April 12, 2011: Fort Smith-based Arkansas Best Corp appealed the dismissal of its lawsuit against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and had its day in court this morning.

The company is still waiting on a ruling, said spokesman David Humphrey.

Click here to read more at First Arkansas News.

April 12, 2011: American Trucking Associations is endorsing a federal proposal that trucking companies use electronic logging devices to monitor drivers’ compliance with hours-of-service rules.

The group said it supported both legislation requiring the electronic logging equipment and a rule proposed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Click here to read more at Transport Topics.

April 7, 2011: More than a quarter-million dollars worth of marijuana was smuggled into Charlotte, Gaston County police said.

A drug-sniffing dog was drawn to beams at YRC Shipping Company on Reames Road, police said. Inside the beams, investigators said, they found 266 pounds of marijuana. The drugs were packed so tightly that investigators had to use battering ram to knock them out.

Click here to read more at wsoctv.

April 7, 2011: While Teamsters employed by YRC continue to suffer from drastic concessions, company executives are getting obscene payments.

In a filing with the Federal Security and Exchange Commission on April 1, YRC disclosed a payment of $229,500 to company executive Phil J. Gaines upon his taking a new role as Senior Vice President - CFO.

Click here to read more at Sandy Pope's campaign website.

March 31, 2011: The Central States, Southeast, and Southwest Areas Pension Fund, which administers pensions for some members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, March 22 announced major changes to the pension plan for IBT members employed at financially struggling trucking company YRC Worldwide Inc.

The changes were detailed in a memo addressed to “all local unions with YRCW participants” and signed by Thomas C. Nyhan, executive director of the pension fund. According to the memo, workers who retired or will retire on or after Sept. 24, 2010, no longer will be eligible to receive pension benefits after 25 or 30 years of service if they are younger than 65 (referred to as “25 and out” or “30 and out” provisions).

In addition, pension benefits will be reduced if workers retire prior to age 65. In addition to the loss of “all adjustable benefits, including 'and-out' benefits,” workers who retire will be “entitled to their '2 percent/1 percent' accrued benefit subject to an actuarial reduction from the normal retirement age (age 65) benefit for each year the Participant is below age 65 at the time of his retirement.”

Workers who retire before July 1, 2011, and are under 65 years of age will receive a 6 percent per year reduction in retirement benefits. Those who retire after that date and are under age 65 will be subject to benefit reductions determined by actuarial adjustment.

Teamsters members who retired prior to Sept. 24, 2010, are not affected by the changes, and will retain their current pension benefits.

YRCW Stopped Contributing in 2009.

Due to the company's poor financial situation, driven by the economic downturn, YRCW stopped contributing to worker pension plans in July 2009 after the company and the union reached agreement on contract modifications (134 DLR A-2, 7/16/09). Last fall, the union and the employer agreed to a restructuring plan that specified the company would resume pension contributions in June 2011, but at a lower rate (190 DLR A-8, 10/1/10).

The latest memo said this reduction in YRCW's contribution would amount to a decrease from $280 per week in June 2009 to $76 per week. Combined with other factors, YRCW's reduced contributions necessitated the most recently announced changes, the Central States Fund's memo said. The fund “expects to receive nearly $1.3 billion less in pension contributions over the life of the collective bargaining agreement which expires in March 2015,” the memo said.

Ken Paff, national organizer for Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a group that bills itself as a reform group representing the union's rank-and-file workers, characterized the cuts to the pension plan as “draconian,” and said March 29 that 64 percent of IBT-represented workers at YRC are in the Central States plan. As a result of these changes, he said, many workers will go from receiving about between $2,500 and $3,000 per month in pension benefits during retirement, to receiving less than half that, and some could even receive no pension benefits at all.

Paff said YRCW employees had for years been putting about $8 of each hour's wages into the pension fund, so the changes are particularly distressing. The workers' “whole lives are rearranged,” he said, likening the changes to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme that decimated countless peoples' savings.

