January 30, 2008: A new study from Labor Notes magazine shows the power transportation workers have in the new economy.

Truck drivers at HUDD Distribution walked off the job December 17 at the company’s facilities in South Gate and Mira Loma, California.

The Cargo ChainThe drivers, primarily Latino immigrants known as troqueros, shuttle goods between the massive port of Los Angeles/Long Beach and the company’s inland warehouses.

Drivers were protesting a company move to unilaterally modify their contracts, cutting wages in tandem with reducing freight insurance. Port truckers, while often tied to a single company, are classified as independent contractors rather than employees, making it impossible to form a union under existing labor law.

HUDD drivers stayed off the job for almost two weeks, but quickly found themselves in the crosshairs. Within days the terminal operator APM, another division of A.P. Moller-Maersk, had contracted with a different trucking company to move the idle shipping containers inland. Then on December 28 the drivers’ bid for solidarity from local longshore workers was quashed when an arbitrator ordered dockworkers back to work just hours after they refused to cross the truckers’ picket line.

Global Network

The situation for the troqueros is just the latest example of workers squeezed by the titans of the global economy. A.P. Moller-Maersk is the world’s largest shipper, moving close to 15 percent of cargo in and out of the United States. A majority of the containers HUDD transports are for Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer.

The Cargo Chain explores the ever-expanding network of ship hands, longshore workers, truck drivers, railroad operators, and warehouse workers that make the global marketplace possible. To the average consumer, these workers are practically invisible, but they are at the crossroads of today’s economy, moving billions of dollars of goods daily.

And their importance is growing, judging by the surge of goods moving in and out of the country. Just one example is the number of containers—the 40-foot steel boxes that hold everything from flat-panel televisions to scrap metal—that enter and leave the United States, a figure that has doubled in the past 10 years.

Just In Time Leverage

This growth is the result of a strategy by retailers like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Target to create a seamless supply chain, slashing inventories and delivering goods “just in time” to the customer. Ships, intermodal yards, and trucks have been transformed into mobile warehouses.

While adding to the corporate bottom line, this has put tremendous pressure on an already over-stretched transportation network, increasing the risk of disruption—and the costs that go with it—as well as amplifying the potential power of workers.

One recent flash point was last year’s strike by conductors at Canadian National, Canada’s largest rail carrier. The two-week walkout cut container traffic in half at the Port of Vancouver and caused major disruptions across Canada’s grain, forest products, chemical, plastics, gas, and auto industries. The stakes were so high that a week into the strike federal legislators ratified back-to-work legislation, strengthening the company’s hand in bargaining.

Employers on the Move

Companies also recognize the potential power for workers in the cargo chain, and are taking steps today to protect tomorrow’s profit. A key goal is to expand shipping options so cargo isn’t bottlenecked by a strike, storm, or natural disaster. As the HUDD drivers quickly discovered, shippers already can effectively pit non-union short-haul drivers against one another.

But employers are also searching for more ways to route cargo through ports or overland, a move that will temper the power of unionized workers on the docks, the railroads, and the highways. APM is building a new $250 million terminal in Mobile, Alabama, at the same time that terminals in Houston, Norfolk, Virginia, and Savannah, Georgia, are being greatly expanded.

Railroad companies are working with the Department of Transportation to create massive rail yards, renovate track, and raise overpasses to make way for rail cars that carry two containers stacked on top of each other. Norfolk Southern now has a direct line from the Virginia ports to Chicago and the Midwest since overpasses were raised to make way for “double stack” rail cars.

Companies are also using new technology to cut jobs and shift control of the work from people onto machines. At a newly expanded terminal in Norfolk, for example, yard cranes run without an operator, using GPS technology, cameras, and computers. Rubber-tire gantry and rail-mounted gantry cranes can stack containers seven high and six wide, delivering containers to trucks or rail cars. Six cranes can be operated at once from a computer booth inside the terminal.

Underscoring Solidarity

These developments only deepen the need for solidarity among workers in the cargo chain, union and non-union alike.

One key test will be the fight to defend standards on the docks at the bargaining table. In July the contract for West Coast longshore workers expires, and the memory of the 10-day employer lockout in 2002 is lingering over current talks. East Coast longshore workers face an equally important contract deadline in 2010, which will either reverse or reinforce the two-tier wage system put in place during the last round of negotiations.

