Today's Teamster News 09.26.12

QE3 = Jobs for Wall St  zero hedge   ...QE3 was basically a program for the Federal Reserve to give money to the banks until Beethoven writes his 10th Symphony. There is no connection to employment whatsoever...
Bacon, pork shortage 'now unavoidable,' industry group says  Los Angeles Times   ..."a world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable," according to an industry trade group. Blame the drought conditions that blazed through the corn and soybean crop this year...
IMF says risks remain in financial system as US investors take fright  Guardian   ...A Federal Reserve official's scepticism about the US central bank's efforts to stem the financial crisis alarmed Wall Street on Tuesday, as the International Monetary Fund warned that the global financial system remains as risky as it was before the credit crisis...
Lang says Packers discussed extreme measures on flight home  NBC Sports   ...during the flight home from Seattle, the players discussed the possibility of going on strike — or simply taking a knee on every offensive snap — until the lockout of the officials ends...
Teamsters union rallies to keep jobs intact  Hernando Today   ...some members of Teamsters Local 79 were outside protesting recent personnel decisions. Union steward Dan Oliver expected many of the unionized employees to walk around the building expressing their displeasure over human resources, which he said is engaged in rewriting many of the county personnel job titles and forcing those employees to reapply for their jobs at lower pay scales...
Waste Management to pay $1.24M in settlement over garbage strike  Seattle Times   ...The longest garbage strike in Seattle history has resulted in rebates to customers whose trash wasn't collected, sometimes for as long as 12 days...

NFL bosses target union leader Drew Brees

This is what a union thug looks like.

Outspoken union leaders risk being singled out and punished by management, even if they're millionaire NFL stars. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees can attest to that.

Brees, the NFL Offensive Player of the Year who led the Saints to a Super Bowl victory in 2010, is fighting to secure a strong contract from his team.

According to Dave Zirin at The Nation, it isn’t about Brees asking for too much. Rather, Brees is being targeted for his trade unionism:

In fall 2010, it was Brees who led a procession onto the field in full view of the Sunday Night Football cameras with one finger in the air, a symbol that both teams—the Saints and Vikings—were actually one team united against ownership…As the team’s union representative and member of the NFLPA [National Football League Players Association] executive board, Brees remained outspoken and was one of the lead plaintiffs in the lockout lawsuits against the NFL.

The NFLPA is demanding an investigation into whether the Saints are going after Brees for his union activism.

As Zirin reports, Brees has also defended fellow players -- including Will Smith, Anthony Hargrove, Jonathan Vilma and Scott Fujita -- against charges they took part in a bounty program to injure opponents.

Brees is leveraging his fame to argue that he and his team are being targeted for the crime of being loud and proud union leaders during last year’s NFL lockout.

Former teammate Fujita – the recipient of the 2010 Teamsters Human Rights Award and the brother of Jason Fujita, a member of Local 492 – explains why Brees has become such a big target for league bosses:

In recent years Drew has taken some strong positions against league management. He doesn’t have to do this, but he chooses to because he knows it’s the right thing to do, and because he’s a natural leader who all players look to and respect. That’s quite rare for someone of his stature. He has great conviction.

Zirin explains what’s at stake for workers and union power as a whole:

There is no higher cultural platform in the country than the National Football League. NBC’s Sunday Night Football is the highest-rated program of the fall season. The Super Bowl is the most watched program in the history of this country. Drew Brees has been one of the faces of this league since the Saints won the Super Bowl in 2010. If he can be spanked like an unruly child for the crime of standing with his union, what does that portend for the public sector worker in Ohio, the Chicago teacher who just voted to go on strike or the Starbucks barista trying to start a union? I’m not saying that Drew Brees is some kind of Joe Hill with a tight spiral, but this is about ensuring that anyone who wants a union or is in a union can speak out in defense of their livelihood.

Amen!