TDU Blames Release of UPS Workers From Fund.

Aside from the YRCW's temporarily suspending its contributions to the pension plan, Paff said the Teamsters' releasing some 44,000 workers at United Parcel Service Inc. from the pension plan several years ago played a large role in the fund's poor financial situation. Because those workers were of “a younger demographic,” Paff said, the union's letting them out of the pension fund was akin to a health insurance company no longer covering healthy people, and having to pay more to cover older members, who get sick more often.

“The loss of 44,000 UPS full-time Teamsters from the Central States Fund was the sell-out that put the fund on the brink, and makes it harder for the fund to cut any slack to YRC Teamsters who have worked long and hard and earned a good pension,” TDU said in a March 25 post on its website.

Although Paff alleged that Teamsters President James Hoffa was responsible for the decision to release the UPS workers from the pension plan, IBT spokesman Galen Munroe said March 29 that change was “negotiated by committee.” Paff's group, which frequently criticizes Hoffa, is supporting a challenger, Sandy Pope, in the upcoming Teamsters presidential election.

Iain Gold, director of strategic research and campaigns for IBT, said March 29 TDU's allegations that the UPS workers leaving the pension fund had anything to do with the fund's dire financial straits was “absurd on so many levels.” Specifically, he said, at the time those workers left the pension fund, UPS agreed to pay a withdrawal liability to the fund, which added up to more than $6 billion over several years.

“The idea that Central States is worse off” because of the withdrawal of UPS workers from the plan “just doesn't make sense,” Gold said. He accused TDU and Paff of making “a political argument for ulterior motives.”

By Michael Rose

March 25, 2011: Central States is totally eliminating early retirement for YRC Teamsters and dropping them into the rock bottom plan.

Hoffa told YRC Teamsters to take givebacks. He never told them they would lose their already-earned pension credits.

On March 22 the Central States Pension Fund made it official: they slashed the pensions of YRCW Teamsters. YRC Teamsters still working or who retired after Sept. 24, 2010, will be put on the Central States “default schedule” of benefits. This means no more 25- or 30-and-out, no more $100 per year accrual for pre-2004 years. The only pension earned will be the 1%/2% accrual, and it will be payable at age 65.

Those who retired prior to Sept. 24 will be unaffected and retain their current benefit level.

Those retiring under age 65 will be hit with a six percent per year reduction if they retire before July 1. After July 1, the penalty for retiring under 65 will be worse: for example, retirement at age 62 will mean a 26 percent reduction from a pension that has been already reduced.

There is a “grandfather clause” to partially protect Teamsters who reached age 55 by July 9, 2009, and who had 25 or more years credit as of that date. They can retain their 25- and 30-and-out benefits, but only if they wait till age 62 to retire. Those who retired after September 24, 2010 at less than age 62, will be allowed to stop their payments till age 62, losing years of pension benefits if they retired early.

The announcement was contained in the fund’s bulletin 2011-4, available here. Also available is the fund’s January 2011 bulletin concerning the terms of its default schedule.

Teamsters have asked Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) to explore any possible legal remedies, which TDU will do. But Central States is good at covering their rear when it comes to litigation.

The Western Conference Fund

Some 64 percent of the YRCW Teamsters are covered by the Central States Fund. But others will be affected in various ways by actions of the other Teamster pension funds.

Reportedly the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust is not going to accept the reduced payments from YRC.

This will have an especially bad impact on those Western YRC Teamsters who had less than 25 years credit prior to July 2009, as the Western Fund will not allow early retirement for those with less than 25 years unless they earn 1,000 hours of credit in their last 24 months of employment.

Hoffa: Pension Protection or P.R.

These Teamsters have been led down a path of concessions, and never told that this path would lead them to have their already-earned pension credits taken away.

Hoffa came into office promising to “restore the power.” Instead he has consistently backpedaled, failed to organize, failed to protect the national contract or standards, and sold-out the pension fund to UPS management for his own political gain.

