Teamsters

Hollywood's drivers and the major studios continued last-ditch contract talks late Friday in an effort to avoid a head-on collision. The local Teamsters branch, which represents drivers who haul equipment to film sets, has been negotiating for a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of the major studios. But a major stumbling block has been a dispute over pay rates for more than 3,000 Teamsters drivers. Barring a last-minute compromise, union leaders are expected to seek a strike authorization vote from members Sunday.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In the hours BBC (Before Bill Clinton's big speech), large themes were evoked at the Democratic National Convention here. Corporate and union leaders followed one another onto the platform to invite Americans to their political bromance of business and labor working hand-in-work-glove. On Labor Day itself, as men and women in yellow "Teamsters for Obama" T-shirts were strolling around the hall, I was talking to my colleague Matea Gold, who covers politics and money, about unions being at a soul-searching crossroads.

Automaker BMW and the Teamsters union have tentatively agreed to extend the current labor contract at the Ontario parts distribution warehouse for six months as they work on a long-term agreement. The contracts for 68 workers were set to expire at the end of August, and the German automaker had planned to turn over operation of the facility to a third-party logistics firm. "We had a good discussion with the Teamsters, and we intend to extend the contract for six months to provide the time to address the substantive issues facing both of our organizations," said BMW Group spokesman Kenn Sparks.

Ailing Twinkies maker Hostess Brands Inc. is going toe-to-toe with its workers' unions in a courtroom clash that the company said may lead to its liquidation. Hostess is trying to persuade a federal bankruptcy judge in New York to allow it to reject existing collective bargaining agreements with the Teamsters and bakers' unions. The maker of Ho Hos, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, three years after emerging from its last bankruptcy.

Members of the Teamsters ratified a new five-year contract with the nation's long-haul trucking companies, the union and an industry association said. The contract, approved by 70% of the voting members, features pension and benefit improvements, a $750 bonus in the first year, and 35-cents-an-hour wage increases over the next four years--so that senior drivers will make $19.86 an hour by the final year.

Performance Transportation Services Inc., the new-car hauler struck Monday by the Teamsters union, said it had lost customers and was "on a quick path to death." The company controlled by billionaire Ron Burkle, the second-largest hauler of new vehicles in the U.S., issued the warning in a court filing Tuesday. It said that none of its workers had crossed picket lines and that it was not hiring replacement drivers. The stakes are high as well for the Teamsters, which called the strike after the company won U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval to cut worker pay.

It seems that no matter what the labor movement does these days, it has no short supply of naysayers--even among those who claim to support labor's goals. Harold Meyerson's article criticizing the reaffiliation of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters with the AFL-CIO is a prime example (Op-Ed Page, Nov. 13). Meyerson seems to attribute the bulk of labor's problems to its poor ranking in one public opinion poll and claims that the Teamsters' reaffiliation will do little to improve the image of the movement.

Teamsters President James P. Hoffa unveiled a plan to rid his 1.4-million-member union of any organized crime elements in an attempt to end more than a decade of federal supervision. The strategy calls for the union to complete by next year a report on any organized crime influence and move toward rooting out corruption. It also calls for creation of a conduct code, an ethics board and an internal system to punish abuses. Hoffa announced the plan at a meeting of union council leaders in Chicago.

Unionized Anheuser-Busch workers in contract talks with their employer say they are prepared to strike as early as next week if the negotiations collapse. Eyeing a Sunday evening deadline for the talks, scores of employees at the brewer's sprawling Van Nuys plant walked a makeshift picket line Thursday, with many carrying signs saying they were "just practicing." But a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 896 said the workers were ready for a real work stoppage.

The Teamsters executive board, which only a month ago agreed to a sweeping settlement of a racketeering suit designed to fight criminal elements in the union, has appointed a new member who has two prior convictions for federal labor law violations. George Vitale, 60, president of Teamsters Union Local 283 in Detroit, was appointed to fill a vacancy on the 18-member board at a meeting this week in Palm Springs. In October, 1972, Vitale pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of accepting $500 from Sanron Service Co., a Detroit company whose workers were represented by Vitale's local, in violation of the Taft-Hartley Act. He was fined $2,000 and given two years probation.

