Posts tagged Teamsters
Sun Tran union votes ‘yes’ to authorize strike in Tucson
June 9, 2026 // Teamsters Local 104, which represents the Sun Tran employees, said 99% of voting members supported the strike authorization measure. The current collective bargaining agreement is scheduled to end at 11:59 p.m. June 30. The vote was held on June 7.
Corruption Officer Brings Charges against Joe Smith of Delaware Local 326
June 9, 2026 // Smith was convicted of a DUI in 2014 and illegally drove union-owned vehicles for ten years without a valid license. After the IIO began investigating, Smith obtained a conditional license that required him to install an interlock device with a breathalyzer. But Smith installed the device on his late father's car instead of on the Ford Expedition he drove for union business. Smith is accused of subjecting the union to substantial uninsured risk, never advising Local 326 or the IBT of his arrest, and lying under oath to IIO investigators to cover up his actions. The IIO charges estimate that he has cost the union $100,000 in unwarranted payments.
Cannabis industry, citing low profits, opposes move to set mandatory wages
June 4, 2026 // Joe Calderone, president of the Cannabis Farmers Alliance, said that "as farmers we know the value of good labor." "But this bill, introduced in the waning days of session, sacrifices many of the goals of the (law that legalized marijuana in New York) simply to bolster labor unions," he continued. "We have serious concerns about the overbroad powers and authorities of the proposed wage board and fear that the costs of compliance will simply push consumers and operators back into the illicit market."
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol table game dealers vote to unionize
June 4, 2026 // Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol table game dealers have voted to unionize. According to the National Labor Relations Board, the vote was 108-65 and was tallied on Saturday. According to Wes Trotterchaud, President of Teamsters Local 519, a small group of employees came to them in January and said they wanted to organize and get a contract to get a better standard of living.
Goldwater Institute: Embracing the Future: Say No to Driver-in Mandates
June 4, 2026 // If an autonomous truck cannot operate safely, it should not be on the road. But if it can operate safely without a human driver, requiring one anyway does not improve safety. It simply raises costs, slows deployment, and forces consumers to pay more. The United States has never prospered by forcing new technology to imitate the old system it improves upon. Policymakers should allow autonomous vehicles and trucking to develop under clear, evidence-based safety rules. They should not revive the logic of railroad featherbedding for the age of artificial intelligence. Autonomous vehicles should be judged by their safety and performance, not by whether they preserve the labor arrangements of the past. The future of freight should be faster, safer, and less expensive. Policymakers should let it arrive.
Republicans’ Latest Pro-Union Move Has Some Conservatives Sounding The Alarm
June 4, 2026 // Vinnie Vernuccio, the president of the Institute for the American Worker, also said that it would give “unprecedented power” to federal bureaucrats. He said that his organization was “proud to stand for union democracy by joining the larger coalition and sounding the alarm on this harmful legislation.” The Senate version of the proposal was introduced by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and also supported by Republican Senators Roger Marshall (Kansas) and Bernie Moreno (Ohio) and 12 other Democrats.
JD Vance Courts Sean O’Brien and the Teamsters
June 1, 2026 // Mr. O’Brien is desperate for a win in Washington to sell to his 1.3 million members as he runs for re-election. Some Republicans in Congress seem eager to give him one—maybe two—as they seek to burnish their bona fides as defenders of the working class. These Republicans are doing more to help Democrats—the primary beneficiaries of Teamster campaign donations—than workers. The Teamsters’ membership has shrunk by nearly half since the 1970s amid a broader decline in organized labor. Technology has improved productivity. At the same time, jobs have migrated to states with right-to-work laws, which prohibit unions and employers from making union membership a condition of employment. The Teamsters have also lost rank-and-file support. Between 2016 and 2025, members filed 373 petitions to decertify the Teamsters, according to Reason magazine. Some 60% of the decertification elections succeeded. You can’t blame union members for wearying of paying dues that bankroll Democratic candidates and lavish lifestyles of union leaders. In the 2023-24 election cycle, 92% of Teamsters PAC donations to federal candidates went to Democrats, as did 91% of the union’s contributions to party committees.
The Faster Labor Contracts Act disempowers workers
June 1, 2026 // The bill’s most obvious defect is its egregious misnaming. Whatever is produced by statutorily compelled arbitration cannot be correctly characterized as a contract at all. A contract results from parties negotiating, compromising, and voluntarily agreeing to terms each can accept. That process is precisely what gives contracts legitimacy and durability. The Faster Labor Contracts Act abandons that principle. Under its framework, if the parties fail to reach agreement within the prescribed period, federal arbitrators impose terms neither side may actually want. This is not a contract; it is coercive government regulation.
GOP’s populists flex muscles with wins on Capitol Hill
May 29, 2026 // F. Vincent Vernuccio, president of the Institute for the American Worker think tank, which has argued against the bill, pointed to hesitation that one union official expressed about that format in a Senate hearing last year, calling it undemocratic. “It takes away the whole point of a union because it takes away the vote from workers, and that’s exactly what the Faster Labor Contracts Act would do,” Vernuccio told The Hill. “If the union and the employer can’t come to an agreement within 120 days, this arbitration panel that’s appointed by government bureaucrats would write everything in that contract.”
Massachusetts: School bus drivers, monitors go on strike in Marlborough
May 28, 2026 // Teamsters Local 170 says it has notified the school district that its hard-working and dedicated employees working for NRT Bus -- which holds the contract for school bus services in Marlborough and for Advance Math Science Academy -- have officially gone on strike. A couple dozen drivers and monitors were picketing at the NRT Bus entrance on Fox Road in Hudson Wednesday morning. According to the union, NRT Bus has given them a "last and final that falls far short" of what is needed to ensure they have access to affordable health care