--Union Thug

Today's Teamster News 04.27.11

NLRB will sue Ariz., SD over union laws  Associated Press   ...it will move ahead with lawsuits against Arizona and South Dakota over state constitutional amendments that require secret ballot elections to form unions...
With Lockout Lifted for Now, Questions on How to Proceed  New York Times  ...the N.F.L. was stuck in a state of confusion Tuesday, one day after an injunction to stop the six-week-long lockout was issued...
At least 9 Wisconsin state senators face recall  Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   ...In all, three Democrats, and possibly four, have now escaped having signatures filed, and at least three campaigns are still active - against two Republicans and a Democrat...
House votes to restrict unions  Boston Globe   ...the push in Massachusetts was led by Democrats who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers’ rights...
EFM Harris may use authority to terminate Benton Harbor union contracts  WNDU.com   ...EMF Joe Harris said Monday that it is "conceivable" that he will end contracts with union workers...
Ohio GOP lawmakers plan changes to Gov. John Kasich's education budget  Plain Dealer   ...Battered by angry crowds at suburban school district meetings in recent days, House Republican lawmakers will offer up changes Thursday limiting the budgetary pain inflicted on schools by Gov. John Kasich's budget proposal...
Rick Scott's Major Failure: Legislature Won't Eliminate Corporate Income Tax  New Times   ...Florida is undergoing a radical conservative transformation under Gov. Rick Scott, but one of his top proposals seems to be a bridge too far and too soon even for the Republican supermajorities in the state House and Senate...

Today's Teamster News 03.12.11

Hundreds rally against 'corporate greed' in St. Louis  St. Louis Business Journal   ...Hundreds of union members, community organizers, St. Louis Democratic party officials and church leaders gathered ... on Friday afternoon ... (taking) ... particular issue with proposed legislation that would make Missouri a "right-to-work" state...
Wisconsin governor signs bill curbing unions; opponents fight on  Los Angeles Times   ...As Gov. Scott Walker signs a bill curbing collective bargaining for public workers, his opponents prepare for court battles and more demonstrations...
Who is the enemy of Kasich’s “shock and awe” budget strategy?  Plunderbund   ...it seems obvious that Kasich’s enemy is Ohio’s working and middle class citizens...
House passes union bill after emotional debate  Des Moines Register   ...The bill is expected to die in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats...
NFL players' union decertifies; owners institute lockout  Los Angeles Times   ...By decertifying — dissolving itself as a union — the NFL Players Assn. has cleared the way for individual players to file antitrust lawsuits against the league...
Union workers at Cinetic Landis vote against contract proposal  (Local 992)  Herald-Mail   ...Letter informs employees the company might take its work to Europe...
MTD Union Accepts Amended Contract Offer, Won’t Strike  (Local 186)   Noozhawk.com   ...Negotiations have been ongoing for about a year...

Quiz: Who said what about destroying unions?

We've long noticed that if you've gotten a sound bite from one Republican, you'll get the same one from all of them.

Now we're hearing the same sound bites from a Koch whore governor, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, and an NFL commissioner (Roger Goodell -- who's probably a Republican.)

Slate offers this quiz to show just how these two anti-union fellows are singing from the same song book. Who, for example, said this, Goodell or Walker:

Staying with the status quo is not an option. The world has changed for everyone.

Or this:

We all recognize that these are historic times that require us to rethink how [our entity] operates.

Find the answer here.

Today's Teamster News 03.02.11

AFL-CIO leader: Wisconsin fight energizing unions  Associated Press   ... In trying to take away nearly all collective bargaining rights from state workers, Wisconsin's governor may have unintentionally given the American labor movement the lift it needed ...
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker threatens lay offs if Democrats don't vote on state budget  Daily News   ...Wisconsin's union-busting Republican governor threatened Tuesday to lay off hundreds of public sector workers if the Democratic lawmakers who split the state don't return and vote on his proposed budget...
More Than 20,000 Rally in Ohio for Public Employees  aflcionowblog   ... as the state legislature began hearings on Gov. John Kasich’s onerous anti-worker bill known as Senate Bill 5 or S.B. 5...
Correctional officer stabbed at State Penitentiary  (Local 117)   ...an officer was found laying against the wall and bleeding profusely. He had been stabbed in the face with a ball point pen...
Rick Scott sued by Senators Joyner, Altman in Florida Supreme Court Miami Herald   ...The lawsuit would force Scott to accept about $2.4 billion in federal transit money for the high-speed rail plan... 
Unintended, but Sound Advice  (opinion) New York Times   ... all workers should be organized, whether they were actually in a union or not...
In Labor Clash, N.F.L.’s Union Calls Old Play  New York Times   ...the union is planning to effectively dissolve itself...
REPORT: How Koch Industries Makes Billions By Demanding Bailouts And Taxpayer Subsidies (Part 1)  ThinkProgress   ... Koch’s Tea Party libertarianism is actually a thin veneer for the company’s long running history of winning special deals from the government and manipulating the market to pad Koch profits...

