Teamster Truckers to be Featured on NBC TV Program

The producers of "Ice Road Truckers" and "Deadliest Catch" have a new television show "America's Toughest Jobs."  This show celebrates the blue-collar workers who helped make America what it is today and will provide viewers with an authentic in-the-trenches work experience with each hair-raising challenge.

"America's Toughest Jobs," which is filmed entirely on location in cities across the country, will include a segment in Alaska on trucking. The trucking segment was filmed using members of Teamsters Local 959 under a movie agreement with the producers. 

"The Alaska Teamsters Training Center was asked to train approximately 15 contestants to drive trucks in preparation for the show," said Mark Johnson, the Director of Teamsters National Training. "When training was complete the staff at the training center coordinated a trip for these ‘new' truckers up the Trans Alaska Pipeline haul road to Alaska's North Slope oil fields. All of those yellow trucks you will see in the program that were used in the trip belong to the training center and the instructors went along to coach the rookies on the rigorous 500-mile trip above the Arctic Circle."

The Alaska Teamsters staff instructors are all experienced truckers and had an exciting trip to say the least with these rookies. The instructors are not able to reveal any of the things that happened along the road until the show airs.

The show airs on Monday nights. The show featuring the Alaska Teamsters is scheduled to air Labor Day evening, Monday, September 1.

"This is a fitting night to present one of America's toughest jobs—that of a Teamster truck driver," said Ken Coleman, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 959 in Anchorage.