Posts tagged Teamsters for a Democratic Union
Teamsters Back Trump’s OSHA Nominee, But Dissent Emerges
February 18, 2025 // “OSHA and the DOL, under the leadership of soon-to-be Secretary Chavez-DeRemer, will continue to benefit from leaders who started in the trades and understand the risks facing working Americans today and necessary reforms and opportunities to protect them,” the Teamsters said in a statement Friday. Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a grassroots rank-and-file movement of thousands of Teamsters members, did not share as glowing of an opinion as the wider union. “Teamsters know bosses rarely care about our safety. OSHA is already too weak and toothless,” the movement said. “Now more than ever, we need to fight for ourselves.”
Open Rebellion Against Teamsters GP Sean O’Brien
August 21, 2024 // During the TNBC conference, Chris Silvera of Local 808 delivered a gruesome critique of O’Brien over his embracement of the pro Right-to-Work Trump. But more importantly, he also called on the members to make “the general president a one-term general president.” International vice president-at-large – John Palmer who was also present at the event received a great reception after being the first officer to openly lead the rebellion against O’Brien. Already following O’Brien’s fascistic speech at the RNC, Palmer announced he was seeking to build an opposition slate to unseat O’Brien and “send him back to the truck.” To the surprise of everyone, Joint Council (JC) 28 in the state of Washington headed by Western Region vice president – Rick Hicks, in a press release attacked Trump’s and Elon Musk’s union busting conversation, before endorsing Harris for president. The executive board of Local 186 led by Abel Garcia in Ventura CA became the first local of the largest joint council in the nation, JC 42, to also endorse Harris.
Op-ed: The Price of Bent Unions Is Red Unions
March 2, 2024 // It’s important to point out that the lesson of this pattern isn’t that corrupt unions are somehow “better” than their ideologically fanatical alternative. Every political activist, no matter how wrong on policy, deserves to have money that he or she voluntarily contributes to advocacy groups be used for the purposes for which it was contributed, rather than lining the leaders’ pockets. (Inclination to this sin does not distinguish by party or ideology, it must be said.)
‘A slap in the face’: progressive anger as Teamsters union chief meets Trump
January 19, 2024 // The Teamsters have put forward an open invitation to presidential candidates to meet with their members and leadership. But Trump is apparently the first real contender to take them up on their offer – prior engagements included the long-shot candidates Asa Hutchinson, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Marianne Williamson, Cornel West and Dean Phillips. The union vote is coveted and can help decide elections, especially in relatively union-dense swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Trump in 2016 found unexpected support from some Teamsters members whose ranks have historically voted Democratic. Kara Deniz, a spokesperson for the Teamsters, said she had not heard from members concerned about the Trump meeting and said candidate meetings represented a good-faith effort to inform members about candidates for office.
Sean O’Brien’s summer of the strike
June 26, 2023 // It’s the spark for the combative spirit that permeates Teamsters headquarters, where a whiteboard charts a long-term battle plan on a timeline — “practice picketing,” “CAT trainings” (for “contract action teams”), “identify strike teams” … and finally, on the July 31 spot that marks the end of the current contract: “STRIKE.” Why strike now? As O’Brien himself acknowledged in his Senate testimony, UPS already offers the most plum jobs in the logistics industry, with driver salaries starting at $93,000. But O’Brien argues that the pandemic gave UPS workers the greatest leverage they’ve had in decades. In 2020, union members risked their health to keep packages moving. UPS’s profits surged and have remained high, with customers still hooked on the online shopping habits they adopted during the lockdowns. “Our members are fed up” and remain convinced, he said, that “the only concern that was being addressed was UPS’s bottom line and their balance sheet.” No better time, O’Brien reasons, for workers to go to the mat to demand wages beginning at $20 an hour, tighter safety provisions and an end to the two-tier employment system ushered in by the last contract.
Labor’s Militant Minority How a new class of “salts”—radicals who take jobs to help unionization—is boosting the organizing efforts of long-term workers.
June 16, 2022 // On May 1 organizers from the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) joined the New York City Central Labor Council and community organizations to march from Washington Square Park to Foley Park. After a long afternoon of marching and chanting in the sun, about a third of the core organizing committee made their way to a May Day party at the Communist Party headquarters in Chelsea. In the Party’s spacious office, adorned with pictures of William Z. Foster and Lenin, a racially diverse group of twenty-somethings—ALU organizers, members of the Young Communist League (YLC), and fellow travelers—drank Modelos and Bud Lights, ate pizza, and danced to the Backstreet Boys. They were celebrating May Day and the first successful union election at Amazon—the ALU’s April 22 victory at the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island. Mie Inouye, Boston Review, May Day, Young Communist League, post-Occupy, post-Bernie, Organizing Methods in the Steel Industry, militant minority, Jaz Brisack, New Communist Movement,
“Nonunion drivers are getting paid better than us:” Car haul truckers in US determined to strike Tuesday night
May 31, 2022 // We had a lot of guys leave because it’s better pay everywhere else. But there are perks to the union and that’s why I’m still here; the union is a family, but we got to get this pay right. “All of the other drivers who are nonunion are getting paid better.” Referring to the so-called Teamsters reformers in charge of the union, including new president Sean O’Brien, he said: “We are not elevating the appropriate people.