$150,000 Club Report
Each year the Teamster Rank and File Education and Legal Defense Foundation (TRF) analyzes hundreds of LM-2 financial reports and IRS 990 tax forms, which have been filed by locals, joint councils, conferences, and the IBT.
Then we publish the 150,000 Club Report, an annual report of Teamster officers who make more than $150,000. This information is factual and nonpartisan, and includes complete listing of every officer we have salary data for.
Hoffa, Hall and top Teamster officials delivered concessions to members—but provided raises and multiple salaries for themselves.
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James Hoffa and Ken Hall spent their time this year telling Teamsters to take concessions-wage cuts, longer wage progressions, healthcare, and pension cuts.
You've heard them, “Times are tough. We all have to tighten our belts.”
But the belt-tightening stops at Hoffa and Hall's door. And so do the big bucks.
Hoffa hiked his pay by more than $6 an hour last year—an increase of $13,539 in just one year. His total annual compensation is now a whopping $381,403.
Hoffa’s salary is limited by language in the Teamster constitution, but he gets around that by taking a “housing allowance” of $60,000.
Hoffa paid an extra salary to 99 of his appointees—each of whom had other full-time salary and job. The cost of those multiple salaries:
$3 million.
In all, 44 Teamster officials made over $200,000 last year, an 8 percent increase.
The Teamster Hypocrisy Award goes to …
The fattest hogs in the Teamsters were among the biggest promoters of concessions.
Pat Flynn and Mike Sweeney of Chicago Local 710 took home nearly $1 million last year from one local union. Flynn’s compensation was $503,435 and Sweeney's was $387,349. They each took a raise of well over $100,000.
During the same year, they tried to convince most of their members to take concessions, at YRC, ABF, Holland, UPS Freight, and UPS. In every case, the Local 710 members voted No.
Flynn’s Teamster career is now over thanks to embezzlement charges by the Independent Review Board (IRB). Sweeney faces charges too. They won't be missed.
But many other Teamster officials sold contract concessions to working Teamsters while taking pay increases themselves. Take a look at the $150,000 Club and you'll see them.
Teamster Perks or Teamster Power?
Many Teamster officials work long hours and they deserve to be fairly compensated. Union leadership is not easy.
Teamster members work hard too. Our dues money should be used to build Teamster Power—not perks for select officers.
When Hoffa first ran for office, he promised to “cut n cap” overly high salaries. But since he’s been in office, Hoffa has jacked his pay up again and again.
He promised to cut multiple salaries. But when he took office, the International paid only a halfdozen salaries to appointees who had other full time jobs. That number has ballooned to 99.
The Teamster officials who get multiple salaries read like a who's who of Hoffa campaign donor list. That’s no coincidence.
TDU believes our dues money should be used to organize, fight concessions and win good contracts.
Hoffa and Hall use our dues to promote concessions and buy support from local officials.
It’s up to Teamster members to take back our union—and put our dues to work for us.
They Don’t Have a Clue
“When I look over this list, I see Ken Hall and so many other officers that negotiated the UPS contract and supplements. It’s true they got part timers a raise but with their salaries and benefits, most of these officers don’t have a clue as to what it’s like to work for $11/hour. They’re out of touch with the membership and it shows in how little they fought for us.”
Kurt Marchetta, UPS Part-time
Local 542, San Diego
Put Dues to Work for the Members
“When we elected new officers in my local, they cut their salaries by $300,000 and put that money into contract campaigns and new organizing. The Teamsters should be putting our dues to work for the members.”
Armando Brasil, Rhode Island Hospital
Local 251, Providence
Click here to get the 2012 Report.
Click here to get the 2011 Report.
UPS Full-Time Jobs Update
September 25, 2014: Despite growing volume, UPS has shrunk the Teamster workforce.
When the recession hit in 2008, UPS went lean and mean. They reduced hiring, implemented new technology, increased harassment, and eliminated full-time jobs.
Management’s goal was to boost profits by squeezing more work from fewer workers. They’ve succeeded.
Last year, UPS Teamsters delivered 1.4 million more packages every day compared to 2009. And we did it, with one thousand fewer UPS Teamsters on the payroll, according to the company’s own annual reports.
