Updated 9:10 a.m. Jan. 14. to include statement from Ford Motor Co. WASHINGTON — With Ford Motor Company canceling its decades-long carhaul contract with Jack Cooper, Teamsters general president Sean M. O’Brian is promising to use the Union’s full force to defend Cooper and is urging Ford “in the strongest possible terms to reverse this decision.”
“By taking steps to end its relationship with Jack Cooper, the Ford Motor Company has officially threatened the livelihoods of more than 1,400 Teamsters-represented carhaul workers and their families,” O’Brian said. “Ford, a once iconic American brand, wants to boost its own bottom line by walking away from a family-owned company and into the arms of second-rate third parties that will pay workers less money and far fewer benefits to haul Ford vehicles.”
O’Brian noted that the entire 1.3 million-member Teamsters Union stands absolutely opposed to this “shameful and un-American decision.”
“The erosion of good-paying union jobs poses a serious threat to our entire economy,” O’Brian said. “We have seen time and again that there are no winners when corporations sell out workers to the lowest bidder. Corporate executives refuse to look past the short-term, setting their sights on an extra bonus as they race to the bottom to ruin lives, hollow out communities, and decimate the middle class. It must stop.”
O’Brian also said that the Union will continue to defend it’s members and “protect honorable union jobs in America.”
“We do not comment on our contracts or relationships with individual suppliers,” Ford Motor Co. said in a statement to The Trucker. “We manage supplier relationships in line with our sourcing strategy, designed to enable us to best serve our customers.”
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
why do the teamster local 264 let there members become acting agent’s spies like foreman led man what ever the company wants those people report on All employees they are doing the supervisor job duties and they bring harm to union members
Where was is outrage when he walk away from 20,000 jobs at Yellow Frt.
Trump will come to the rescue after all isn’t that’s why the teamsters backed him.
Sean O’Brien, your useless!!!!!
Yellow Freight went out of business. Not much anyone can do. What are the union drivers going to do? Go on strike and refuse to work unless they remain open?
the problem with unions is they want to much money less hours more benefits it’s the members problems for getting into the union you are forced into it you don’t want to work extra hours go that extra mile but you want this and that I am a truck driver non union and I do good if it happens let it bad thing is you guys union members know you can get away with it do your job the best you can without thinking I do not want this or want to do that only because you are union they don’t need us and the day they decide to be even greedier kiss your job goodbye you we are expandable sorry to tell you the truth
Unions labor the deft, dumb, and blind. I hope Ford is successful in pushing the union out.
The union sold out to yellow freight for years. The conceded drivers wages to keep yellow afloat. I gave back over $200 a week in payroll to the company. That’s what the teamsters union did for us. They are not looking out for the members. Sean O’Brien and local union representatives are only looking to get their weekly paychecks. They will sell out the union members in a heartbeat.
The Republican party has been destroying unions since Raygun. In spite of this reality the Teamsters union is in lock step with these thugs. You can be certain things will get worse. No different than the FOP endorsing a criminal who is responsible for the death and disability of law enforcement officers. Simultaneously the Dems have tirelessly promoted unions. Regular Americans today could give a damn about the plight of any union member. BTW dad was a Teamster warehouseman way back. Grandpa a founding member of the FOP in Pittsburgh. Difficult to watch the self inflicted stupidity of our times
it’s amazing tge mentality of the union that a business owes them something. A business can hire who it wants to do a job. Was the union there for yellow freight workers, was it there for the hostess companies? Nah let’s just threaten to strike and make them go out of business anyway instead of trying to barging to keep their union members in a job. As workers does any business owe us anything? if we don’t like it we all can find other jobs.
The union did not walk away from 20k jobs at yellow, they went out of business even after cuts were taken for yrs by everyone except their executives. To understand why the working class is sliding downhill, all you have to do is read the moronic comments people post after these articles.