Teamsters

Hundreds Of Chicago Teamsters Stand Up To UPS Greed

July 15, 2023 Eliza Schultz and Haden Kersting, Fight Back News!. Resist! Chicago, Illinois, Pickets, Teamsters, Unions, UPS, Worker Rights and Jobs

On July 14, 300 workers turned out for the latest practice picket and rally at the UPS Jefferson Street Hub on the Near West Side of Chicago. International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 705 and Local 710 organized this event, which was the largest of many practice pickets in the Chicago area that occurred throughout the week. Flyers promoting the event read, “Chicago Teamsters stand up to UPS greed!” The event comes as contract negotiations between the IBT and United Parcel Service remain halted. The Teamsters already negotiated a major win for full-time drivers with the end of the two-tier classification system, known as 22.4.

Amazon Teamsters’ Rolling Pickets Hit Facilities Nationwide

July 14, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Resist! Amazon, Pickets, Teamsters, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Brandi Diaz was at a customer’s door in Palmdale, California, delivering stuff for Amazon, when the customer asked her, “What’s the difference between you and UPS drivers?” “He said the difference is UPS is union, Amazon is not. He referred to us as ‘Jeff’s Bozos.’ “I am no longer Bezos’ Bozo!” Diaz said over honks and chants from 200 Teamsters from six different locals and some labor allies at a picket line outside an Amazon warehouse in northern New Jersey July 6. Diaz and her co-workers voted to join Teamsters Local 396 in April. They are Amazon delivery drivers, but they were nominally employed by an Amazon contractor, the Southern California company Battle-Tested Strategies.

After Marathon Sessions, UPS Negotiations Collapse

July 5, 2023 Kara Deniz, International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Resist! Strikes, Teamsters, Unions, UPS, Worker Rights and Jobs

Around 4 a.m., UPS walked away from the bargaining table after presenting an unacceptable offer to the Teamsters that did not address members’ needs. The UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee unanimously rejected the package. Following marathon negotiations, UPS refused to give the Teamsters a last, best, and final offer, telling the union the company had nothing more to give. “This multibillion-dollar corporation has plenty to give American workers — they just don’t want to,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “UPS had a choice to make, and they have clearly chosen to go down the wrong road.”

Rank-And-File UPS Workers Prepare To Strike And Refuse To Back Down

July 3, 2023 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast - Clearing The FOG National Strike, Teamsters, Unions, UPS, Worker Rights

In 2013 and 2018, UPS workers were forced to accept contracts that failed to protect them and that created a growing underclass. In 2023, the rank-and-file are refusing to accept less than what they need. As the end of their current contract on July 31 grows near, workers across the nation are organizing strike captains, educating workers and holding practice pickets. UPS employs 340,000 people and is responsible for 6% of the nation's GDP. Clearing the FOG speaks to Richard Hooker, Jr., of Teamsters Local 623 in Philadelphia. Richard has been leading the fight for a decent contract. He speaks about the current working conditions, the workers' demands and why this fight is critical for all workers.

Can UPS And The Teamsters Reach A Deal?

July 3, 2023 Stephen Franklin, In These Times. Resist! Strikes, Teamsters, Unions, UPS, Worker Rights and Jobs

When the temperature hits three digits in the brown UPS truck Luis Rivera drives, he slows down his deliveries, which gets him in trouble, he says, with his boss. “They say, ‘Why did you take so long?’ and I say, ‘Dude, it’s hot. I know when I need to take a break,” explains Rivera, a veteran delivery driver and Teamsters member in Central California, where heat waves are common. Rivera ticks off the times that colleagues have gotten heatstroke and recalls the tragedy of a young UPS driver, 23-year-old Jose Cruz Rodriguez Jr., who died two years ago in Waco, Texas.