A review of Teamster pension fund data shows the biggest shrinkage came in full-time jobs. Package drivers weren’t replaced when they retired; full-time 22.3 jobs were eliminated altogether.
UPS Teamsters filed hundreds of grievances on 22.3 job elimination, but the Hoffa administration refused to enforce the contract.
“Frankly, it’s not the right time,” to enforce Article 22.3 Package Division Director Ken Hall said. “Even though we think we’re right, we don’t want to roll the dice with an arbitrator.”
UPS management got the message. From 2009 to 2011, UPS shed 9,000 Teamsters from the payroll. Ground volume grew by 3 percent during the same period.
The wheels finally came off the truck at peak last year. Understaffed and underprepared management suffered a very public meltdown.
That debacle and growing pressure from Amazon and other e-commerce customers is finally making UPS do what Hoffa and Hall would not: create more full-time jobs.
After years of little to no hiring, members are moving into the package and feeder ranks.
Hall tried to take credit for the hiring in a press release, saying that UPS made the move “in the face of strong Teamster enforcement of the new National Master UPS Agreement.” Yeah, right.
If Hall is really in the mood for “strong, contract enforcement,” maybe he will finally require UPS to turn over a report of all 20,000 fulltime 22.3 jobs the company owes under the contract—and share that information with every local union.
UPS is required to maintain over 20,000 full-time 22.3 jobs nationally. Without that report, members have no way of knowing how many of the 22.3 jobs have been created and no way of enforcing the contract.
To gear up for peak, UPS is hiring a record 95,000 seasonal employees.
In an unusual move, Teamster retirees have been given the green light by the IBT-UPS Pension Fund, the New England Pension Fund, the Local 688 Pension Fund and others to come back to work as seasonal feeder drivers while collecting pension benefits at the same time.
UPS will be ready for peak. They can’t afford another rerun of last year. But what comes next?
Under Hoffa and Hall, UPS is delivering more packages with less Teamsters—and fewer full-time jobs. It’s time for a u-turn.
Full-Time Jobs Giveaway Hurts Our Pensions
Teamster pension funds are paying the price for full-time job elimination.
September 25, 2014: More ground deliveries should mean more full-time jobs—and more participants in Teamster pension funds. But a review of pension data shows what’s happening is just the opposite. As ground volume has grown in recent years, the number of full-time jobs has fallen.
The IBT-UPS Pension Fund covers 45,000 UPS Teamsters in the Central Region and South. It’s the largest Pension Fund in the country that covers only UPS full-timers—making it a good barometer of full-time job growth. From 2009 to 2012, the number of Teamsters in the IBT-UPS Fund fell by 2,887—a six percent drop.
Over the exact same period, ground volume grew by six percent. More packages—but fewer full-time jobs.
The story is even worse in the New Jersey Local 177 Pension Fund—the next largest fund that exclusively covers UPS full-timers.
From 2007 to 2012, the number of Teamsters in the Local 177 Fund fell by almost 11 percent—a loss of 421 full-time jobs in one local.
UPS saved money on payroll and on pension contributions—and the Local 177 pension plan paid the price. Contribution hours dropped from 7.8 million a year to just 6.9 million, costing the Pension Fund millions of dollars in lost contributions.
The pension fund's actuaries issued repeated warnings, that “There have been very few new hires” and warned of the negative impact on the fund’s health.
The problem wasn’t the stock market. For the last decade, the Local 177 Pension Fund has earned an average rate of return on investments of 5.22%. Pretty good, considering that like every pension plan, Local 177 took a big hit when the housing bubble burst in 2008.
But even solid stock market returns can’t make up for a shrinking jobs base. The real problem is UPS not replacing Teamsters who retired.
In 2001, for every 59 retirees collecting a pension in Local 177, UPS was paying pension contributions for 100 Teamsters who were working full-time. By 2012, there were 100 retirees for every 100 working Teamsters.
Pension Changes
As part of the new contract, Local 177 members voted to divert 30¢ of their wage increase into the pension fund.
As a result of the wage diversion, the Pension Fund was able to increase pension benefits by $400 a month. But these increases are being paid for by Local 177 members, not UPS.
