By Doug Cunningham

Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago – second largest in the nation - has authorized a strike against UPS with a deadline of midnight July 31st. Job security and working conditions are among the issues. Joe Balkis is a Teamsters Local 705 worker.

[Balkis]: “The companies keep on getting’ richer and the working classes keep on getting’ poorer. Enough is enough! It’s time we draw a line in the sand. We can’t take it anymore. The starting pay alone has only been increased once since I’ve been workin’ here for twenty years. We deserve better. Payin’ people $8.50 - $9.50 an hour to start is immoral.”

By Doug Cunningham

The Teamsters union has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President just before crucial primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania, states rich with blue-collar voters. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa:

[Hoffa]: “We believe that he’s speaking to issues that resonate with our members. He’s talking about calling up the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada when he becomes president and reforming NAFTA. I think that’s important. He’s talking about fairness in the tax system; he’s talking about universal health care. He’s talking about a lot of issues that are important to us."

By Doug Cunningham

Hundreds of Teamsters rallied outside the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco Tuesday, as the union awaits a decision on Bush’s Mexican trucks program. The Teamsters have challenged the program as illegal, in violation of congressional-set safety requirements and a ban on funding the program. The Teamsters say Mexican trucks are unsafe and their drivers aren’t as well-regulated as U.S. drivers.

The Teamsters are taking their campaign to stop Mexican trucks from using U.S. highways to a new medium--the Internet. Jesse Russell has more:

The main crux of the new Internet campaign by the Teamsters is to have U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters fired for violating Federal laws. Congress passed a provision that should have stopped Mexican trucks from entering U.S. borders as part of a pilot program under President George W. Bush’s Department of Transportation. However, the DOT went ahead and started the new pilot program anyway. According to the DOT, the provision, which was passed along with the Omnibus Budget Bill, only prevents them from using funds to establish a pilot program. According to the DOT, they already had a program in place before the provision was passed. The Teamsters say the program violates seven U.S. laws and makes U.S. roads unsafe. Mexican trucks are not held to the same standards as U.S. trucks and, according to the Teamsters, the Homeland Security Department does not have the proper staffing to properly inspect every Mexican truck and the decals used can be easily forged.

By Doug Cunningham

The Teamsters are launching a campaign to fire Transportation Secretary, Mary Peters for her role in defying Congress by allowing Mexican trucks onto U.S. highways. The Teamsters are running a radio ad as part of the radio campaign.

[Teamsters Spot]: “President Bush’s Secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters, is breaking the law by allowing unsafe Mexican trucks onto U.S. highways.”

Teamsters President, Jim Hoffa says it's a disgrace that Peters is still in office, after she's defied the will of the American people by exposing them to dangerous trucks from Mexico.

By Doug Cunningham

Teamsters President Jim Hoffa says he’s disappointed by a U.S. Court of Appeals refusal to enforce its decision striking down a Bush transportation department rule extending trucker’s on-the-road hours from 10 to 11 hours. The teamsters say allowing Bush to extendi the hours truckers are allowed behind the wheel each day is a traffic safety hazard.

By Doug Cunningham

Armed with a Presidential Emergency Board recommendation that Amtrak essentially agree to the union position, bargaining resumed Wednesday between Amtrak and several unions. Because Amtrak took a take it or leave it stance refusing to bargain in good faith, workers have gone eight years without a new contract agreement. If they can’t agree to a contract, there could be a nationwide Amtrak strike January 30th. Don Griffin is Director of Strategic Coordination and Research for the Teamsters’ Brotherhood of Maintenance and Way.

[Griffin]: “It would affect freight railroad. It would be a nationwide strike. It would have impact on the freight railroads and it would have a substantial effect on commuter operations from Boston to Washington, D.C. Look, the last thing we want to do is go on strike, have a strike. The members lose money, they lose benefits, the public is inconvenienced. What we wanted was a voluntary agreement. And we were just unable to get to the point where we had serious discussions with Amtrak.”

By Doug Cunningham

A Teamsters court filing says the Bush administration broke yet another law in continuing to let long-haul Mexican trucks onto U.S. highways. Congress banned funding December 26th, but Bush is going forward anyway. Two days of debate and 20 pages of congressional record show Congress clearly intended to stop the program. The Teamsters believe this Mexican truck pilot program is dangerous because Mexican drivers aren’t held to the same safety standards as U.S. drivers. The Teamsters are challenging the legality of the Bush Mexican trucks program in federal court. A hearing is set for February 12th in the 9th Circuit.

By Doug Cunningham

Teamsters President Jim Hoffa says the omnibus spending bill Congress passed this week includes a ban on funding for Bush’s Mexican trucks program. Hoffa says Congress is helping make driving safer in the U.S. by banning funding of the program t oallow Mexican trucks unrestricted access to all U.S. highways. The Teamsters are suing in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to block the program. The suit is expected to be heard in February.

