Holiday Greetings from General President Hoffa and General Secretary-Treasurer Keegel

Holiday Greetings from General President Hoffa and General Secretary-Treasurer Keegel

December 21, 2007

As we enjoy the holiday season and the countdown to 2008, our union has much to be proud of. We accomplished several significant goals this year and we have many worthy challenges on our horizon.

We stood together this year and won strong contracts, improving the wages, benefits and working conditions of hundreds of thousands of Teamsters. For example, in November, more than 240,000 members at UPS ratified a new contractthat secures significant wage increases, continued health care coverage and strengthened pension plans. Also, Teamsters at UPS Freight (the former Overnite Transportation Co.) in Indianapolis ratified their first contract this year—that’s a major victory, as thousands of workers at the former Overnite know.

Over the past few years, we have talked about the importance of the relationship between bargaining contracts and organizing new members. We’re starting to see the results of our efforts. Thousands of workers across the United States and Canada voted to become Teamsters, including nearly 5,000 school bus drivers in the past two years, and thousands of public employees across the country. We’ve also had major victories involving solid waste workers, industrial trade employees, tankhaul drivers and workers in the other core industries we represent.

One of our major initiatives this year and for the future is our push to enroll more members in the DRIVE program. With the looming presidential election, we need a robust DRIVE program to make sure we don’t have to endure another president with a Bush-style, anti-worker agenda. If you are not yet signed up, we ask you to join DRIVE. We and the entire General Executive Board increased our contributions to the program and we invite you to do the same.

We’ve made serious inroads at FedEx and will continue working strategically to bring the benefits of Teamster representation to the company’s workforce—the company continues to illegally misclassify many of its employees as independent contractors.

Our efforts to negotiate a new national contract for Teamsters at DHL Expresscontinue, as does our campaign to help ABX Air workersjoin our union.

What’s more, this year we continued to fight the Bush administration’s reckless plan to open our roads to unsafe Mexican trucks. Mexican truck companies often push drivers to the point of exhaustion, and their safety standards are far below U.S. regulations. Earlier this week, Congress passed a bill to ban funds to this illegal program. Thanks to all Teamsters who supported this effort by attending rallies and putting pressure on your elected representatives.

We are proud to stand with you as we fight for fair wages, solid benefits, a safe work environment, a secure retirement and social justice. At this time of year, when many of us spend the holidays with loved ones, we realize just how important our struggle is.

On behalf of the General Executive Board, we wish Teamsters, their families and workers everywhere a warm holiday season and a 2008 filled with happiness and health.