Superbowl champs against Wisco budget

This just in: Seven Green Bay Packers signed a statement today opposing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's attack on workers.
Five used to play for the team and two are on the current Superbowl championship team. They are Jason Spitz,  Brady Poppinga, Curtis Fuller, Charles Jordan, Bob Long, Steve Okoniewski and Chris Jacke.

Their letter says:

...the right to negotiate wages and benefits is a fundamental underpinning of our middle class.

When workers join together it serves as a check on corporate power and helps ALL workers by raising community standards. Wisconsin’s long standing tradition of allowing public-sector workers to have a voice on the job has worked for the state since the 1930s. It has created greater consistency in the relationship between labor and management and a shared approach to public work.

These public workers are Wisconsin’s champions every single day and we urge the governor and the state legislature to not take away their rights.

The players are facing their own lockout in a few weeks. Help them out by signing a petition here.

Talks collapse between NFL owners and players

It's looking more and more like a lockout.

The NFL players and owners canceled the second of a two-day bargaining session.  

Reported the AP today,

With just three weeks to go before the collective bargaining agreement expires on March 3, talks between the owners and union came to a halt after just one session.

"We wish we were negotiating today," NFL Players Association spokesman George Atallah said. "That's all I can say"...The collapse of the talks came as a surprise. The two sides got together Wednesday for the second time in five days, the previous negotiations taking place in Dallas on Saturday before the Super Bowl.

Jim Brown, Teamster wannabe

Also today, the players made their case at a news conference in Washington with American Rights at Work.

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Chris Carr said

Most players just know football and just want to play football. We’re here today for the workers working in the concession stands, the bars, and the restaurants. Those are the people it’s really going to affect.

John Marler is one of those workers. He's a beer vendor at Ford Field in Detroit and a member of UNITE HERE Local 24. "A lockout will devastate my coworkers and the city’s economy," he said. 
Sports columnist Dave Zirin said the lockout is huge.

We’re watching the most powerful men in America tell workers to work longer for less pay. This is huge for everyone.

Kimberly Freeman Brown said a lockout is something "that could potentially have devastating consequences on our quality of life and our mental health."

Studies show a lockout would have an impact on 150,000 jobs and cause more than $160 million in lost revenue in every city with an NFL team.

She called a potential work stoppage "something that could potentially have devastating consequences on our quality of life and our mental health."

The Teamsters have a long history of solidarity with the NFL players. In 1967, the great Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown distributed union cards in an effort to form a Teamsters affiliate. Most recently, the Teamsters and the Players Association delivered two tractor-trailers full of food and supplies to needy families in New Orleans.

You can help support the players by signing a petition urging the NFL owners NOT to lock out the players.

Today's Teamster News 02.09.11

White House to Revive Latin America Deals  Wall Street Journal   ...The Obama administration is accelerating efforts to revive stalled trade agreements with Colombia and Panama...
Obama Misguided In Push for Free Trade (opinion)  Economy in Crisis   ...This paradoxical farce of telling the country's leading outsourcers of the need to produce jobs at home, and then providing a solution that will only cause more job losses would be comical if it were not our own livelihoods at stake...
An NFL Lockout the Players Could Support  Wall Street Journal   ...The players want to increase their share of league revenues so they can improve health-care benefits, while the owners want to reduce the players' portion of revenues by $1 billion...
Doing the Math on a Jobless Recovery  Wall Street Journal   ...At the rate of 36,000 new jobs a month—the number gained in January—we will never get back to full employment...
Jobs JOLTS for December 2010  The Economic Populist   ...The December report shows there were 4.73 official unemployed people hunting for a job to every position available...
Administration Pitches Big Rail Projects  New York Times   ...The Obama administration, whose efforts to bring high-speed rail to the United States were sidetracked by Republican governors in a couple of states, pressed ahead with its vision of building a national rail network on Tuesday when it called for spending $53 billion on passenger trains and high-speed rail projects over the next six years...
Rich Take From Poor as U.S. Subsidy Law Funds Luxury Hotels  Bloomberg   ...Since 2003, some of the world’s biggest financial companies, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., U.S. Bancorp, JPMorgan Chase and Prudential, have taken advantage of a federal subsidy that will cost taxpayers $10.1 billion...
Oilsands pipeline project winning support in U.S., Liepert says  Vancouver Sun   ...The Alberta government is “very encouraged” that it is getting its message out among Americans that TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline offers big benefits to the United States, the province’s energy minister said Tuesday...

