Teamster Carhaulers Need IBT Support

October 12, 2009. Teamster carhaulers are under fire: their industry is in a depression and their jobs are under attack. Leadership from the Teamsters Union is sorely needed to defend Teamster jobs and the national contract.

Teamster leaders are now calling on Congressional reps and public support to pressure the companies. GM and Chrysler, the biggest offenders in attacking Teamsters jobs, received billions of our tax dollars in bail-out money, with Teamster support. That was supposed to save good jobs, not eliminate them. Click here for a news report on Michigan Congressional reps on this issue.

That’s a start and deserves all our support, but a whole lot more is needed, and should have been done long ago.

The Hoffa leadership has been missing in action. While the vehicle manufacturers—the Big 3 and imports alike—have been out to bust our contract to save pennies per unit, members have demanded action from the Hoffa administration.

With excess trucking capacity, the car makers are squeezing carhaul carriers to lower costs. Since our union has not successfully organized, we face increased pressure from nonunion carriers.

Carhaul employers have gone local by local and terminal by terminal extracting concessions, in blatant violation of the national carhaul contract. From Minnesota to Florida, from Texas to Detroit, and almost everywhere in between, wage concessions have hit workers at Allied, Cassens and Cooper Active: the company spin is cut wages below the contract or lose work.

On March 3, Carhaul Director Fred “Milk Carton” Zuckerman issued a bulletin warning locals that these terminal by terminal deals “…are an attempt to circumvent the Master Contract and its terms and obligations.” That was a good statement, but it was only a smokescreen and not enforced once.

In fact, Zuckerman’s own Local 89 is in the bidding war. Recently Local 89 put in place a 25 percent of revenue rate (no mileage pay) for certain new business, the same plan that has been voted in at many terminals, without any national approach adopted.

Canadian carhaulers, where the nonunion sector is tiny, have also been hit with concessions. Unfortunately, nearly 300 carhaulers at Gen Auto voted to leave the Teamsters for the Canadian Auto Workers, and 700 Allied Teamsters in Ontario and Quebec have filed for a vote to follow them, unless our union can win them back.

If you don’t strengthen your contract and union in good times, you get hard hit in the economic bad times. It’s crystal clear that we need a change in leadership.

What do you think? Click here to send your comments to Teamsters for a Democratic Union.