The loss of 44,000 UPS full-time Teamsters from the Central States Fund was the sell-out that put the Fund on the brink, and makes it harder for the fund to cut any slack to YRC Teamsters who have worked long and hard and earned a good pension.

Now many will not get that good pension, thanks to the sorry record of the Hoffa administration.

Will Hoffa fight to get this reversed? Will the IBT demand that YRC and Holland agree to allow recently retired workers to come back with their seniority, if their pensions have been stripped from them? We hope so.

As for Hoffa’s own pension, he will be able to retire with over a million in hand, paid by a special pension plan that is funded by members’ dues.

Hoffa Gets a Golden Parachute.
We Get the Rock Bottom Plan.

“Here’s the payoff Hoffa delivered for all the Teamsters at YRC and Holland—a reduced pension, and we have to work longer to get it.

“Bill Zollars, Hoffa and Tyson Johnson get golden parachute pensions. We get the rock bottom default package.

“Teamster members have every right to be steaming mad. It’s time to get rid of Hoffa and vote him out.”

Rusty Monahon, Holland, Local 100, Cincinnati

March 25, 2011: Freight Teamsters are angry. Some have given up hope. Others want to know “what can we do?”

And that is the right question to ask.

Sandy Pope meets with YRC Teamsters in ChicagoThe latest insult heaped on freight Teamsters is the big pension cut for YRC workers from the Central States Fund, and likely from other pension funds as well.

This comes after twelve years of neglect, mismanagement, and PR from Hoffa.

Members built this union. It’s up to us to save it. Here’s where to start:

1. Demand accountability from the IBT. Call your local union officers and ask them to demand that the IBT fight these cuts, and demand that YRC and Holland agree to allow recently retired workers to come back with their seniority, if their pensions have been stripped from them.

2. Help Hoffa retire. Be part of the Sandy Pope campaign. Sandy Pope started out in freight, worked with freight leader Sam Theodus, and knows how to win. You can join her team here.

3. Join Teamsters for a Democratic Union. Help be part of making things change for the better. Whether it is action to protect and restore pensions, getting information out to Teamsters, or uniting a movement to change the Teamster leadership, TDU is a must-have organization. Your joining will be doing a small part, and will only set you back $40. You can do it right now, right here.

March 23, 2011: The Central States Pension Fund made it official today—they slashed the pensions of YRCW Teamsters by putting them on the “default schedule.” The news is going to hit YRC Teamsters hard.

YRC Teamsters still working or who retired after September 24, 2010, will be put on the Central States “default schedule” of benefits. This means no more 25- or 30-and-out, no more $100 per year accrual for pre-2004 years. The only pension earned will be the 1%/2% accrual, and it will be payable at age 65.

Those who retired prior to September 24 will be unaffected and retain their current benefit level.

Those retiring under 65 will be hit with a 6% per year reduction if they retire before July 1. After July 1, the penalty for retiring under 65 will be worse: for example, retirement at age 62 will mean a 26% reduction from a pension that has been already reduced.

There is a “grandfather clause” to partially protect Teamsters who reached age 55 by July 9, 2009, and who had 25+ years credit as of that date. They can retain their 25- and 30-and-out benefits, but only if they wait till age 62 to retire. If they retired after September 24, 2010 at less than age 62, they will be allowed to stop their payments till age 62, losing years of pension benefits if they retired early.

This is detailed in a five-page letter from Central States director Thomas Nyhan. This is must-reading for all affected Teamsters.

Numerous Teamsters have asked Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) to explore any possible legal remedies, which TDU will do. But Central States is good at covering their rear when it comes to litigation.

Some 64 percent of YRCW Teamsters are covered by the Central States Fund. But others will be affected in various ways by actions of the other Teamster pension funds.

