Today's Teamster News 05.08.13

Ex-South Carolina governor Sanford beats Colbert Busch in special House election  Washington Post   ...The conservative electorate of South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District voted Tuesday to resurrect the political career of disgraced former governor Mark Sanford (R) by returning him to his former House seat...

Texas tragedy may cost fertilizer plant only $1 million  RT Network   ...Fifteen people died and more than 200 others were injured following an explosion at a West, Texas fertilizer plant last month, and lawyers for the facility now admit that the plant’s owners aren’t prepared to pay for the damages totaling more than $100 million in destruction. But the attorneys say the factory had only $1 million in liability coverage...
Death toll of Bangladesh building collapse tops 700   Associated Press   ...Hundreds of survivors of last month’s collapse of a building housing garment factories in Bangladesh protested for compensation Tuesday, as the death toll from the country’s worst-ever industrial disaster passed 700...
Churn, baby, churn: The labor market won’t be healthy until people feel like they can quit their jobs Washington Post   ...America needs more quitters. Or the job market does, anyway. That’s the lesson to draw from the latest Labor Department report, which shows the soft underbelly of the U.S. jobs picture. The unemployment rate may be falling and the number of jobs rising. But there isn’t enough “churn” going on, a hallmark of a healthy job market, in which people freely move between positions...
Overtime pay vs. time off: GOP wants a choice, but Democrats say plan would hurt workers  Associated Press   ...It seems like a simple proposition: give employees who work more than 40 hours a week the option of taking paid time off instead of overtime pay...
Online Sales Tax Bill Passes Senate  Huffington Post   ...The Senate sided with traditional retailers and financially strapped state and local governments Monday by passing a bill that would widely subject online shopping – for many a largely tax-free frontier – to state sales taxes...
FAA reviewing lost pay for furloughed employees  The Washington Post   ...The Federal Aviation Administration says it is reviewing how and whether to make whole thousands of employees who were forced to take unpaid days off in April before Congress intervened, suspending the furloughs...
Exposing ALEC's Agenda to Defund and Dismantle Public Education (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...Iron Man 3 just opened this past weekend, followed soon by more would-be blockbusters. I'm sure a lot of these movies will be entertaining, but none will be more important or relevant than a half-hour documentary I recently watched: The United States of ALEC...
Hertz relocating corporate headquarters to Florida following Dollar Thrifty acquisition  Associated Press   ...Hertz will move its headquarters from New Jersey to Florida, putting the company in the heart of a key travel market and trimming corporate expenses after its $2.3 billion buyout of one-time rival, Dollar Thrifty...
South Jersey firms facing OSHA fines from Sandy repair jobs  Press of Atlantic City   ...Federal inspectors have assessed at least 26 companies with a total of $110,000 in fines for unsafe workplaces in New Jersey shore towns while cleaning up and repairing damage from Hurricane Sandy, an analysis of U.S. Department of Labor records shows...
Missouri lawmakers must finalize budget this week  News-Press   ...Missouri lawmakers have until Friday to finalize the state's roughly $25 billion operating budget...
Illinois Senate to vote on union-endorsed pension reform bill  Reuters ...A union-backed plan to reform the worst-funded state pension system in the United States will be introduced in the Illinois Senate this week, competing with a plan passed by the House last week...
More arrested as NC legislature protests continue  Associated Press   ...More than two dozen members of the NAACP and other activists were arrested Monday as part of continuing protests of Republican policies in the state capital, bringing to nearly 50 the number of nonviolent demonstrators facing charges...
Michigan launches $5 million veterans' homeowners assistance program  Michigan Live   ...Michigan veterans who have lost their homes or are struggling to keep them could benefit from a new $5 million housing assistance program...
Teamsters Urge Congress To Stop Dangerous Increases In Truck Weight And Size  IBT   ...Yesterday, the Teamsters, the Truck Safety Coalition, U.S. Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) and representatives of several families who have suffered death and injury as a result of truck crashes, held a news conference marking the re-introduction of legislation that would prevent an increase in size and weight allowances for trucks...
UPS Local Leaders Unanimously Endorse UPS Tentative Agreement  IBT   ...Leaders of Teamster Local Unions that represent UPS workers across the United States voted unanimously today to endorse the tentative UPS national agreement, paving the way for ballots to be prepared and sent to members...
UPS Freight Local Union Leaders Unanimously Recommend Tentative Agreement For Ratification  IBT   ...Teamster Local Union leaders representing UPS Freight workers across the country unanimously endorsed the tentative national agreement today, clearing the way for ballots to be prepared and sent to members...
US Air Mechanics File for Election to Become Teamsters  IBT   ...US Airways mechanics and related workers filed for an election today with the National Mediation Board (NMB) as part of their campaign to become Teamsters...
Osco Pharmacists Negotiations Enter Federal Mediation   IBT   ...After seven bargaining sessions over several weeks, contract negotiations for 500 Osco pharmacists have entered federal mediation...
Buy Union, Buy American: Support Teamsters Week  Labor 411   ...Consumer awareness and education are key to the success of the labor movement. We have no doubt that most Americans would choose union-made, American-made goods if only they knew which they were – and if they realized that buying those goods helps to support good middle class American jobs...
Bay City mid-management contract approval rescheduled to later this month  Michigan Live   ...The Bay City Commission has rescheduled the review of new deal with Teamsters Local 214, which represents mid-management positions including the chief accountant, information systems administrator and planning manager...

