UPS Freight Workers in New Jersey Sign Cards to Become Teamsters

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.sunherald.com/447/story/430049.html

Posted on Thu, Mar. 13, 2008

By International Brotherhood of Teamsters

UNION, N.J., March 13 --
An overwhelming majority of 175 workers at the UPS Freight (formerly Overnite Transportation) terminals in Carteret and Moonachie, in New Jersey, have signed authorization cards to become Teamsters, bringing the total number of drivers and dockworkers seeking to join the union to about 8,000 since January 16, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa announced.

The workers are seeking to join Local 641 in Union, New Jersey.

"I'd like to thank the UPS Freight workers in my area who worked very hard to achieve their goal," said Billy Cunningham, President of Local 641. "The workers attended numerous meetings and did a good job communicating with one another. They are building their union."

"The workers in Northern New Jersey have shown a great initiative and have kept a sharp focus, and their effort has paid off," said Ken Hall, Director of the Teamsters Package Division. "The workers in Carteret and Moonachie are united, and we will negotiate a strong contract soon that will address their needs."

In addition to the Northern New Jersey workers, a majority of UPS Freight workers in West Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Indiana, California, Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee Arizona, New York, Kentucky and New England, including the large cities of Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas, Nashville, San Antonio, Cleveland, Atlanta, Houston, San Diego, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Orlando, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Oakland, Seattle, Memphis and Detroit, have submitted cards to become Teamsters.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Galen Munroe of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, [phone],

[LaStrega]

1. Excellent!

This is good news.

The news from my end, unfortunately, is not good.

The company had been fighting giving us a contract, and was refusing to let us join with the Local 1-M Union, forcing us to be our own separate entity.

Two days ago the head of HR met with our two Union Reps (took them to lunch and picked up the tab). She said the company now is willing to let us join the 1-M, but we'd be at the bottom of the seniority list. They're doing such because they can't get rid of us until we have a contract. Once we have a contract their going to force us out. We're thinking the timeframe will be within a year. Nice, huh?

We're countering with a demand that once we get a contract we get retro pay from the day we started.

It's an ongoing tug of war, but it's not looking good for us.

*sigh*

[DainBramaged]

2. A great victory, a great victory. NJ leads the way again.

641 in Union. Mine and my ex-Father in law's old local. We both got screwed by Consolidated Freightways. He is 72 with a bad heart and living on SS waiting for surgery by the Veteran's Administration. Wasn't the Union's fault Consolidated went belly up. I think they wanted it that way to hide the theft of the pension funds.

http://www.socialistworker.org/2002-2/421/421_12_CF.shtml


THE TRUCKING giant Consolidated Freightways sent a message to 15,500 workers on Labor Day. We’re going bankrupt. And you’re out on the street. This was the final act in the company’s 20-year war on the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Consolidated Freightways became a separate company only in 1996, when it was spun off by its parent company CNF, which had shifted the company’s prize assets into nonunion subsidiaries. "This wasn’t the result of a weak company in a bad economy," said a 23-year veteran driver for the company in the Midwest who lost his job in the bankruptcy.

"This is part of a plan and a policy that went on for decades. And they pulled it off in the end. They cherry-picked the profitable freight lanes, gave them to , took every last cent of their startup money for infrastructure, certainly worth hundreds of millions of dollars--all came from unionized parts of the company. Then they turn around and say the nonunion subsidiary can’t compete. Hell no, it can’t--not in those circumstances."





http://www.teamsterslocal641.org/

[Oldenuff]

3. Way to go!..n/t