Reportedly the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust is not going to accept the reduced payments from YRC. This will have an especially bad impact on those Western YRC Teamsters who had less than 25 years credit prior to July 2009, as the Western Fund will not allow early retirement for those with less than 25 years unless they have 1000 hours of credit in their last two years of employment.

Hoffa: Pension Protection or P.R.

These Teamsters have been led down a path of concessions, and never told where that path would lead. Hoffa, Tyson Johnson, the Central States Fund... none of them told the truth to YRC Teamsters. For example, if YRC had gone out of business instead of getting the pension concessions, no pensions would be reduced. Who was told that by Hoffa, Tyson Johnson, or the Central States Fund?

Hoffa came into office promising to “restore the power.” Instead he has consistently backpedaled, failed to organize, failed to protect the national contract or standards, and sold-out the pension fund to UPS management for his own political gain.

The loss of 44,000 UPS full-time Teamsters from the Central States Fund was the sell-out which put the Fund on the brink, and makes it harder for the fund to cut any slack to YRC Teamsters who have worked long and hard, and earned a good pension. A good pension many will not get, thanks to the sorry record of the Hoffa administration.

Will Hoffa fight to get this reversed? Right now his enormous PR staff is working on who to blame and how to spin it, not how to help YRC Teamsters. As for his pension? It will provide at least a million dollar payout, every penny of it from members’ dues.

The Central States bulletin regarding the default schedule is available here.

March 22, 2011: Regional less-than-truckload carrier Holland will hire nearly 1,000 drivers this year as freight demand accelerates, the YRC Worldwide subsidiary said Monday.

Holland is seeking additional drivers to handle the rising regional LTL freight volume fueling a turnaround at YRC Worldwide's regional carrier group.

Click here to read more at The Journal of Commerce.

March 18, 2011: There are disturbing reports coming out of the Central States Pension Fund regarding the pensions of YRC and Holland Teamsters. Will they be put on the “default schedule,” which would eliminate all adjustable benefits, 25- and 30-and out?

We call on the Fund and the Hoffa administration, who signed and sold the YRC deal, to stand up for the YRC brothers and sisters.

“We were asked to approve this contract seven months ago. We were told it would at least get us some pension benefit back. Why are they waiting all this time to tell us what’s up?” asked Greg Smith, a YRC Teamster in Akron Local 24.

The Central States trustees considered the issue in early March, and will meet again soon. There is still time to do the right thing.

We urge them to take into account the long-term contributions these Teamsters have made to the pension fund and to our union. The Central States Fund covers the majority of YRC Teamsters, so this is a matter for the International Union to take very seriously. Hoffa and Freight Director Tyson Johnson arranged the deal and sold it to the members, so now they take responsibility for the consequences.

Thomas Nyhan, the Director of the Central States Fund, told the Kansas City Business Journal that YRCW Teamsters should hold off from retiring, because “They could retire thinking they’re going to get benefit structure A, and in three weeks, it would be benefit structure B and be substantially below what they think they’re going to get.”

Retiring at this time does not “lock in” pension benefits, because the fund would not only backdate the “default schedule” but they can go back one year earlier than that date to impose the cuts, impacting many Teamsters already retired. According to Nyhan, the fund is considering making September 2010 (when the Memorandum of Understanding was agreed to) the date YRC will be considered on the default schedule, so the impact could reach back into 2009.

Two weeks ago, Central States changed their website to calculate YRC Teamsters’ pensions differently. They now reflect the (lower) contribution-based benefit.

If our YRC brothers and sisters are put on the “default schedule” due to the lower level of contributions negotiated by the International Union, it could lead to drastic pension cuts for most YRCW Teamsters. These Teamsters have done all they can to save the union carrier, and all that the Hoffa administration has asked them to do.

Reportedly the Central States will consider some “grandfather” protection for YRC Teamsters near to retirement age, such as those with 25 years and age 55. That’s a start, but still leaves out a lot of Teamsters.

The Central States Fund’s details on the default schedule is available here.