An even more daunting question is whether unionized workers in the freight network will be able to harness their power to organize non-union workers like the HUDD troqueros.

by Mark Brenner, Labor Notes Magazine

Editor’s Note: Labor Notes is pleased to announce the release of The Cargo Chain — a joint project with the Longshore Workers’ Coalition and the Center for Urban Pedagogy. This pamphlet examines the network of workers and machines that move goods across the globe, the potential power this system creates for labor, and what companies are doing to undermine this power.

Click here to download a map of the US cargo chain.

December 17, 2007: Charged with embezzling members’ money, Don Hahs faces harsher punishment now that the Independent Review Board has rejected a proposed settlement as too light.

In September, the IRB charged Hahs, the president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), with embezzling over $58,000 in members’ money.

The IRB instructed Hoffa to conduct an internal hearing to hear the charges against Hahs. Instead Hahs cut a deal with Hoffa to repay about $40,000 and take a six-month suspension.

The IRB called the deal insufficient, and told Hoffa to re-convene the three-member panel.

From 2004 to 2006, the IRB Chief Investigator charged that Hahs spent $47,880 on tickets to Cleveland Cavs basketball games for his personal use.

The IRB charges also include:

• A three-day fishing trip in Alaska. Hahs was in Alaska for one day for a meeting then cut out for a fishing trip.
• Taking his wife on union trips. Since 2004, Hahs charged the union $7,951.97 for his wife’s tickets and meals.
• A week-long trip to Las Vegas with his wife that cost $1,677.77. Hahs and the union have no record of the reason for his trip.
• $923 in hotel room movies. Hahs says his grandson enjoyed them; Hahs often brought his grandson along at union expense.

If Hahs is found guilty, he will face a harsher penalty, up to possible expulsion from the union.

Click here to read more in the BNA Daily Labor Report.

December 17, 2007: The Independent Review Board Dec. 13 rejected an agreement between International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers President Don Hahs for disciplinary action against Hahs on charges of financial misconduct.

John J. Cronin, Jr., administrator of the IRB, the court-supervised panel that oversees anticorruption efforts at the Teamsters, told BNA late Dec. 13 that the review board had rejected the plan as insufficient, but did not elaborate. However, Cronin said board members were clearly disappointed that Hoffa had not followed the board's Sept. 13 recommendation that he convene an internal union panel to hear evidence against Hahs, and recommend its own disciplinary action.

Instead of convening the internal union panel, Hoffa reached an agreement with Hahs in which Hahs agreed to accept a six-month suspension from union office and to pay restitution for improper expenses charged to the BLE treasury between 2004 and 2006, IBT spokesman Galen Munroe said Dec. 13. The plan was submitted to the IRB for its approval around Dec. 1, Munroe said.

In its Sept. 13 investigative report and recommendation, the board charged that Hahs caused the Cleveland-based BLE--which merged with the Teamsters in 2004-- to purchase professional basketball tickets for his own personal use, and that Hahs improperly charged his wife's travel expenses to the union (184 DLR A-5, 9/24/07 ). The report characterized these expenditures, which totaled about $57,000, as "embezzling union funds."

Cronin said he was unaware of the full terms of Hoffa-Hahs agreement, other than that Hahs would return to union office at end of the six-month suspension, and that the amount of the restitution would total approximately $40,000.

John Bentley, a spokesman for BLE, told BNA Dec. 13 that the Hoffa-Hahs agreement went into effect Dec. 1, and that Hahs is suspended without pay until May 31, 2008.

"In accordance with an agreement reached with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, National President D.M. Hahs has agreed to accept a six-month suspension," the union said in a statement.

"In accordance with [BLE's] Section 8(a)-National Division Rules, E. [Edward] W. Rodzwicz will assume the duties of and serve as National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers," according to the BLE statement.

Bentley declined further comment.

Independent Review Board

The next step in the case is up to IBT and BLE, Cronin told BNA. The review board is not empowered to order the union to impose any specific remedy, he said, but does have broad authority to accept or reject any disciplinary action taken by the union.