...and now, in NFL lockout news

Former Pittsburgh Steeler Nolan Harrison explains why it's a big deal for NFL players to have health insurance after they've retired from the game.

Injuries are an issue keeping the players and the owners apart on a new contract. So is the length of the season. We're less than a month away from the end of their collective bargaining agreement, which expires on March 3. The owners are expected to lock out the players on March 4.

Aside from missing the game, why should anyone care that owners lock out workers who made an average of $1.9 million a year in 2009?

As the late, great Bob Feller might say, it's the principle that workers have a right to join together to bargain collectively. Whether you earn $1.9 million or $19,000 a year, you are still a worker because you're employed at the whim of someone else who signs your paycheck.

Harrison stood up for that principle yesterday on the picket line at Dallas/Fort Worth airport. Harrison and  two other retired NFL players (former Kansas City Chief Ken Jolly and former L.A. Ram Isiah Robertson) joined an informational picket by Transport Workers United mechanics and baggage handlers at American Airlines. The TWU workers have been without a contract since 2006.

Here's another principle: Owners don't have a unilateral right to demand more work for less pay. The owners want to add two more games to the regular season and pay the players less. Says Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton,

Fair compensation and a safe workplace is something that all Americans want, including the players of the NFL.

And here's a reality: The owners could be the only ones making more money if they lock out the players. That's because they've negotiated contracts with the networks that guarantees them revenue even if the games aren't played. The players took the owners to court, claiming they've bought themselves lockout insurance in violation of their contract.

If the players do get locked out, more than 100,000 jobs would be affected and more than $140 million would be lost to every city with an NFL team.

Sign a petition here to block the lockout.

Today's Teamster News 02.05.11

Missouri union membership rises, defying national trend  St. Louis Post-Dispatch  ...defying a national trend and mystifying both union leaders and economists...
Union, agents consider boycott of combine or draft  NBC Sports   ...union officials and player agents are discussing withholding players from the Scouting Combine and urging players not to attend the NFL Draft...
Local Government Jobs More at Risk  Wall Street Journal   ...The economic slump may be just beginning for thousands of teachers, police, office clerks and other local-government workers still on the job...
Harper presses Obama to approve Keystone oilsands pipeline  The Vancouver Sun   ...Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a personal pitch Friday for President Barack Obama to support a controversial $7 billion pipeline that could double the amount of Alberta oilsands crude exported to the United States.
Walker hurting state, starting with train mess (Opinion)   Appleton Post Crescent ...It's such a shame that high-speed rail is dead in Wisconsin...
UCRRA workers approve contract extension  (Local 445) midhudsonnews.com   ...Workers at the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency have approved a one year extension of their union contract...

CBS won't run NFL players ad

But you can watch it here.

CBS, a broadcast partner of the NFL owners, won't run the players' ad opposing a lockout by the owners. CBS says it doesn't want to get involved in the dispute between the owners and the players. According to the Washington Post,

The network is one of four that combined to pay the league as much as $4 billion a year for television rights, and union officials have suggested the ad was pulled in deference to the networks' financial ties to the NFL.

"I'm confused and frankly a little irritated," said George Atallah, a spokesman for the players union. He said the union was informed that CBS College Sports was refusing to run the ad because of "the content."

The owners have worked out a deal with the networks that allows them to get paid even if no games are played. The players call that "lockout insurance."
You can sign a petition opposing the lockout here.

