Teamsters

The California Teamsters, one of the state's most powerful unions, has voted to oppose a proposed ballot initiative to delay enforcement of the state's Global Warming Solutions Act, the nation's toughest law to control greenhouse gas emissions. The Teamsters, with more than 250,000 members in California, is the first major union to officially oppose the measure, which is backed by a group of oil companies, Republican legislators and conservative activists. The group is gathering signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot.

David Carbonara has a gig many of his peers would covet: He writes music for the critically acclaimed AMC show "Mad Men." A former jazz trombonist, Carbonara loves his job and is grateful for the work. Yet even after he labors on 13 episodes for a full year, he says he won't earn enough to support his family. A one-hour basic cable TV show like "Mad Men" pays $7,000 to $13,000 an episode, but at least half of that goes toward hiring musicians, paying for studio time, copying music and other costs that composers like Carbonara increasingly absorb as studios look to lower their expenses.

A top West Coast Teamsters official who headed a chapter representing almost 130,000 members has resigned his post amid allegations that he sexually harassed a former union secretary and offered to be her "sugar daddy." James A. Santangelo, a 50-year Teamster veteran who also served as an international vice president, resigned Friday from his membership in Local 848 in Covina and was automatically removed from three elected positions, said Bret Caldwell, a spokesman in Washington, D.C., for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

About 50 protesters marched into the offices of a Port of Los Angeles freight hauler Monday and demanded the reinstatement of four truckers who they said were wrongfully terminated. The small demonstration at Swift Transportation in Wilmington is part of a new effort by the Teamsters to organize some port drivers, less than six months after they were hired as employees under new city requirements for drayage firms.

Ron Carey, a former president of the Teamsters who pledged to rid the union of mob corruption but was later forced from leadership in a financial scandal, has died. He was 72. Carey died Thursday at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens of complications from lung cancer, his son Daniel Carey said. Carey first joined the Teamsters in 1956 while working as a driver for United Parcel Service.

Interstate Bakeries Corp. and the Teamsters union ended their standoff over a new union contract, allowing the bankrupt maker of Hostess Twinkies to reorganize with financial backing from buyout firm Ripplewood Holdings. Lawyers for Interstate announced the deal Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Kansas City, Mo. Under the proposed reorganization, Ripplewood and hedge fund manager Silver Point Finance would invest in Interstate, and the Teamsters would accept a series of concessions that would save the snack maker from liquidation.

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.

A day after defeating Hillary Rodham Clinton in Wisconsin and Hawaii, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama picked up the endorsement of the powerful Teamsters union, a major boost for his candidacy in the upcoming Texas and Ohio primaries. Obama's labor coup came as Clinton and her advisors were scrambling to stop the momentum her rival has gained by winning 10 contests in a row, all by lopsided margins. On Tuesday, Obama won a party caucus in Hawaii, where he was born, 76% to 24%.

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.

Even as writers and major studios were making a last-ditch effort to avert a walkout early Monday morning, both sides were busily preparing for all-out war. Union workers were furiously assembling picket signs Friday as strike captains contacted scores of television and film writers to tell them where to show up for demonstrations expected to sprout across Hollywood and in New York.