The Local 177 Pension Fund has also changed the rules so that members have to work 2080 hours to get a full pension credit.
Local 177 officials said this change was needed because growing numbers of members were skipping work and shorting the fund needed pension contributions.
But that explanation doesn’t jibe with the Pensions Fund’s own records which show that the average worker is actually getting more pension hours contributed on their behalf every year—not less.
In 2001, members averaged just 1,791 hours of contributions; today that number is 1,981.
The result of the new 2,080 rule is that the average Local 177 member will have to work longer to retire. At the current rate, the average Local 177 UPSer will have to work 26 years to be able to retire with 25 years of pension credit: a whole extra year at Big Brown.
UPS workers have paid a steep price for the declining number of full-time jobs—and so have our pension funds.
Rebuilding Labor from Below
A review of Save Our Unions: Dispatches from a Movement in Distress, by Steve Early
September 25, 2014: It’s no secret that the U.S. labor movement is in distress. To those who care about how to turn that situation around, Steve Early has a message worth reading in his Save Our Unions: Dispatches from a Movement in Distress.
The book describes the problems facing workers—and some possible solutions such as organizing more union members, waging successful strikes, or developing new union leadership at the local or national level The chapters are essays (many have appeared previously in various magazine and labor publications), most of which tell stories of real people and struggles.
Early doesn’t pull punches. The good guys and gals don’t always win. But sometimes they do, and those lessons are valuable for all of us.
Early worked for decades as an International Rep in the Communication Workers of America, but also has a long history with the Teamsters Union. In 1978 he was instrumental in facilitating a merger of two new Teamster reform movements: Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and PROD, which had been launched with help from Ralph Nader. A decade later, he helped the Ron Carey campaign win the 1991 election, and took a temporary position in the Ron Carey administration as a consultant in 1992. He’s been a supporter of TDU ever since.
In one section of the book, “Rebels with a Cause,” Early reports and compares struggles for democracy in the Teamsters, mine workers, steelworkers, transport workers, auto workers, and more. Early isn’t afraid to examine weaknesses in high places in labor, as in the book section “Is there a Leader in the House?” But he doesn’t dwell on top officials—the book focuses on the tactics, strategies and real people working to alleviate labor’s distress.
Teamster Local 391 steward Nichele Fulmore summed it up in a blurb on the book cover: “It’s hard to fight the war on workers when unions behave like business and act like it’s all about the money. This book shows why we need a labor movement that represents all working people, not just a few.”
There are lots of books on labor. Few are rooted so clearly in the struggles, victories and defeats of workers and their unions as Save Our Unions. This is Early’s third book in the past several years, since he left full-time union work. Let’s hope it is not the last.
Steve Early will be at the TDU Convention Nov 7-9 in Cleveland. If you are there, you can get a signed copy of Save Our Unions at a discount and hear more of his analysis on why labor is in distress and some ways forward.
Teamsters & The Right to Vote
September 25, 2014: Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and the Teamster leadership, already heavily penetrated by the mob, became more and more a tool of employers.
In response, members started to demand the Right to Vote on International officers. Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) took up the challenge, and in 1989 Teamster members beat the mob and won the Right to Vote in International Union elections.
How did a grassroots movement of working Teamster beat the odds and make history? First, we had a plan.
In 1985, TDU members launched a national Right to Vote petition to put pressure on the Teamster leadership to hold elections for national officers.
Volunteers collected signatures at worksites across the country. The petition, with tens of thousands of signatures, was presented to the 1986 Teamster convention.
“The Funeral of TDU”
At the convention, TDU delegates supported an amendment to the IBT constitution for direct election of IBT officials. Old guard officials voted it down overwhelmingly. Jackie Presser was elected at that convention over challenger Sam Theodus by a vote of 1792 to 24, or nearly 99%. Presser announced from the podium that it was “the funeral of TDU.”
TDU was planning ahead. The fact that the most hated president in Teamster history could get 99% support from local union officials only showed how rotten the system was.
Five years later, Sam Theodus was elected as part of the Carey slate.
TDU worked with the President’s Commission on Organized Crime. We documented how mobsters and corrupt officials were ripping off Teamster members. And we put forward a detailed plan for Teamster elections.