Today's Teamster News 01.31.11

Inflation in China May Limit U.S. Trade Deficit  New York Times   ...Inflation is starting to slow China’s mighty export machine, as buyers from Western multinational companies balk at higher prices...
Unrest in Egypt Unsettles Global Markets  New York Times   ...the situation in Egypt has the potential to cause more widespread uncertainty, especially if oil and other commodities keep surging or the unrest spreads to more countries in the Middle East...
What’s at Stake in the N.F.L.’s Labor Talks  New York Times   ...In the last two weeks, personalities as disparate as the Pittsburgh Steelers chairman emeritus Dan Rooney and Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie aired their concerns about the pace of negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement, which expires March 3...
State workers fear likely pension fees  Miami Herald   ...Florida is the last state not to require employees to contribute to their own pension, while some states offer free retirement to only a limited class of workers...
Wis. unions gird for cuts from Walker  NECN   ...Forcing concessions from state employees is a popular talking point for Gov. Scott Walker and one that likely will find a central place in his first State of the State speech on Tuesday...
Unethical Predatory Practices  Economy in Crisis   ...The United States is told that it must oblige to its commitment to “free trade,” not because it is in our best interest but because it is in our foreign creditors best interest...
Fight to finish on U.S.-S. Korea trade pact  AFP   ...With US President Barack Obama and his main foes both embracing a trade pact with South Korea, opponents are racing against the clock to regain momentum while supporters are leaving nothing to chance...

NFL Lockout Update

Lots of news lately on the NFL lockout front. Scott Fujita, linebacker for the Cleveland Browns (and brother of a Teamster) thinks a lockout is inevitable. The St. Petersburg Times reports Fujita, who's on the players committee,

...said concerns about injuries make adding two games to the schedule a major sticking point in negotiations. Fujita called the NFL's proposal "completely unacceptable" and "like a slap in the face."

Fujita also slammed Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for saying a lockout "wouldn't be disastrous" for the NFL. He called it "one of the more irresponsible things I've heard." 
Meanwhile, Politico reported today that the players' association wants Congress to referee the dispute, but without much luck. Reports Politico,

As the specter of a year without pro football looms, the National Football League Players Association is taking its case to the halls of Congress — mounting an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign urging lawmakers to push the owners to strike a deal before the March 3 deadline. It’s not an easy sell....there’s little sympathy for multimillion-dollar athletes clashing with billionaire owners over the size of their paydays...

Politico offers another reason Congress might be unsympathetic to the players: The players have more than tripled their spending on lobbying since 2008, to $350,000. But last year alone, the owners spent almost $1.1 million and gave nearly $600,000 to federal candidates in the last year.

Did we mention that the Teamsters have a long and storied history with the players association, and that Cleveland Browns great Jim Brown once passed out union cards for the players to form a Teamsters affiliate?

Today's Teamster News 01.11.11

Ford Plans to Hire More Than 7,000 Workers  New York Times  ...Ford ... said it would add 4,000 hourly jobs and 750 salaried positions this year and at least 2,500 hourly jobs in 2012...
Teamsters Lament ‘In-Sourcing’ At Chicago Rail Yard In These Times   ...union “hostlers” who transfer shipping containers between trucks and trains at one of Chicago’s largest rail yards have now lost jobs, pensions and benefits because of “in-sourcing...
Teamsters Union Intends to Strike  WDIO.com   ...Local No. 320 sent a letter to the Bureau of Mediation Services on Friday (stating) ...they intend to engage in a strike against St. Louis County...
School bus workers still s working in region despite strike vote  (Local 445) Daily Freeman   ...175 Durham School Services bus drivers and monitors are continuing to work despite a strike vote ... as negotiations have moved forward...
Goldman says buy UPS  benzinga.com   ...UPS (CL-Buy) remains our top pick, due to improving pricing and an inflection point in shareholder returns...
NFL lockout would hurt Anheuser-Busch InBev deal  St. Louis Business Journal   ...A NFL lockout during the 2011 season would result in $12 billion in lost revenue in the form of missed advertising, including an Anheuser-Busch InBev sponsorship, as well as canceled fantasy football leagues, empty sports bars and out-of-work stadium personnel...
US mulls 'supplemental' draft EIS for TransCanada's Keystone XL: Clinton  Platts   ... "hopefully" an alternative route for Keystone "would be explored..."
Judges Berate Bank Lawyers in Foreclosures  New York Times   ...they are reaching beyond the bankers to heap some of their most scorching criticism on the lawyers...

Update: NFL players lockout

A ruling on the NFL owners' improper use of strike insurance is expected this month. Associated Press, reporting on the special master hearing NFL union's complaint, says  

Stephen Burbank is expected to rule on the issue this month, with both sides allowed to appeal.

Meanwhile, the New York Daily News reports that former Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce is suggesting a strike.

Pierce, via his Twitter account, floated the "what if" idea of players refusing to start this weekend's playoff games on time as a way to gain leverage over ownership. He called it "just food for thought" and later insisted he wasn't urging action.
The NFL took him seriously enough, though, that it issued a lengthy rebuttal on its labor-related website, where it reminded Pierce and current players that "a 'walk out' is in violation of the CBA." George Atallah, spokesman for the players union, later Tweeted that the union has "already guaranteed no strike."