The three-member board--made up of former Attorney General Benjamin R. Civiletti, former U.S. Attorney Joseph E. diGenova, and former FBI Director William H. Webster--does have the power to impose punishment on its own, Cronin said, but this step is rarely taken and is subject to approval by Judge Loretta A. Preska of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

BLE comes under the jurisdiction of the board, which was established in a 1989 consent decree settling corruption charges brought by the government against IBT, because of the Jan. 1, 2004, merger of the rail union with the Teamsters (235 DLR A-11, 12/8/03 ), according to the board's Sept. 13 investigative report. The merger established the 59,000-member BLE as a division within IBT's Rail Conference.

December 11, 2007: Charged with embezzling $58,000 in members’ money, BLET president Don Hahs has made a settlement with the International Union for a six-month suspension. This deal, however, has not yet been finally approved.

In September, the Independent Review Board (IRB) charged Hahs, the president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, with embezzling union funds.

Hahs admits that he spent the money on everything from Cleveland Cavalier season tickets to a fishing expedition to Alaska. His excuse—former BLET presidents have done the same for years.

On Nov. 28, Hahs signed a deal with Hoffa to take a six-month suspension from his office, and to repay all the embezzled funds. Hahs was supposed to have his case heard by a Teamster panel on Dec. 3.

The case is not closed yet. The IRB still has to approve or reject Hahs’ deal. The IRB can send the deal back to the Teamsters for a harsher sentence.

From 2004 to 2006, the IRB Chief Investigator charged that Hahs spent $47,880 on tickets to Cleveland Cavs basketball games. Hahs kept the tickets in his desk, and he only gave them out to other BLET employees “at the last minute when he could not use the tickets himself,” according to the IRB.

The IRB charges also include:

• A three-day fishing trip in Alaska. Hahs was in Alaska for one day for a meeting then cut out for a fishing trip.
• Taking his wife on union trips. Since 2004, Hahs charged the union $7,951.97 for his wife’s tickets and meals.
• A week-long trip to Las Vegas with his wife that cost $1,677.77. Hahs and the union have no record of the reason for his trip.
• $923 in hotel room movies. Hahs says his grandson enjoyed them; Hahs often brought his grandson along at union expense.

Whatever the final outcome, it appears that Hahs has a problem with misusing the members’ money.

Click here to read more in Traffic World.

December 11, 2007: Teamster engineers have voted down an early deal in a close vote on the Norfolk Southern.

BLET negotiators asked members to accept a new contract that would last until 2014, but rank-and-file Teamsters voted down the proposed deal by 1,143 votes No to 1,050 votes Yes. The current on-property agreement does not expire until 2009.

The proposed agreement would have continued a controversial bonus pay system, but reduced the bonus after 2009. Under the bonus system, members are paid a bonus in lieu of wage increases, based on financial goals set by the company. One engineer complained on the web: “We assume all the risk and the NS risks ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.”

The proposed agreement also contained language that could take away vacations from some engineers off work for illness or disability. Plus, the agreement failed to guarantee the work of yard engineers. Yard Teamsters voted heavily against the agreement.

BLET officials campaigned hard for a big Yes vote. In a letter supporting the deal, BLET Vice President Marcus Reuf called members who opposed the contract “haters.”

In the end, enough BLET members decided to hold out for a better deal.

With this deal rejected, will the General Chairmen reach out to the members to find out what they want? Many members want a more secure wage structure, and they are worried about the rising cost of insurance premiums. Working conditions were once again completely ignored in this agreement.

It’s not clear if the BLET will return to the table right away, or if they will wait until the expiration is closer.

One thing is for sure: if Norfolk Southern wants an early deal, we need to use that leverage to win gains in our new contract—not to bargain away our hard-fought standards.

Click here to get rail updates from Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

December 5, 2007: Rail labor activists from across North America are coming together to form a new cross-craft inter-union caucus that includes all rail workers in North America—Railroad Workers United.

by Ron Kaminkow, BLET Division 51
Amtrak, Reno., Nev.

“We have been divided—craft against craft, union against union, terminal against terminal—for too long,” says Joe Wyman, UTU trainman in Tucson, Ariz. “We will be stronger by including all railroaders in North America.”