In 1988 the U.S. Justice Department sued the Teamster leadership under the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The government’s suit called for the Teamsters to come under federal trusteeship to “reorganize” the union.
TDU fought the trusteeship, and proposed the Right to Vote as a positive alternative. A public campaign by TDU won the support of major newspapers, as well as members of the President's Commission.
TDU National Organizer Ken Paff wrote the U.S. Attorney General saying “there is only one ‘reorganization’ under RICO that the government can effectively take: namely, to direct the IBT to hold rank-and-file elections.”
Our amicus briefs in court, and our public campaign were getting traction.
The Right to Vote is Won
On March 13, 1989, one day before the trial was to begin, the Teamster officials threw in the towel to head off the trial.
The consent order established a court supervised Independent Review Board to clean out corruption. Most important, it provided for the direct election of Teamster officers.
The Wall Street Journal reported the next day that “the terms of the settlement were greatly influenced by the concerns and platform of Teamsters for a Democratic Union.”
TDU’s position against government trusteeship and for the right to vote had prevailed.
Winning Fair Rules
Once we won the Right to Vote, TDU focused on winning fair rules that leveled the playing field. The Right to Vote isn’t worth much if the incumbents control the rules and the election.
TDU filed briefs in federal court to strengthen the independent Election Supervisor—and we won. In an important change, the Election Supervisor took charge of delegate elections. Members who run for Convention Delegate won the right to run in a fair election that was not controlled by their local officers.
We fought for numerous changes in the Election Rules. For example, we proposed an Accredited Candidate Petition Procedure so candidates with proven membership support could get their message out to the members by having access to the Teamster membership list.
We proposed that candidates be given worksite lists for all locals so Teamsters could campaign member-to-member. We won that too and a whole lot more.
The Teamster leadership fought every single improvement in the rules. In fact, they opposed the whole idea of having Election Rules.
What’s at Stake in the Current Fight?
Today, elections are a part of the Teamsters Union.
Hoffa would not dare come flat-out for abolishing the Right to Vote. Instead, he is trying to gut members’ voting rights through the back door—by getting rid of the independent election supervisor and eliminating fair election rules.
The Hoffa administration already successfully passed an amendment to the Teamster Constitution that would give Hoffa’s GEB the power to handpick the election supervisor and write their own election rules. (See Article III, Section 5(a)(2))
The consent order agreement with the Justice Department is the only thing standing in the way of an election with sham rules and a phony election supervisor controlled by Hoffa.
The biggest rule change the Hoffa administration wants governs nominations.
Right now, candidates get on the ballot if they have the support of 5% of the delegates to the Teamster Convention.
The Hoffa administration wants to change this rule to make it harder or impossible for opposition candidates to get on the ballot.
Then Hoffa’s real goal will be achieved: the elimination of International Union elections altogether.
That’s what’s at stake. We cannot and will not let that happen.
Organizing Under Hoffa
September 25, 2014: Teamster membership loss is outpacing organizing efforts since Hoffa took office. A new report looks at Teamster organizing and what can be done to turn it around.
Teamster organizing dropped precipitously the first year that Hoffa took office—and with a few notable exceptions, it has slumped since.
Those are the findings of a new report by the Teamster Rank & File Education and Legal Defense Foundation (TRF).
To prepare the study, TRF reviewed all available organizing data from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1999 when Hoffa took office through 2013, the most recent year for which data is available.
TRF also analyzed organizing results among public employees and airline workers who are not covered by the NLRB, as well as card-check agreements like UPS Freight.
Teamster membership dropped from 1.41 million in 1999 to 1.25 million in 2013—a loss of 160,000 members.
But even these numbers hide the full story because some 110,000 members were added by affiliations with four other unions: the BLET and the BMWE (two formerly independent rail unions), the Graphic Communications International Union and the Coalition of University Employees.
Without these mergers and affiliations, Teamster membership would be just 1.1 million today. In other words, the Teamsters has lost some 270,000 members since Hoffa took office.
Organizing Nose Dive
Teamster organizing numbers nosedived the year Hoffa took the wheel of our union.