Teamsters Picket Fourth California Warehouse In Expanding Amazon Strike

July 3, 2023 International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Resist! Amazon, California, Strikes, Teamsters, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

San Bernardino, California - Striking Amazon delivery drivers and dispatchers from Palmdale, Calif., extended their picket line to an Amazon warehouse in San Bernardino, Calif. (ONT5) today, to demand the e-commerce giant stop its unfair labor practices. The growing strike will continue until Amazon reinstates the unlawfully terminated employees, recognizes the Teamsters, respects the contract negotiated by the workers, and bargains with the Teamsters Union to address low pay and dangerous working conditions. “I work for one of the richest companies in the world, but the pay is so low that I have to work two other jobs as well to provide for my kids,” said Jovana Figueroa, a striking Amazon driver.

Legalization Hasn’t Fixed All Cannabis Workers’ Problems; Can Unionizing?

June 22, 2023 Vince Quiles, The Real News Network. Organize! Marijuana, Teamsters, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Legalizing pot has opened the floodgates to a new multibillion dollar industry in multiple states. But where there are high profits, there’s often high exploitation. The experience of unionized cannabis delivery drivers and warehouse workers who belong to Grassdoor Workers provides an instructive example of exploitative practices found across industries, and how workers can organize to fight back. Despite the best efforts of management to keep employees isolated from one another, Grassdoor workers managed to organize in response to company wage theft and successfully joined their Teamsters local. Grassdoor Workers organizer “G” speaks with The Real News.

With Strike Looming, UPS Teamsters Win Air Conditioning, Other Gains

June 18, 2023 Simon Rowe, Fight Back News!. Educate! Florida, Teamsters, UPS, Victory, Worker Rights and Jobs

Tampa, Florida - Since national negotiations started in March, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has reached many tentative agreements in their national contract with United Parcel Service. These agreements that will benefit Teamsters include but are not limited to better cooling systems in package cars, strengthened grievance procedures, and the creation of more union jobs. The current Teamsters contract with UPS was a five-year agreement which expires on July 31. Unless the Teamsters bargaining team reaches a tentative agreement with UPS for a next contract and the rank and file votes “yes” by July 31, over 300,000 Teamsters are set to strike on August 1.

Supreme Court Weakened Legal Protections For Striking

June 7, 2023 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. Educate! Ketanji Brown Jackson, NLRB, Strikes, Supreme Court, Teamsters, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

In a shameful decision last week, eight members of the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the right to strike. Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stood up for the workers. In her 27-page dissent in Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Jackson wrote, “The right to strike is fundamental to American labor law.” Indeed, it is the threat of a strike that gives workers leverage during contract negotiations with an employer. Jackson continued: Workers are not indentured servants, bound to continue laboring until any planned work stoppage would be as painless as possible for their masters. They are employees whose collective and peaceful decision to withhold their labor is protected by the [National Labor Relations Act] even if economic injury results.

DHL Violates Neutrality, Freight Workers Join Teamsters Anyway

June 1, 2023 Peter Lucas, Labor Notes. Organize! DHL, Teamsters, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

At the DHL Express superhub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, 1,100 workers who load and unload freight on aircraft voted to join Teamsters Local 100 in April in one of the biggest private-sector union wins this year. Package giant DHL, a competitor of UPS and FedEx, is one of the world’s largest and most profitable logistics companies, and the Cincinnati-area hub is the company’s largest. The tug and ramp workers organized because of low pay, safety concerns, and poor treatment from management. “The company mantra that they sell to customers—‘connecting people, improving lives’—doesn’t exist for their own workers,” said ramp lead Garrett Schwing.

Teamsters At Huttig Took Final Strike Vote On Saturday

April 17, 2023 Paul Zilly, Teamsters 117. Resist! Huttig, Strikes, Teamsters, Worker Rights and Jobs

Warehouse workers at Huttig/Woodgrain are gearing up for a strike at the building materials distributor that could kick off as early as this Monday, April 17, 2023. The group of 36 Teamsters will be taking a Final Strike Vote and assembling picket signs this Saturday, April 15 after a negotiations update meeting at the Teamsters Union Hall in Tukwila. The Teamsters are protesting alleged violations of federal labor law during contentious contract negotiations, including charges of unlawful surveillance and intimidation during a visit to the Huttig facility by Auburn City Councilmember and former President of the Washington State Labor Council Larry Brown.

