December 5, 2007: Carhaulers are reacting with anger over the latest move to gut the national carhaul contract and pay members a bonus to impose concessions on fellow Teamsters.
Years of struggle to win a good contract are on the line, as Yucaipa—which controls the two largest carhaul companies—moves to spread concessions with the blessing of the Hoffa administration.
The Hoffa administration has cut a deal to slash the wages of 2,000 carhaul Teamsters at Performance Transportation Services (PTS) by 17.5 percent.
Incredibly, these Teamsters will be denied the right to vote on the wage cut, which will be followed by a three-year wage freeze.
Instead, the International Union’s plan is to have the 3,500 carhaul Teamsters at Allied vote to cut the wages of their brothers and sisters at PTS. Even worse: each Allied Teamster will get a $2,000 bonus if they approve the PTS wage cut.
Members Oppose Cuts
Tim Krueger, a Local 89 Allied driver out of Bowling Green, Ky. summed up what many are saying: “I wouldn’t vote for any kind of concessions for my fellow Teamsters. We were screwed by Allied and by the International when they shoved the 17 percent cut down our throats. Seems strange that five months ago Allied was bankrupt, and now they are buying a bankrupt PTS. Wake up Teamsters! If they can afford to buy PTS they should be able to pay us.”
“PTS Teamsters are not getting any say whatsoever in this process, which appears to be one more case of corporations shuttling money from one pocket to another,” said George Warner, the PTS steward from Local 580 in Lansing, Mich.
“The International should be ashamed to play on members’ fears, and violate their own concession agreement that they made just six months ago.”
The International Union rushed out ballots to Allied Teamsters on Dec. 3, and plans to count them on Dec. 19, to impose concessions on PTS Teamsters.
Thanks to a successful lawsuit by TDU attorney Barbara Harvey, there will be independent rank-and-file observers at the vote count.
How We Got to This Point
Six months ago the investment company Yucaipa, headed by billionaire Ron Burkle, took control of Allied Holdings. Yucaipa already controlled PTS.
Hoffa and Zuckerman told Allied Teamsters that Burkle is “union friendly” and if they approved 17.5 percent wage concessions, he would look after their interests and build up Teamster jobs.
Teamsters for a Democratic Union and many experienced carhaulers warned that the cuts would spread throughout the industry, with PTS at the head of the line. That’s exactly what is happening.
Allied and PTS control a big majority of union carhaul traffic. What happens when the other employers demand wage concessions?
Hoffa talks about Teamster Power. But his administration’s only plan for defending our contracts is to gut the industry standards that these contracts exist to protect.
Plenty of Teamsters know that surrendering our standards will not save our contracts.
In the original vote on the Allied concessions six months ago, carhaulers in Detroit, Flint, Jacksonville, Louisville, Nashville, Dayton, St. Paul, Janesville, Baltimore, St. Louis, Tampa, Birmingham and elsewhere voted to reject the concessions.
More isolated locals where TDUers and other active carhaulers did not reach people voted yes. In some cases, terminals that closed years ago recorded unanimous yes votes (Portland, closed five years, voted 12-0 yes.). As a result, the concessions were narrowly approved by two percent.
With a little more organization, we could have defeated the givebacks before they spread throughout the industry.
We need to build a strong national network of Teamsters who want to defend our contracts, and take coordinated action to defend our industry standards. That’s where Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) stands. If you agree, get involved today. The contract you save may just be your own.