Over 20,000 workers voted to join the Teamsters in NLRB elections in 1998. Hoffa took office the next year and new member organizing dropped by 30 percent.
Under Hoffa, new members organized in NLRB votes has never topped 14,000 in any year, let alone 20,000.
The high water mark for organizing in the Hoffa years was 2007-10, a four-year period in which 48,680 workers joined the Teamsters in NLRB votes—an average of 12,170 a year.
The organizing numbers have dropped every year since. Since 2011, the average number of workers voting to join the Teamsters in NLRB elections has dropped to just 5,827.
School Bus Drivers Successes
What drove up the Teamsters organizing numbers from 2007-2010?
The Driving Up Standards campaign—a coordinated national organizing effort aimed at organizing school bus drivers.
In 2007, school bus industry giant First Student, based in Britain, negotiated a “neutrality agreement” with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) requiring management to stay neutral in union organizing drives.
Absent the usual anti-union management campaign, our union’s win rates in First Student organizing drives soared.
Twenty-five thousand school bus drivers joined the Teamsters from 2007-2010.
School bus drivers account for nearly two out of every three workers who joined the Teamsters in NLRB elections during the four-year span when Teamster organizing was on the rise.
Without the SEIU’s help, the Teamsters was unable to secure a neutrality agreement with another school bus giant Durham School Services. When First Student organizing targets started to dry up, so did membership growth.
Last year, the number of workers that voted to join the Teamsters in NLRB elections sunk to 4,733—an all-time low in the Hoffa years.
Organizing Outside the NLRB
The NLRB accounts for a lot, but not all, Teamster organizing.
The Union scored three significant organizing victories in the airline industry—America West customer service representatives in 2004 and United and Continental mechanics and ramp workers in 2008 and 2010. Some were nonunion; the United Mechanics were in the AMFA, an independent union, which the Teamsters displaced.
Just this month, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the IBT joined forces to successfully win representation of the customer agents at American Airlines, following the merger with US Air.
The IBT gained about 1,500 members. In all, some 24,000 airline and rail workers have joined the Teamsters in union elections conducted by the National Mediation Board.
Public sector workers also don’t vote in NLRB elections—but their organizing numbers have been even more modest than airline. The big exception is 2010 when the IBT says it organized over 16,000 public sector workers.
But that claim is misleading. It includes 12,000 employees at the University of California who became Teamsters when their union, CUE, affiliated with the IBT as the newlyformed Local 2010.
Organizing and Union Bargaining Power
Organizing new members is supposed to build our union’s bargaining power and help us win better contracts for all workers.
The Hoffa administration’s signature organizing drive of the past decade was supposed to do just this, at UPS Freight.
In 2006, Hoffa and Ken Hall cut a deal with UPS to bring UPS Freight workers into the Teamsters under a card check agreement that allowed workers to join the union without having to go through the NLRB.
Wherever the majority of workers signed union cards, UPS Freight recognized the union. It went easily. But there was a catch.
In exchange for card check at UPS Freight, Hoffa and Hall agreed to concessions in the 2007 UPS agreement. Then they inked a substandard contract with UPS Freight—with no Teamster pension, a first for a national trucking company.
Instead of organizing UPS Freight to strengthen Teamster contracts at UPS and in freight, Hoffa and Hall did something very different. They cut a deal that traded concessions in a coreindustry contract for the right to sign up 12,000 more dues-paying members.
Organizing for Change
Organizing isn’t easy—especially in a tough economy. Employers who won’t give workers a nickel routinely open their pocket books to hire highpriced union-busting consultants.
Throw in anti-union labor laws and a weak NLRB and any union has its work cut out for it when it comes to organizing.
But our union can and must do better. Here’s a few places to start:
- Cut Dues Waste & Put Money into Organizing: The Hoffa administration wastes $3 million every year on multiple salaries for union officials who already have another full-time union job and salary. That money and other dues waste should be put into organizing.
- Strategic Campaigns: To organize nonunion competitors and build Teamster bargaining power, our union needs to make a long-term commitment to strategic organizing efforts in our core industries.
