Teamsters Union

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a clean air plan requiring shipping companies to buy and maintain a modernized fleet of big rigs and employ thousands of independent truckers who currently operate under contract. A spokesman for the American Trucking Assn. derided the plan as a "scheme to unionize port drivers" and vowed that his group would sue the port.

Officials at the National Labor Relations Board are scheduled to count ballots this morning to see whether Los Angeles Times press operators have authorized union representation by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. As many as 300 of the production employees were eligible to vote Thursday and Friday on whether to unionize the newspaper's two printing facilities, in downtown Los Angeles and Costa Mesa.

Los Angeles Times press operators narrowly approved representation by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, according to union election results tallied Saturday by the National Labor Relations Board. The 140-131 vote in favor of the Teamsters' Graphic Communications Conference represented a rare victory for organized labor against a newspaper with a long history of antipathy toward unions.

Costco Wholesale Corp., the largest U.S. warehouse chain, reached a tentative agreement with Teamsters representing 13,000 California workers after four months of negotiation, the union said. The agreement represents "significant gains" in retirement, wages and seniority and maintains current pension and healthcare contributions, the Teamsters said. Voting begins in the next two weeks.

Shareholders of Allied Holdings Inc. claim that billionaire Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. improperly conspired with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union to gain control of Allied in Bankruptcy Court. Hawk Opportunity Fund sued L.A.-based Yucaipa and the Teamsters in federal court in Atlanta on Monday, claiming that they violated state and federal racketeering laws by negotiating a reorganization plan without the knowledge of Allied, the biggest U.S. hauler of new cars.

The Orange County Transportation Authority and its 1,100-member bus drivers union approved a new contract Monday, ending the strike that shut down most of the county's public transit system for nine days. The transit agency asked its drivers to return to their scheduled routes at noon Monday and said full service was expected to be restored by midweek. OCTA will continue to let passengers ride free of charge through Thursday as the routes resume normal operation, officials said.

Representatives of Teamsters Local 399, along with basic crafts unions representing such workers as electricians, plumbers, laborers and plasterers, reached a three-year tentative contract with studios and TV networks. Details weren't immediately disclosed pending notification of members. Companies are represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. About 6,000 Southern California workers are affected.

President Bush has "sucker punched" American workers and threatened national security by opening the nation's southern border to Mexican truckers, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa said at a conference in Houston. He said the Bush administration's pilot program, which took effect Thursday, showed a lack of concern for domestic security.

United Parcel Service Inc. on Sunday reached a tentative, five-year agreement with the union that represents about 240,000 full- and part-time UPS employees in the United States. UPS said the deal included wage increases and significant contributions to healthcare and pension plans for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The agreement beats a deadline today that the union had set for a tentative contract.

Rick Valencia stared through his windshield at the Hollywood writers pacing in front of the Paramount Studios gate, a blur of red T-shirts and picket signs blocking his passage. He'd been driving trucks for more than three decades, but earned less in a year than some of these writers made in a week. Scribes in the upper echelon of the Writers Guild of America were bona-fide members of the Hollywood elite.