Meanwhile, Business Insider reported that Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson is  “not optimistic” about labor talks.  He said the players are asking for "more money and less work."
Sports Illustrated writer Jim Trotter took issue with Richardson on his Facebook page:

My issue with Panthers owner Jerry Richardson is not that he said something about the labor situation on Tuesday. It's that he did not say enough.

It's serves no purpose to say that union lawyers are asking for more money, more benefits and less work unless you're willing to state exactly how much more they're seeking in money and benefits, not to mention how much they want to decrease their workload -- if indeed those things are true.
Fact is, the owners are the ones demanding rollbacks. They're the ones who opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement in 2008, two years after ratifying it. They believe they're being asked to shoulder too much of the financial risk to grow the game.
I have said -- and continue to say -- if the NFL is hurting, just show us where. The proof is in the fine print.

Sign a petition to prevent the lockout at nfllockout.com.

Oh, and did we mention that the Teamsters have a long and storied history with the NFL Players Association, and that Hall of Famer Jim Brown once handed out cards to form a Teamsters affiliate?

Today could be a turning point in NFL lockout

Today a court-appointed investigator will review NFL players' complaints that the owners cheated them. The crux of the players' argument is that the owners gave the networks a break on broadcast contracts in exchange for lockout insurance. That insurance gives the owners $4.5 billion in revenue next year even if no games are played.

Dan Graziano at Fanhouse explains:

Specifically, the union argues that the league awarded valuable new benefits such as the RedZone channel and mobile and broadband rights to its broadcast partners for 2009 and 2010 without charging any price increases until 2011. The players argue that, because they and the owners share revenue, the owners have a responsibility to seek maximum value in broadcast deals.  It's the union's contention that, because it's guaranteed, the $4.5 billion could act as "lockout insurance" to cover the owners and allow them to cancel games and not suffer great losses while they wait for the players to give in to their demands.

There's a larger issue here, notes Dave Zirin at The Huffington Post. Zirin cites a letter written by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to the fans. Goodell, writes Zirin,

establishes himself as a stalking horse for a broader, systemic strategy being used by governors and captains of industry across the country. It's a strategy that for all the focus-tested language has one end-goal: getting workers to work harder for less.

The owners want a longer season (18 games) and lower wages for rookies (sound familiar?)  Denver Broncos Quarterback Kyle Orton noted that Goodell urged both sides to "give a little." ESPN reported that Orton said

It sounds like more than 'a little' to me. What are the owners giving that's equal to that?. So we'll see how that plays out, but it's not going to be a one-way situation where the players give and the owners don't.

Washington Redskins defensive lineman Vonnie Holliday questions whether the owners are operating in a way that's good for the players. Holliday said,

We have a formula that works. And we're just asking the owners: Why opt out? Why are we going though labor issues right now, when this equation is working?

Zirin argues that the dispute is the most amplified battleground in the fight between bosses and workers over who pays for the U.S.'s severe economic crisis.

"The vast majority of fans have a side in this fight," Zirin writes." And it's not with Roger Goodell."

Oh, and did we mention that the Teamsters have a long and storied history with the NFL Players Association, and that Hall of Famer Jim Brown once handed out cards to form a Teamsters affiliate?

RIP Bob Feller, union activist

What a tremendous guy he was, what a tremendous life he led. Born on a farm 92 years ago in Van Meter, Iowa, he came up to the Major Leagues at the age of 17 and won 266 games -- despite interrupting his career for 3-1/2 years to fight World War II.  He signed his first contract with the Cleveland Indians for $1 and an autographed baseball. In 1962 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, and at 90 years old he was a starting pitcher in the first Baseball Hall of Fame Classic.

He was called the "Heater from Van Meter," as well as "Rapid Robert" and "Bullet Bob," because of his fastball, once clocked at 107.6 mph. He was the greatest pitcher of his era. He threw three no-hitters, 46 shutouts, led the league in wins six times and pitched an astonishing 279 complete games. According to the Baseball Almanac, Joe DiMaggio once said,

I don’t think anyone is ever going to throw a ball faster than he does. And his curveball isn’t human.