The RWU will be a membership organization. Membership is open to all members of any railroad union, including the BLET and the BMWED, rail crafts that have joined the Teamsters.

The new group got its start thanks to Railroad Operating Crafts United (ROCU), a group founded in 2005 to end the warfare between the BLET and the UTU.

“Rather than continue to beat our heads against the wall in face of the determination of the officials of the BLET and the UTU to remain separate and at war with each other, we decided to put our energy into building an organization that includes all rail labor,” says Ed Michael, an engineer in BLET Div. 724.

“We are not creating another rail union,” explains Jon Flanders, a Machinist in Selkirk, N.Y. “Instead, we are creating an industry-wide caucus where we can all come together to help each other build the solidarity, support, democracy and strength that is missing in our individual craft unions.”

The new group will work to build solidarity among all railroad workers, including:

• Support movements for democracy within the rail unions;
• Build unity at the next round of bargaining;
• Support candidates who actively support RWU goals for leadership positions in the various unions;
• Support mergers between rail unions where they make sense;
• Build local chapters in terminals to recruit members and build solidarity;
• Get behind national legislative campaigns that would benefit rail workers and facilitate union organizing.

RWU has drawn up a “Statement of Principles” to act as a guide to its work, which include unity of all railroad crafts, an end to inter-union conflict, rank-and-file democracy, and coordinated bargaining.

The founding convention of RWU is scheduled to take place Friday, April 11, 2008, at the Labor Notes Conference in Detroit that weekend.

For more information, including a copy of the RWU Statement of Principles, call RWU at 206-984-3051, or go to www.railroadworkersunited.org.

November 9, 2007: The BLET Norfolk Southern General Committees have negotiated an early deal with the carrier—over two years before the current on-property agreement is set to expire.

Here’s what’s in the tentative contract:

Wages. The deal increases wages 2 percent in 2008; 2 percent in 2010, 2011, and 2012; 2.5 percent in 2013; and 3 percent in 2014. There is no wage increase for 2009. Those wage increases won’t be enough to keep up with inflation.

Bonus. The contract continues the controversial NS bonus program, but it reduces the amount of the bonus from 15 to 10 percent for 2010, 2011, and 2012. The program pays out only if the company reaches its financial goals. This extra money is not counted toward pay increases—so it does not build over time.

This year engineers are likely to get only a third of their potential bonus. One engineer complained about the bonuses on the web: “We assume all the risks and the NS risks ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.”

Vacation. The new agreement increases vacation time, but it also adds restrictive new language that could take away vacations from some engineers off work for illness or disability. Plus, the company will stop counting overtime toward days worked for vacation.

Scope Agreement. The contract guarantees engineers work outside of the yard. But it fails to guarantee the work of yard engineers. Remote control operation—jobs guaranteed to the UTU—has already eliminated many engineer jobs in the yard. Over a period of time, the new agreement even concedes control over the conventional engines within yard limits.

“Why are we signing this agreement now?” asked Hugh Sawyer, local chairman in BLET Div. 316. “No member has been consulted about this contract. We have two more years to go. We should use that time to win a stronger agreement—including wage gains and quality of life improvements that have already been won on other railroads.”

The current on-property agreement expires in 2009. The tentative agreement would run until the end of 2014.

Ballots are already in the mail for rail Teamsters to decide on the tentative agreement. Ballots have to be received by December 5.

Teamster engineers who want to send negotiators back to the table should vote No on this tentative agreement.

Click here to contact TDU's National Rail Chapter.

September, 17, 2007: The president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) Don Hahs has been charged with embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from the union.

Hahs spent the money to pay for everything from Cleveland Cavs tickets to a fishing expedition to Alaska. The Independent Review Board (IRB) issued the charges on September 13.

Hahs has been a Hoffa International Rep since the BLET merged with the Teamsters in 2004. His career is likely coming to an end.

From 2004 to 2006, the IRB found Hahs spent $47,880 on tickets to Cleveland Cavaliers basketball games. Hahs kept the tickets in his desk, and he only gave them out to other BLET employees “at the last minute when he could not use the tickets himself,” according to the charge.