A pilot program intended to eventually open United States highways to Mexican trucks is under fire by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters rallied in San Diego on Wednesday morning to express their opposition to the plan, which they say is more than just a safety issue:

Tom Keegel is the Teamsters General Secretary Treasurer:

[Keegel]: "Mexican drivers don’t have to live up to the same standards that the drivers in the United States have to. It’s a safety issue, it’s an environmental issue. It’s an issue that could be a terrorist issue. Our drivers have to have a commercial drivers license, they have to have random drug testing, standardized hours; none of that applies to Mexican drivers."

By Doug Cunningham

The Teamsters are rallying today at the Mexican border in San Diego to protest the Bush program to bring Mexican trucks onto U.S. highways. Teamsters President, Jim Hoffa will lead the rally at the Otay Mesa border crossing. The union says that Bush pilot program to bring the Mexican into the U.S. is illegal. The Teamsters are fighting the Mexican truck program in court and are urging Congress to completely cut off money for the Mexican truck program. The Teamsters say the Mexican trucks are unsafe and there are no reliable methods to screen and track the records of the drivers.

By Doug Cunningham

The House has passed a transportation bill that includes a ban on funding for Bush’s Mexican trucks program. The Teamsters' Leslie Miller says the union is happy about the vote, but it won’t necessarily end the battle to keep unsafe Mexican trucks off U.S. highways.

[Miller]: “It's what we expected but nevertheless we're delighted. The Senate has to vote on it - again - and then President Bush has said he'll veto the bill. I don't know if there's going to be an override or not. So who knows? Thats up in the air. The other thing, though, that's going on is we're c

By Doug Cunningham

Five current and former FedEx workers have scored a win that forces FedEx to pay them more than $253,000 and clears the way for a union election in February at a FedEx terminal in Northboro, Massachusetts. The workers charged they were harassed by FedEx for a Teamsters Union organizing effort. FedEx is trying to block workers from organizing by claiming the drivers are independent contractors rather than employees. The NLRB says they’re employees, which means they have a legal right to organize.

By Jesse Russell

Countrywide Financial posted a third quarter loss of $1.2 billion, has been saddle bagged by the subprime mortgage crisis, and has watched shares fall by nearly 60 percent over the course of the year. Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo is now facing some more bumps in the road as the New England teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund is suing him and alleging that the company artificially inflated stock prices to help benefit executives. For more than three years, according to the suit, executives were allowed to sell shares at prices reaping $842 million. The suit also names a number of other high level executives at Countrywide as well as auditor KPMG.

By Doug Cunningham

Teamsters working on railroads have won a victory in the U.S. House. Under the Railroad Safety Improvement Act, camp cars are eliminated and an limbo time decreased. Camp cars are mobile dorms without toilets or clean drinking water that house up to eight rail maintenance workers. Limbo time is time that rail workers are required to be alert and vigilant after their shifts, but they're not paid for it.

By Doug Cunningham

Teamsters UPS workers - some 230,000 of them - are voting on the tentative contract with UPS that will take UPS workers out of the Teamsters Central States pension fund in return for a $6.1 billion payment from UPS to the fund. Voting is being done by mail and results are expected in December.

By Doug Cunningham

If Teamster workers approve a tentative contract with UPS reached over the weekend, UPS will pull out of the Central States pension fund. Is that a good thing for Teamsters' UPS workers? Ken Hall, the Teamsters' Parcel and Small Package Division Director, says that it is.

[Hall]: “Once the employees are no longer covered by Central States, they will be transferred to a newly-established, jointly-trusteed UPS/Teamster plan, where those employees will actually see increases in their pension benefits."

Hall says this new contract provides about a $1.80 per hour per worker increase in wages and benefits in each year of the new contract. The Central States fund will get $6.1 billion from UPS as the company withdraws from the plan--improving its financial picture, but leaving it still underfunded. Hall says pensions were the number one concern of UPS Teamsters.

By Doug Cunningham

The Teamsters and United Parcel Service have reached a tentative deal on a new five-year labor contract. The agreement includes increased wages and pensions. It comes 11 months before the old contract is set to expire and covers about 240,000 full and part-time UPS Teamsters workers.

According to the Teamsters, the new contract includes a $9 per hour per worker raise in wages and benefits over the life of the five-year contract.

What did UPS get? For once thing, the company is allowed to pull some UPS workers out of the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund and put them into a new single-employer plan jointly operated with the Teamsters. In return, UPS will pay $6.1 billion into the Central States' plan. About 43,000 workers will be transferred into the new pension plan by the end of December.

The Teamsters are seeking an October 1 end date for negotiations with UPS. Teamsters Negotiator Ken Hall said on the union’s website that the date has been set so the new contract will be in effect for next year when new laws handed down by the feds go into effect that could impact the pensions of retirees.

By Jesse Russell

The country could soon be facing a Twinkie shortage if Teamster at Interstate Bakeries go on strike. 800 workers in Southern California have threatened to walk out after talks between the union and the distributor of Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies broke down. If those 800 walk out, it could set off a chain reaction at facilities across the country when 9000 more walk off the job in solidarity. The Teamsters have agreed to pay cuts of four percent but the company is looking for cuts of 25 percent from half of the workforce.