Teamsters: A sleeping American giant now spoiling for a fight

[Elderberry]

By Sam Cabral BBC News, Washington 3/22/2022

It is not a surprise when Sean O'Brien tells the BBC that he plans to take one of America's largest labour unions from "complacency" to "militancy".

On Tuesday, Mr O'Brien, 49, became the first new president in 23 years to take the helm of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters - a 1.4 million member union that represents professions from warehouse workers to freight drivers - and he has made it known that he is aching for a fight.

"Over the last 10 years, there hasn't been any vigilance, any militancy, and corporate America knew that," he said, speaking to the BBC after his election last year.

Under his tenure, "we're going to put the Teamsters back on the map", he said.

Mr O'Brien has vowed to re-negotiate "substandard" and "concessionary" national contracts with companies like United Parcel Service (UPS), one of the largest mail carriers in the US, and says he will not shy away from walkouts if his demands are not met.

And he has an even bigger goal in his sights: taking on Amazon.

"We've got to protect, preserve and improve working conditions," he said.

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Mr Hoffa declined to comment for this story.

In November, the candidate he hand-picked was defeated by Mr O'Brien by a two-to-one margin.

Much of the recent frustration with Mr O'Brien's predecessor arose from 2017 negotiations with UPS for a new national contract.

As president, Mr O'Brien has said he will take that on.

"A lot of companies - not just UPS but several major employers - knew that the Teamsters union wasn't going to strike," he said.

"The empty threats need to be realities moving forward".

The Teamsters have not had a national walkout since 1997. Its defence fund for members on strike has ballooned to over $300m (£226m) under Mr Hoffa.

Mr O'Brien's contention is that, if he fights hard for better contracts, he can mobilise his members to recruit warehouse workers at Amazon.

"That means being tough at the negotiating table and using a template that we can take to unorganised workers," he said.

More: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60818241

[DB]

Morons.

The economy is a wreck and getting worse and these fools think they can force you to pay even more on top of what's already happening. Recession, here we come...

[catfish1957]

Morons.

The economy is a wreck and getting worse and these fools think they can force you to pay even more on top of what's already happening. Recession, here we come...

Refinery a tad south of me went on strike for almost 10 months, and end result was getting a paid MLK holiday.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Corporations will convert employees, lucky enough to have jobs, to contractors and subcontractors without any benefits, and further outsource to vendors.

Corporations are legal entities that can restructure themselves and their business models as needed to avoid taking on structural liabilities (defined benefit programs) that put them at long-term competitive disadvantage.

It will also hasten the adoption of automous delivery technologies.

In the early 2000's I heard one financial services executive explain that the long-term plan was for the corporate brand to become an umbrella for competitively sourced services provided by third party vendors.  The long-term direction was to become a corporation that owned nothing, therefore had no long-term liabilities.

[EdinVA]

It was just a matter of time.
Employers dumping employees over the stupid vaccine mandates, open borders and employees having no way to defend themselves.

[Cyber Liberty]

A Union with a beef about one big company?  Wake me up when it's over.

[mountaineer]

Last I heard, unions represented only 12% of American workers. Is that still the number?

[Elderberry]

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf

In 2021, the number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions continued to decline (-241,000) to
14.0 million, and the percent who were members of unions—the union membership rate—was 10.3
percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The rate is down from 10.8 percent in
2020—when the rate increased due to a disproportionately large decline in the total number of nonunion
workers compared with the decline in the number of union members. The 2021 unionization rate is the
same as the 2019 rate of 10.3 percent. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are
available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were 17.7 million union workers.

[andy58-in-nh]

Delivery drones and self-driving trucks do not have a need for collective bargaining agreements.

As an added bonus, they do not feel compelled to make side deals with the Mob, or to beat up their replacements.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Last I heard, unions represented only 12% of American workers. Is that still the number?

I bet most of those are Government employees.

[Kamaji]

Delivery drones and self-driving trucks do not have a need for collective bargaining agreements.

As an added bonus, they do not feel compelled to make side deals with the Mob, or to beat up their replacements.

[ironhorsedriver]

Maybe they should concentrate on actually improving the USPS. It has gotten worse than pathetic. Took to weeks for them to deliver a package 600 miles.

[mountaineer]

Maybe they should concentrate on actually improving the USPS. It has gotten worse than pathetic. Took to weeks for them to deliver a package 600 miles.

My brother-in-law used to work for the USPS. They have something like four different unions representing them, and no white man ever was promoted, at least where he worked.