One of Feller's proudest achievements was his election as the first president of the Major League Players Association in 1954. He helped draw up a new pension plan with the team owners, working on the project after he retired from baseball after the 1956 season, according to Mike Peticca of the Plain Dealer. That plan became the pension that players have today.

He had firm opinions about players' rights and said what he thought. In a 1957 television interview with Mike Wallace, his strong words are welcome today as the expected lockout of NFL players looms.

Wallace asked Feller, "in view of your phenomenal success how can you charge that ballplayers are getting a bum deal from their bosses?" Feller replied,

As far as I'm concerned, Mike, the setup is wrong. It's not a matter of how much they make. It's the structure, the principle that a ballplayer is not in a strong bargaining position, especially the ballplayer that was not blessed with a 'good arm,' a 'good eye.' I was very fortunate, and very fortunate to have a father to develop it but the average ballplayer's life is only approximately four and three quarters years in the Major Leagues and they make much less than such... some of the... we lucky fellows like DiMaggio, Williams, Musial, Roberts...

He had no use for the reserve clause, calling it "medieval":

...you are the property of a ball club as long as they want you. Your career lasts five years or twenty years, you sign with that ball club. However, you're obligated to the ball club for the entire life of your baseball career, but the ball club is obligated to you for thirty days. You can be released in... with thirty days... no thirty days' pay.

Feller also revealed to Wallace that the Indians had offered him a front-office job and he turned it down because he had more challenges working with the players' association.  And he made clear why he agreed to do the interview:

I am here to let the people know a few things about what goes on at the economic end of baseball. We have some great athletes in this country, Jim Thorpe, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Joe Louis; we don't want the baseball players, if we can help it in the future, or the athletes in the future, to wind up as some of those gentlemen have. (Thorpe, Alexander and Louis all died broke.)

He died of leukemia on Thursday in Cleveland, where he was beloved by fans. He had no regrets. "I've had a great life," he said a few years ago. "Mother Nature doesn't owe me a thing."

NFL Players Assoc. hits the road

Jim Brown, Teamster organizer and football great

NFL players were in Philadelphia this week, kicking off a road show in which they try to explain what the lockout is all about.

The NFL Players Association is visiting each NFL city to promote solidarity and tell fans about the dangers of a lockout that looms over the league like a giant mushroom cloud, writes Nick Fierro of the Morning Call.

Rich Hofmann at the Philadelphia Daily News was at the Water Works Restaurant this week with DeMaurice Smith, the head of the NFL Players Association, former players Ron Davis and Garo Yepremian, current Eagles Winston Justice and Ellis Hobbs. Hofmann writes,

...anybody who believes that NFL players can be painted as greedy or undeserving did not see the replay of the kick return, of that helmet-to-helmet hit that Hobbs sustained, of the sickening compression of his neck that Hobbs endured, or the nervous minutes that followed...

anybody who criticizes NFL players for fighting for every last nickel they can get just doesn't get how disposable these guys have always been...

The players have a new website, http://www.nfllockout.com/, which explains what the lockout is all about. They point out that a lockout would result in an economic loss of $140 million in each NFL city and 150,000 lost jobs.

They also point out that the owners stand to make more money with a lockout next year than without a lockout. You can also sign a petition at the site, because, as the players say, the players want to play football and fans want to see America’s most popular sport.

The Teamsters, by the way, have a long and storied relationship with the NFL; Jim Brown once passed out union cards in an effort to start a Teamsters affiliate.

Trivia quiz for union-member NFL fans

The Sheet Metal Workers' International Association asks this trivia question:

What football legend has a father who lost a college coaching job because the college board of trustees considered him "undesirable" due to HIS father being a union organizer?

You probably guessed from the photo that the answer is "Bill Bellichick." SMWIA tells us Bellichick's father, a coach himself, was dismissed by the Board of Trustees at Vanderbilt University because he came from what they considered "bad stock" - that being Belichick's grandfather having been an organizer with the United Steelworkers in Youngstown, Ohio.

Here's another one: Which NFL quarterback is a union activist and member of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) Executive Committee"

According to American Rights at Work, the answer is New Orleans Saint Drew Brees, a model athlete who's been deeply involved in the reconstruction of New Orleans. Brees is trying to avert a lockout by the owners next year. A lockout would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs in cities that host NFL teams. American Rights at Work asks that you sign a petitition urging the NFL not to lockout the players.