NY-NJ TDU at Teamsters for a Democratic Union

Essential Workers Day of Action

Posted on News · May 07, 2020 3:48 PM

TDU members are joining unions and organizations nationwide to fight for an Essential Workers Bill of Rights, including hazard pay and workplace safety protections.

NY TDU

Posted on Take Action · September 14, 2017 9:51 AM

NY Teamsters for a Democratic Union is a worker-led, grassroots organization that mobilizes for workplace justice, living wages, democracy, and social movement unionism.

Our member-to-member organizing and grassroots base-building are guided by a vision of grassroots unionism and that partners with other unions and social justice and community movements to build power for all working families.

We're organizing rank-and-file Teamster workers to fight for higher wages, build power on the job, end corruption in our unions, and develop new leadership in the labor movement.

Clare Rose Beverage Workers Win 82-Day Strike

Posted on News · July 15, 2017 1:06 PM

Crack open a cold one — the 82-day Teamsters strike at a Long Island beer distributorship is finally over.

New York Furniture Movers Take On Waldner's

Posted on News · July 07, 2017 12:58 PM

A third-generation Long Island furniture store looking to move away from its union roots means a lot of family fingerpointing — on both sides.

Education for Teamster Power in NYC

Posted on News by · May 23, 2017 10:25 AM

One hundred Teamsters gathered in Queens, NY this last Sunday for a day-long Teamster Education Conference.

Part-Time UPS Worker Hopes to Raise Wages, Runs for Teamster Trustee

Posted on News by · October 29, 2016 12:46 PM

By Ginger Adams Otis, New York Daily News

A part-time UPS worker from Brooklyn is hoping to send his Teamsters union leadership a message on Nov. 15: “You’re out!”

Trinidadian-born Dave Loobie, 40, is the first part-time worker to ever run for a union position at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — one of the largest and most well-known labor organizations in the world.

New York Approves $15 Minimum Wage Plan

Posted on News · April 05, 2016 8:56 AM

The End Part-Time Poverty at UPS campaign celebrated a victory when New York approved a plan to raise the state minimum wage to $15. But UPS part-timers still have a long way to go to get the wages they deserve.

NY Public Workers: Management to Represent Teamsters?

Posted on News by · May 20, 2015 10:52 AM

May 20, 2015: Hoffa’s newest International Trustee hires a boss to help run the Teamsters’ biggest local.

Local 237 represents over 10,000 Teamsters at the New York City Housing Authority. So why would the local hire a NYCHA boss to a union post?

Local 237 President Greg Floyd hired Kevin Norman, as the Special Assistant to the President, a top leadership position in the largest local in the Teamsters.

Norman was previously in upper management at the New York City Housing Authority where he terminated Local 237 members. Now he’s advising Floyd on providing union representation?

Norman used his NYCHA post to act as Floyd’s enforcer. During last year’s Local 237 election, he issued an email directive to NYCHA management personnel instructing them to throw rank-and-file candidates who were running against Floyd off of the grounds, in violation of New York labor law.

“If any such individual refuses to leave the property, the supervisors should request assistance from the NYPD in having them removed,” Norman ordered.

With the ballots counted, Floyd hired Norman as his top assistant.

The move is part of a larger Local 237 shakeup. Floyd fired several Union Representatives who came out of the ranks and replaced them with non-Teamsters.

Floyd has a good trick to make sure those fired union reps don’t campaign against him: he paid them a healthy severance check, but on the condition that they sign a “gag order.” The members’ own dues money goes to prevent members from hearing what the former reps may have to say.

Norman isn’t the only one with a new Teamster post. Hoffa appointed Greg Floyd in April to be an International Union Trustee. That means another $75,000 salary and an additional lucrative pension.

Local 237 members who want their local to be run by union members, not NYCHA bosses, continue to organize for change.

New York's most famous rat

Posted on Media · January 09, 2015 7:24 AM

Tobin Low

Marketplace

January 09, 2015

View the original piece

It's a chilly day in midtown Manhattan, but union organizer Julian Tysh is undeterred. He's here representing Teamsters Local 814 to protest businesses that hire non-union movers. And he's not alone.

After unfurling what looks like an inflatable mattress, he pulls the cord on a small engine, and a balloon begins to take shape: first the belly, then the claws, then the buck teeth, and finally the yellow eyes.

Click here to read more at Marketplace

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Getting Part-Timers Involved: an interview with Local 804 steward Kioma Forero

Posted on News by · January 08, 2015 6:18 AM

January 8, 2015: Stewards in your building have had a lot of success in winning grievances and getting more members involved. How do you do it?

A lot of our organizing is done from our parking lot meetings held every other Thursday and Friday.

What do you do at the parking lot meetings?

The topics depend on what the most important issues are at work that week. One week it could be management cracking down on attendance, another it could be on policies and procedures. We’re responding to what members are dealing with that week.

We deal with supervisors working a lot. When sups working becomes a problem, we’ll have a meeting and explain the violation and contract language. We’ll do a grievance training, taking members through the whole process, from gathering facts, filing the grievance, and what the procedure is. Members get the tools to file grievances, get their grievance pay, and learn how to enforce the contract.

During the last contract negotiations, we used the meetings to survey members on what their issues were, answer members questions about proposals and the negotiation process and to explain what’s in the new contract.

There are so many problems at UPS. How do you choose where to focus?

We pick the hot issues—ones that effect a lot of members, ones that people feel strongly about. And we look for issues where we can win and make a difference for people.

You can’t deal with everybody and every issue, so I try to find the people who are interested and want to know more and the ones who want to work with others and build the union. I try to mentor women, too. There’s a new assistant steward and you can tell she has what it takes to be a really good leader.

What would you say to people who say you can’t get part-timers involved?

I’d ask them if they were ever a part-timer and remember what it was like!

Part-timers get involved in my local because we’re taking on our issues—supervisors working, the need for more full-time jobs, harassment. You’ve got to get to know the problems part-timers are dealing with and address them before you jump to conclusions about parttimers not being involved.

There was record turnout from part-timers in our last local election, because our side [the incumbent slate, Members United—ed.] campaigned on winning more full-time jobs. Part-timers voted big in the election and we ended up winning 150 new full-time jobs in the new contract.

Local 804 had a bus full of members attend the TDU Convention. How has TDU helped you educate members?

TDU gives members the bigger picture on what it takes to make the union stronger, on the need to reform the whole union. The TDU Conventions empower members and gives them tips on the nuts and bolts of winning grievances and organizing. They like being with other members who are working to make the union stronger too.

Sign up for email updates at www.tdu.org and like us on facebook.

NY-NJ TDU

Essential Workers Day of Action

NY TDU

Clare Rose Beverage Workers Win 82-Day Strike

New York Furniture Movers Take On Waldner's

Education for Teamster Power in NYC

Part-Time UPS Worker Hopes to Raise Wages, Runs for Teamster Trustee

New York Approves $15 Minimum Wage Plan

NY Public Workers: Management to Represent Teamsters?

New York's most famous rat

Getting Part-Timers Involved: an interview with Local 804 steward Kioma Forero

I am TDU

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