They're baaaack: ME, VT senators still trying to make 100K truck limits permanent

Why is it that bad ideas never seem to go away in politics? The bad idea to permanently let 100,000 pound trucks on federal highways in Maine and Vermont is back. Like Nafta, it has the bipartisan support of Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont. And like Nafta, it will kill American jobs.

Collins and Leahy didn't get the weight limit permanently lifted in the last Congress. So now they're trying again. Something about "fairness" because other states raised the limit. TeamsterNation suspects campaign contributions may have something more to do with it.

Four heavy trucks can carry as much as five normal ones. Heavy trucks are dangerous. Heavy trucks destroy our roads and bridges.

My boss, Jim Hoffa, says raising the weight limit would turn big rigs into time bombs.  He's right. This is a bad idea that should go away permanently.

Heavier trucks advocated in more places than Maine and Vermont

Shippers and trucking companies are keeping up the pressure to allow bigger, heavier, longer trucks on the highways. Before the end of the year, Maine and Vermont politicians want Congress to make permanent a "pilot program" allowing heavier trucks in those states.

For a long time now, about 20 states have allowed longer-combination vehicles on their highways. Last time we checked, Idaho, North Dakota and Washington state all let heavy trucks (100,000 pounds or more) on their highways. Politicians in Ontario, Canada, want to make permanent a "pilot program" to allow tractors to pull two 53-foot trailers. The "pilot program" expires on Nov. 30.


Earlier this month, South Carolina changed its permitting rules to let  trucks haul international shipping containers weighing up to 100,000 pounds, according to the Charleston Regional Business Journal. More interesting than the Business Journal's story was J. Stewart's comment:

Ask Ms Florida how well she is doing after being involved in a horrific accident with a loaded refrigerated container (MARESK LINE). A forty foot container stacked inside to the ceiling with avocados toppled over on her Lincoln on I-95 outside Miami. Yes, it was a Florida permitted overweight(95,000lbs)import load. This is just one of hundreds of examples why not to increase the weight on these shipping containers.You'll see much more of this type accident in Carolina when a trucker has to make an emergency maneuver in heavy traffic on I-26 with an over weight box mounted on a junk marine chassis. I know first hand from experience. I have hauled many of these containers to & from the ports loaded with everything from frozen chickens, citrus, forestry products, to being overloaded with hazardous materials. Many scale out at well over the one-hundred thousand pound permit allowed on the highway. Get ready for the roadway carnage brought to you by the ports greedy shipping customers / profit verses your family's life. I have pulled this ocean freight out of the ports since the early seventies (that's when the legal gross weight was (73,280lbs) but then everyone wanted to change that to (80,000). Guess what - these are the same type chassis that were used back thirty-five years ago with no improvement ( actually many of the so-called new chassis are assembled with axle parts over twenty-five years old. They're just refurbished & tagged as a "reconditioned chassis". The chassis owners to this to get around government regulations requiring installation of newer braking systems on brand new factory equipment & without paying federal new heavy vehicle taxes. Allowing overloaded containers is a huge mistake for SC citizens, our roadways, & any trucker who will have to pull this dangerous increase in weight. BTW: When they say permitted for 100,000 gross the shippers will exceed that rating every chance they get just like they do on the 80,000 lb limit now. Check the port records to find out how many container are already over loaded now. This should tell you their track record. I witness even the short twenty footers loaded with 64,000 lb of just inside cargo weight policed by the very same folk that are asking for bigger increases.

The Teamsters have long opposed heavier trucks because they're dangerous, they ruin roads and bridges and they require fewer drivers. General President Hoffa wrote last year that

Highway drivers are never happy to see a 120,000 pound, six-axle rig come barreling along side them at 70 mph. The reason is simple: they’re dangerous.

Trucking industry sneaking heavier-truck bill through Congress

The trucking industry already managed to get a "pilot program" to let 100,000 pound trucks travel on highways in Maine and Vermont (can you say "Nafta highway"?). Now, just as Congress is getting ready to adjourn, they're trying to sneak through an amendment that would make the 100,000-pound limit permanent in those states. And you know that's just the camel's nose under the tent.

It's a terrible idea. The real unemployment rate is somewhere around 17 percent (some say it's closer to 22 percent) and our infrastructure is on the verge of collapse. But most important, bigger, heavier trucks are dangerous. So let's eliminate jobs, since four heavy trucks can carry the same amount as five normal trucks. Let's further destroy our roads and bridges. And let's promote more highway deaths.

General President Hoffa has told Congress what he thinks of heavier trucks:

Lifting truck weight and size limits would turn big rigs into time bombs.

Our good friend Jackie Gillan,  vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said lifting the weight limits would be like loosening airplane-safety standards after a bunch of airline crashes.