Hahs also charged the union for:

• A three-day fishing trip in Alaska. Hahs was in Alaska for one day for a meeting then cut out for his fishing trip.
• Taking his wife on union trips. Since 2004, Hahs charged the union $7,951.97 for his wife’s tickets and meals.
• A week-long trip to Las Vegas with his wife that cost $1,677.77. Hahs and the union have no record of any union purpose of their excursion.
• $923 in hotel room movies. Hahs says his grandson enjoyed them; he often brought his grandson along on his trips at union expense.

Hahs claimed he brought his wife along on trips so that she could report back to the Grand International of Auxiliary, the BLET’s spouses association. But the officers of the GIA reported “that Mrs. Hahs never gave any presentations or updates at any GIA meetings about this trip or any other meetings she had attended.”

Altogether, the IRB investigation indicates that Hahs embezzled over $58,000 from the union.

Hoffa now has to decide whether to hold a hearing on the charges, or dodge the issue and let the IRB handle it. If Hahs is found guilty of the charges, the punishment may well be expulsion from the Teamsters.

“Don Hahs has shamed our union, but this is also an opportunity,” said Ed Michael from BLET Division 724. “Don Hahs’s outrageous waste of our dues money and resources has to end. Our remaining leaders have a unique opportunity to begin creating trust and respect at every level of the BLET.

“Hopefully our next BLET President will put our members first.”

Click here to read the full report from the IRB.

July 12, 2007: by Jim Eubanks and Ed Michael: The United Transportation Union (UTU), the main union for conductors on the railways, is proposing a merger with the Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA).

Why is the UTU so eager to merge with the SMWIA when they have a natural merger partner sitting across the engine cab from their members—the Teamster engineers in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen? A merger with the BLET makes much more sense.

We’re members of both unions because we think it’s time to come together. We’re getting beat up by the divide and conquer strategies of the carriers. A merger between the BLET and the UTU would end the destructive war between the two unions.

It turns out that this merger is less about building power for our rail workers—and more about business as usual at the UTU.

It’s All about the Money

The UTU is having trouble paying for the outrageous salaries we pay to our top officers.

Last year, Paul Thompson, UTU International President, made $258,093. And Thompson’s not the only one making big money. In 2006, the eight lowest-paid Vice Presidents each made $137,094.

International officers also get an extra pension on top of Railroad Retirement.
These salaries and pensions are costing us a lot. In 2004, for example, the UTU put $7.53 million in the officers’ pension fund—that’s almost half of our total dues for 2004.

Trim the Fat

We know how to cut down these expenses.

The Blue Ribbon Committee charged with examining our finances recommended that we cut eight VPs off the payroll. They reported: “Our review of International officer assignments and their annual reports clearly indicates that there is insufficient work to support maintaining the current number of full-time officers.”
Here’s the catch: these recommendations will not take effect until the end of this year. If the merger passes, these officers will keep their old jobs under new names.

Put Teamster Power To Work on the Rails

This year, Teamster engineers went through another round of national negotiations without the support of our natural allies, the conductors. We paid the price with a contract that leaves us paying more for our healthcare.

In addition, Teamster engineers on some railroads have ratified a side agreement that appears to open the way to single-person train crews.

The merger with the SMWIA is a dead end for conductors and engineers. The fights between the UTU and the BLET will not stop. Those fights will leave us both weak and divided.

We do need a merger—but not with the SMWIA. A UTU-BLET merger would put our unions back on the right track.

June 13, 2007: The deal that ended a strike by Canadian Pacific Railway track workers includes bonuses but kept to the railway's pre-strike wage demands, according to documents distributed on Monday.

CP dropped demands for changes in seniority rules, but won changes in health insurance co-payments, according to copies of the tentative contract being sent to the 3,200 workers for a ratification vote.

The three-year deal, which is retroactive to the end of 2006, includes annual wage hikes of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3 percent. The Teamsters union said CP will also pay bonuses of 1 percent in all three years and higher expense payments.

The workers staged a three-week strike that ended June 6 with the tentative agreement. Results of the ratification vote are expected in mid-July.

CP has said it wants all its unionized employees held to annual wage hikes of 3 percent, although the railway offered 4 percent in the second year in return for the health insurance co-payments, according to the documents.