- Fight for Strong Contracts: Concessionary contracts undermine Teamster organizing. Fighting for good contracts—and good first contracts—is a must if we want to grow our union. In industries targeted for organizing, we need to work toward coordinated national bargaining and contract language that builds our bargaining leverage by allowing workers to respect picket lines.
- Support Local Union Organizing Efforts: When local unions are organizing nonunion competitors, the IBT needs to be there with organizers, resources and strategic support.
- Build an Organizing Army: There are many skilled, highly dedicated organizers in the Teamsters—at the International and in the locals. The IBT needs a strategic plan to grow an even bigger army of staff and volunteer organizers. To win against the union busters, we need organizers who are trained in proven tactics and best practices.
If we want to protect and improve our contracts and benefits—and bring more workers into the middle class—we need to organize the nonunion competition, grow the union and build our bargaining power.
An analysis of the Hoffa record on organizing shows we are coming up short. It’s time for a new direction.
What are your ideas for boosting Teamster organizing. Send your idea to organizing [at] tdu.org
Organizing in Waste
Private sanitation is a growth industry—and as demand for a green economy expands, recycling is a growth industry too.
The Teamsters represent 30,000 members in the waste industry. But most private sanitation workers are nonunion.
The two top companies in the industry, Waste Management and Republic, are among the largest Teamster employers and control the majority of the waste and recycle industry.
Organizing drives in waste—and strategic campaigns to win strong sanitation contracts—can grow our union’s membership and strengthen our bargaining power in this core industry.
The IBT Organizing Department has scored some wins in waste. We need to build on this organizing and coordinate bargaining against these corporate giants. The goal can’t just be more members, but winning strong contracts that raise standards across the industry.
Port Organizing
One area where our union has made a long-term strategic commitment is the Port Worker organizing campaign.
In a global economy, workers have leverage at key points in the logistics and distribution chain-trucking, warehousing and ports—but only if we’re organized. Port workers are at a critical chokepoint in that logistics chain.
As part of the Port Organizing campaign, the union has built alliances with environmental groups and community organizations. Because almost all port drivers are wrongly classified as independent contractors, organizing is a long term project that requires a political strategy as well as organizing.
Locals Start Freight Organizing. Where's the International?
One hundred thirteen Con-way workers at the Laredo Texas terminal voted to join Teamster Local 657 on Sept 11. It’s a first-time win for our union.
The same month, Southern California Joint Council 42 filed for organizing elections at three Con-way terminals, in Los Angeles, Santa Fe Springs, and San Fernando.
And, Philadelphia Local 107 filed for organizing elections at FedEx Freight.
Is this the start of movement to organize in freight and trucking? We hope so! It’s certainly a good first step, and it should spread. But there are serious challenges.
FedEx and Con-way are national trucking outfits and corporate giants. They will have nationally coordinated efforts to resist and discourage organizing—including trying to retaliate against terminals that vote for the union.
The IBT has to be fully prepared to support local union efforts. When Columbus Local 413 and other locals started organizing at Conway in 2011-12, the International dropped the ball.
This time around, as locals take the initiative, the IBT organizing department needs to be on call with ready resources and personnel. No local union’s resources can compare to the International Union. Local unions and freight workers are stepping up to take action. The IBT needs to get behind this movement and help drive it to victory.
“It’s great that we’re finally making some gains in organizing FedEx Freight and Con-way. It’s a long time coming. But if we’re going to win on a wide scale, we need to shore up Teamster pride in freight. That starts with much better contract enforcement.”
Troy Justus, ABF
Local 413, Columbus, Ohio
Organizing in Waste
September 24, 2014: Private sanitation is a growth industry—and as demand for a green economy expands, recycling is a growth industry too.
The Teamsters represent 30,000 members in the waste industry. But most private sanitation workers are nonunion.
The two top companies in the industry, Waste Management and Republic, are among the largest Teamster employers and control the majority of the waste and recycle industry.
Organizing drives in waste—and strategic campaigns to win strong sanitation contracts—can grow our union’s membership and strengthen our bargaining power in this core industry.
The IBT Organizing Department has scored some wins in waste. We need to build on this organizing and coordinate bargaining against these corporate giants. The goal can’t just be more members, but winning strong contracts that raise standards across the industry.
