury said.

Bloomberg News said Ford Motor Co., which didn’t participate in the federal program, is developing its own program to aid its suppliers.

By Rip Watson, Senior Reporter

Reprinted from Transport Topics

April 10, 2009: We believe we can, even in these difficult times.

But carhaulers need a national plan and national leadership.

It may not be realistic to shut the door on all concessions because of the situation that we, and the companies, find ourselves in. If concessions are given, there needs to be a plan to survive the present and build union strength for the future. Part of any concessions should be a plan to protect union jobs, and a plan for a snap-back provision when the economic situation improves.

Instead we have Hoffa and other IBT leaders taking raises for themselves while they sit back and let companies break up our national contracts and destroy our jobs.

There has never been a time when a national plan of action from our union leadership has been so important. Tough times call for tough leadership.

Giving concessions on a terminal-by-terminal basis, with Teamster pitted against Teamster, while the union leadership hides in Washington—that is the opposite of leadership. That is the failure of the Hoffa administration.

March 2, 2009: Jack Cooper, operating as PMT in the West, has lost GM traffic in Los Angeles and Milpitas, Calif. to a nonunion outfit called Harbor Auto Transport. Over half of the drivers working have been laid off.

Los Angeles Local 63’s carhaul BA, Bob Doss, has consistently blamed the workers for not taking big concessions. The company continues to pressure the drivers to take a flat rate concession.

30-Day Notice

Jack Cooper has also royally screwed the owner-operators in Local 63. Management encouraged a number of drivers to buy brand-new trucks less than two years ago, to become “partners” with PMT. Now they have given the drivers 30 days notice of their lease cancellation. They did the same thing in Georgetown, Ky.

These Teamsters are stuck with payments on vehicles that cost over $200,000 at a time when there is no market to sell a car carrier.

They could be forced to take an enormous loss on the investment that management asked them to make.

Doss, their BA, won’t even return their calls for help, leaving the drivers on their own.

With excess capacity in the industry, companies are taking every advantage they can. And shippers are looking to increase nonunion market share. In tough times like this we need a union leadership with a plan more than ever. We don’t have that now.

March 2, 2009: With few carhaulers working, you would think that Jack Cooper would lay off management to bring the number in line with what is needed. In some areas they have, but at a few terminals they practically have one supervisor for every driver working. Before they blame Teamsters and demand more concessions, how about controlling the overhead costs?

March 2, 2009: It’s bad enough that the majority of Teamster carhaulers are not working; now Local 604 reports that an International auditor working for IBT Secretary-Treasurer Tom Keegel has told the local union they should increase the dues of working carhaulers.

St. Louis Local 604 has posted on their website (www.teamsters604.org) a letter from local Secretary-Treasurer John Thyer in response, stating that the local will decline to raise dues. Thyer’s letter reports that after a routine audit, the local was told that carhaulers should be paying dues based on their annual earnings, not on the contract hourly rate. For a carhauler who is working long hours and making good money, this could raise dues to $100 per month or more.

Thanks to Local 604 for blowing the whistle, to help kill this idea.