Grocery Teamsters Face Firing And Retaliation For Exercising Their Rights

March 11, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Chicago, Illinois, Teamsters, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Workers couldn’t wear a sticker or button, because what if it fell into the fruits and vegetables they packaged for the Anthony Marano Company, a major distributor of produce in Chicago and the greater Midwest for restaurants and grocery chains including Aldi’s, Sysco, and Pete’s Fresh Market? They couldn’t do a red T-shirt day; the temperatures are frigid in the warehouse, and workers must cover themselves in layers to keep warm. But they are allowed to wear hats over their hairnets. Luckily, there was a crafty person on the organizing team. When Latino Teamsters in Local 703 needed to take collective action to build unity and confidence after the company banned them from distributing union leaflets, they created baseball caps—emblazoned with an equestrian Teamster logo and the Chicago city colors (blue, white, and red).

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien Vows To ‘Pulverize’ UPS

November 3, 2022 Stephen Franklin, In These Times. Resist! Labor Movement, Labor Unions, Teamsters, UPS

Chicago — Spelling out union strategy for an all-important contract with UPS, Sean O’Brien worked his way up to a fiery pitch. “We gotta strategize, we gotta organize, and then we gotta pulverize UPS,” he declared. The room erupted into cheers, applause and fists clenched upward. The presentation by the short, muscular, bald-headed, fourth-generation Teamster from Boston, a union member since his teenage years, felt like a shop steward’s typical nitty-gritty warm-up speech. Listening near the back of the conference, Dan Campbell, 69, a retired Teamster from Wisconsin, felt lifted by what he heard. He liked O’Brien’s “hard-nosed” tone and especially liked his call “for everyone to get on board and row with all hands.” O’Brien is president of the one-million-plus Teamsters Union.

New Leadership, New Direction In Major Midwest Teamsters Local

October 28, 2022 Beth Breslaw, Labor Notes. Organize! Labor Movement, Teamsters, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Members overwhelmingly elected new leadership in the 14,000-member Teamsters Local 135, where Dustin Roach and the 135 Members First Slate won with 68 percent of the vote. The election is a triumph for grassroots action and rank-and-file power, after an intense grassroots member-to-member campaign. Local 135 is one of the biggest locals in the Teamsters, representing members across Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan as well as 2,000 flight attendants nationwide at Republic Airlines. Until recently, no one could have seen this change coming to a local that was tightly controlled by officers and dominated from the top down. But Local 135 members organized for change from the bottom up—and now they’re in the driver’s seat.

With Nationwide Rallies, UPS Teamsters Kick Off Their 2023 Contract Campaign

August 11, 2022 Luigi Morris, Left Voice. Organize! Labor Union, Teamsters, UPS, Worker Rights and Jobs

Last week, 25 years after UPS workers last went on strike in 1997, the UPS Teamsters kicked off their contract negotiation campaign with rallies around the country. Their current contract expires in July 2023 and negotiations for a new contract have begun. In New York City alone, rallies and actions took place across 14 UPS facilities. Workers are demanding an end to excessive overtime, an end to the two-tier system, higher pay for part-time warehouse workers, more full-time jobs, job security for feeders and package drivers, ending the surveillance and harassment from the bosses, and a heat exhaustion and injury prevention plan to combat against the extreme weather we have been experiencing. For UPS Teamsters, this contract struggle is an opportunity to roll back the defeats of the current contract, including the two-tier system, which was undemocratically imposed by the Hoffa leadership onto members, the majority of whom had voted no of the tentative agreement.

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