Port Organizing
September 24, 2014: One area where our union has made a long-term strategic commitment is the Port Worker organizing campaign.
In a global economy, workers have leverage at key points in the logistics and distribution chain-trucking, warehousing and ports—but only if we’re organized. Port workers are at a critical chokepoint in that logistics chain.
As part of the Port Organizing campaign, the union has built alliances with environmental groups and community organizations. Because almost all port drivers are wrongly classified as independent contractors, organizing is a long term project that requires a political strategy as well as organizing.
Locals Start Freight Organizing. Where's the International?
September 24, 2014: One hundred thirteen Con-way workers at the Laredo Texas terminal voted to join Teamster Local 657 on Sept 11. It’s a first-time win for our union.
The same month, Southern California Joint Council 42 filed for organizing elections at three Con-way terminals, in Los Angeles, Santa Fe Springs, and San Fernando.
And, Philadelphia Local 107 filed for organizing elections at FedEx Freight.
Is this the start of movement to organize in freight and trucking? We hope so! It’s certainly a good first step, and it should spread. But there are serious challenges.
FedEx and Con-way are national trucking outfits and corporate giants. They will have nationally coordinated efforts to resist and discourage organizing—including trying to retaliate against terminals that vote for the union.
The IBT has to be fully prepared to support local union efforts. When Columbus Local 413 and other locals started organizing at Conway in 2011-12, the International dropped the ball.
This time around, as locals take the initiative, the IBT organizing department needs to be on call with ready resources and personnel. No local union’s resources can compare to the International Union. Local unions and freight workers are stepping up to take action. The IBT needs to get behind this movement and help drive it to victory.
“It’s great that we’re finally making some gains in organizing FedEx Freight and Con-way. It’s a long time coming. But if we’re going to win on a wide scale, we need to shore up Teamster pride in freight. That starts with much better contract enforcement.”
Troy Justus, ABF
Local 413, Columbus, Ohio
Time to Challenge YRC Purchased Transportation
September 24, 2014: YRC drivers are fed-up with pictures like this. It’s time to go beyond complaining and challenge subcontracting.
There is language in the YRC MOU that offers protections, if it is utilized and enforced. It’s time to do just that.
Here is some of the language that exists in the MOU:
“The maximum amount of over-the-road purchased transportation shall be limited to 6% (starting with Calendar Year 2014) of YRC Freight’s total miles...”
“The use of PTS under this section 7(e) is for direct, closed-door service from distribution center to distribution center only...”
“At those locations where PTS is utilized, YRC Freight shall provide protection for all active bid road drivers during each dispatch day the PTS service is used and all active extra board road drivers during each dispatch week that PTS service is used.”
“The protection for boards at intermediate relay locations will be weekly earnings, calculated using the four (4) week average method. As an example, if PTS is dispatched from Kansas City destined for Atlanta, the board at the intermediate relay in Nashville will have earnings protected that week.”
“YRC shall report in writing on a monthly basis to each Local Union affected and to the Freight Division, the number of trailers tendered to any purchased transportation provider. YRC Freight also shall report the carrier’s name (including DOT number), origin, destination, trailer/load number, trailer weight and the time the trailer/load leaves YRC Freight's yard. In addition, YRC Freight shall, on a quarterly basis, unless otherwise required, send to the office of the National Freight Director a report containing all of the above indicated information in addition to the total number of miles YRC Freight utilized with purchased transportation, inclusive of the type of PTS utilized, including whether the purpose was for avoiding empty miles, overflow or one-time business opportunities such as product launches.”
“...each time YRC Freight uses purchased transportation providers to run over the top of linehaul domicile terminal locations and/or relay domiciles, said dispatches shall be counted as supplemental or replacement runs, as applicable, for purposes of calculating the requirement to add new employees to the road board. The formula for recalling or adding employees to the affected road board shall be thirty (30) supplemental runs in a sixty (60) day period.”
If local unions and the International enforce this language, it will be clear that YRC is committing violations, and we will gain additional work and additional Teamster jobs. This means consistently filing grievances, networking stewards from terminal to terminal, and demanding real enforcement from the grievance panels and the Freight Division.