The Teamster Revolt Against the Hoffa Era

cheryl

I started this.
Staff member
The Teamster Revolt Against the Hoffa Era - Jacobin

Willie Ford listened to the conference call in disbelief from the cab of his tractor trailer on I-95 as the Teamster election monitor announced the results of the contract vote covering 250,000 workers at UPS.

Ford, a leader of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), and rank-and-file activists like him, had spent months organizing the UPS Teamster United campaign to win contract improvements.

But UPS management and top Teamster officials agreed to givebacks, including a two-tier wage scale for drivers, and spent millions on a coordinated campaign to promote and push through their concessionary deal.

Now was the moment of truth.
 

zubenelgenubi

I'm a star
It doesn't matter who's in charge. If the vast majority of members are too scared or stoned to strike, or even vote, there will be give backs

It's going to have to start from the ground up. I have some plans in the works for getting the attention of my coworkers. I will share what, if anything, works out.
 

olroadbeech

Happy Verified UPSer
the members are their own worse enemies. have been saying this years. too spoilt , too fat, too scared......

get used to this until it's all gone.
 

R. Mutt

"You're not my supervisor!"
I can and will likely always understand TDU cynicism (I don't trust any truly optimistic UPSer of more than a couple years seniority,) but I never understood the hate.

I'm not a TDU member anymore but in my early days before I knew any vocal Teamsters I could always trust to hear back from them about contract questions when my local didn't get back to me for weeks, if at all.

Personal experience, though.
 

zubenelgenubi

I'm a star
I can and will likely always understand TDU cynicism (I don't trust any truly optimistic UPSer of more than a couple years seniority,) but I never understood the hate.

I'm not a TDU member anymore but in my early days before I knew any vocal Teamsters I could always trust to hear back from them about contract questions when my local didn't get back to me for weeks, if at all.

Personal experience, though.

I'm not sure if you were referring directly to what I said, or just making a general statement. I, for one, don't hate TDU, just like I don't hate the current union leadership. But, from my experience with dealing with TDU folks, it seems more like they are only interested in being in charge, making anything better isn't on their radar.

TDU and current leadership seem mostly like two sides to the same coin. I can appreciate that they do put out more information, and a different perspective, than the official union channels. I don't know how much I can trust either, though.
 
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