Bankrupt Twinkie-maker Hostess  Brands Inc. is going toe-to-toe with its workers' union in a clash that the company said may lead to its own liquidation. A two-day trial began Tuesday in which Hostess will try to convince a federal bankruptcy judge in New York to allow it to reject its existing collective bargaining agreements with the Teamsters and bakers' unions. The Ho Hos, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread maker filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, less than five years after emerging from its last bout of bankruptcy.

Led by Sarah Palin, the “tea party” movement, which is often accused of promoting incivility, on Tuesday lashed out at Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa and Democrats for using vulgar language and promoting class war. In his introduction of President Obama in Detroit on Monday, Hoffa warmed up the pro-union crowd on Labor Day with an old-fashioned union call to arms. For the Record, 7:31 a.m. Sept. 9: An earlier version of this online article did not include an ellipsis, indicating that additional language had been skipped, in a quote from Jimmy Hoffa.

Automaker BMW and the Teamsters union have tentatively agreed to extend the current labor contract at the Ontario parts distribution warehouse for six months as they work on a long-term agreement. The contracts for 68 workers were set to expire at the end of August, and the German automaker had planned to turn over operation of the facility to a third-party logistics firm. "We had a good discussion with the Teamsters, and we intend to extend the contract for six months to provide the time to address the substantive issues facing both of our organizations," said BMW Group spokesman Kenn Sparks.

Alarmed by recent union losses in a Wisconsin labor battle, thousands of organized workers marched through downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, vowing to fight a similar fate here in cash-strapped California. Police estimated between 5,000 and 8,000 people attended the protest, which ended in a packed rally at Pershing Square. The event comes in response to the Wisconsin Legislature's approval of a bill this month that curtails the collective bargaining rights of many unions and follows a weeks-long battle.

James F. Neal, a formidable lawyer who won noteworthy victories on both sides of the courtroom ? as a prosecutor he sent Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa and top Watergate figures to prison, and as a defense attorney he saved film director John Landis and Ford Motor Co. from serious criminal charges ? died Thursday at a Nashville hospital. He was 81. The cause was esophageal cancer, said his longtime law partner, Aubrey B. Harwell. Neal's reputation for tenacity and brilliance in the courtroom began with the 1964 prosecution of Hoffa, who had successfully fended off two dozen indictments until Neal, a stocky, cigar-chomping ex-Marine with a Tennessee drawl, was assigned to his case.

Wallace Turner, a tenacious investigative reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 with the Portland Oregonian and later became a bureau chief in San Francisco and Seattle for the New York Times, has died. He was 89. Turner died Saturday at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield, Ore., of complications from old age, said his daughter Kathy. Turner and fellow Oregonian reporter William Lambert shared the Pulitzer for local reporting for their examination of corruption involving Portland officials and the Teamsters Union.

Striking Teamsters and meat cutters returned to the bargaining table Thursday afternoon in hopes of ending their 3-day-old strike against more than 1,000 Southern California supermarkets. Meanwhile, strike supporters unveiled new tactics--taking a busload of union officials to several Vons stores in Los Angeles and Orange counties, where they persuaded retail clerks to walk off the job. Store managers and some consumers were angered by the strategy.

Hollywood drivers on Sunday accepted a proposed contract from the studios, averting a strike that could have caused widespread disruptions to film and TV production across the country. The vote came after last-minute negotiations Saturday yielded a compromise that mollified leaders of Teamsters Local 399, who were prepared to seek a strike authorization vote from members. Both sides had been in a standoff over pay rates for more than 3,000 drivers who deliver equipment and stars to sets and on-location film and television sites.

Hollywood's drivers and the major studios continued last-ditch contract talks late Friday in an effort to avoid a head-on collision. The local Teamsters branch, which represents drivers who haul equipment to film sets, has been negotiating for a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of the major studios. But a major stumbling block has been a dispute over pay rates for more than 3,000 Teamsters drivers. Barring a last-minute compromise, union leaders are expected to seek a strike authorization vote from members Sunday.