Teamsters Union to Endorse Barack Obama

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Sen. Barack Obama is slated to pick up the endorsement of the powerful Teamsters, the second major union endorsement for the Democratic front-runner in a week, union officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Obama will meet with Teamster President James P. Hoffa in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday. The endorsement is expected to come soon thereafter, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the planned formal announcement.

The Teamsters represent 1.4 million members.

Union support will be key in the Democratic primaries in the next few weeks, particularly in Ohio on March 4 and Pennsylvania on April 22. Ohio and Pennsylvania have some of the nation's largest number of union workers, with more than 15 percent of the workforce unionized in Pennsylvania and just over 14 percent in Ohio.

The endorsement from the Teamsters is Obama's third from organized labor in a week. The 1.9-million member Service Employees International Union endorsed the Illinois senator last Friday, and the smaller United Food and Commercial Workers endorsed him last Thursday.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8...;show_article=1

[almaty 19]

good pick-up....unions backing him...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Yay, Teamsters! I was a member back when they endorsed Bill Clinton.

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

I was a teamster once, working for Albertson's. It was absolutely the worst job I have ever had.

I worked 10 hours a day and only had 2- 10 min. breaks a day.

Depending on your hire date there was 4 different pay levels for the exact same job, with about 4 dollars difference between them.

4 month probation period. Plus they only told you what your days off were going to be the Friday before the week started.

The union never really represented you they were only concerned about their dues.

When I quit I vowed to never work for a union shop again.

I have since campaigned against become a union shop twice at my company. Which was defeated overwhelmingly by the employees. Then we had to picket the labor board to get them to certify the election that the union kept appealing even though they were defeated 2 to 1. This drug out for well over 18 months, all the while our benefits were frozen.

Unions are one of the reasons our company's find it hard to compete in the global economy and decide to just move production offshore to stay competitive.

Also my Grandfather was a life long Teamster. Who had a heart attack after arriving home from paying his union dues and getting caught in a traffic jam. The union refused to pay my Grandmother the funeral benefit for his burial saying that he was in arrears. When he had his receipt in his pocket. But Grandmother was to distraught and would not fight them and refused to let anyone else either.

These are my experiences and my opinion.

So for me to follow any recommendation of the teamsters is highly unlikely.

I hate having employees that have the union mentality working for me. They are the least productive employees while demanding everything under the sun. I'll take a good Asian immigrant employee any day over them.

NEVER AGAIN!

[Nagishkaw 510]

[Sofargone 2]

I was a teamster once, working for Albertson's. It was absolutely the worst job I have ever had.

I worked 10 hours a day and only had 2- 10 min. breaks a day.

Depending on your hire date there was 4 different pay levels for the exact same job, with about 4 dollars difference between them.

4 month probation period. Plus they only told you what your days off were going to be the Friday before the week started.

The union never really represented you they were only concerned about their dues.

When I quit I vowed to never work for a union shop again.

I have since campaigned against become a union shop twice at my company. Which was defeated overwhelmingly by the employees. Then we had to picket the labor board to get them to certify the election that the union kept appealing even though they were defeated 2 to 1. This drug out for well over 18 months, all the while our benefits were frozen.

Unions are one of the reasons our company's find it hard to compete in the global economy and decide to just move production offshore to stay competitive.

Also my Grandfather was a life long Teamster. Who had a heart attack after arriving home from paying his union dues and getting caught in a traffic jam. The union refused to pay my Grandmother the funeral benefit for his burial saying that he was in arrears. When he had his receipt in his pocket. But Grandmother was to distraught and would not fight them and refused to let anyone else either.

These are my experiences and my opinion.

So for me to follow any recommendation of the teamsters is highly unlikely.

I hate having employees that have the union mentality working for me. They are the least productive employees while demanding everything under the sun. I'll take a good Asian immigrant employee any day over them.

NEVER AGAIN!

Well I feel the exact opposite in many ways. Having been a IBEW member for over 20 years now there is no way in hell I would ever work open shop again. There is some truths to what you have posted and even a few very non-productive workers where I am employed. I work in power generation and I promise you if everyone where I work at was as non-productive as you stated we would all be scratching our un-employed asses, power plant no worky and the shat will hit the fan real quick. Luckily we have a great working relationship with the salary side and for the most part it is a pretty smooth sailing but you can bet yer azz if there was no representation the hourly worker would get the short end of the stick time and time again. To be truthful the salary people at my employer who *uck with the hourly the most are all ex-union members on a power trip.

I have one helluva benefits package that trumps just about all other non-union power plants and I like the way things are negotiated as it has been give and take from both sides.

I will also add that a few years back my son got sick and had to have a heart transplant. He was sent to a non-network hospital and when the insurance company wanted to move him to a network hospital for the transplant my union local as well as my employer worked together and the insurance company backed off of transferring my son. The union local also went to a Best Buy and purchased my son a video game system and games to help him both occupy his time and keep his mind going while he waited to be transplanted. I was off work for 2 months straight and my 40 hour paychecks never stopped. After my son was transplanted he had to have a huge amount of appointments which required me to miss alot of work, sometimes half the work week. Never once was I frowned on or asked to make appointments on off days (transplant team sets schedule). I did have to burn all of my vacation and sick time but when that was wiped out my fellow union employees bridged my time by donation vacation and sick time. My son's medical bills have passed over $2 million dollars as he went trhu 5 open heart surgeries including the transplant surgery. I have had to pay less than 1% of that amount out of my pocket. My insurance plan has no lifetime maximum and I dont get azz raped on my premiums.

Now that is the true spirit of unionism !!! There is a difference in believing in unionism and just flat out being a lazy deadweighted ####### like you described in your post. I put in an honest days work for an honest days pay. Sure some days I dont get much done but then other days I get way more than a fair days worth of work. I have a nice safe work place where there is no fear to speak out if something isnt safe.

Anyways sorry to ramble but labling union workers the same as the shop where you once were a member is in no way shape or form anything like the union local I have worked out of.

One thing I do detest is the mentallity of the general membership to push everyone to vote on a straight Democat ticket. I have been a Republican over 20 years and I will be damned if anyone is gonna try and influence who I vote for. I have voted Dem before, Clinton in '92 but I be damned if I was going to vote for that stiff Al Gore in "00 or the flip-flopping John Kerry in "04. Now this election I am no fan of John McStain so I dunno who the hell I am voting for, maybe Ralph Nader !

Sofargone

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

My company gives better benefits then most union shops. While still maintaining flexibility and competitiveness that is required in a global economy. I get 15 min. breaks not just 10 like the union shops. Sundays pay double time pay or anything over 20 hours OT, not just time and a half. Holidays are triple time pay. You can call in sick 3 days, take vacation for 3 days and still come in and work Sunday for double time. My company is a stickler for attendance. Attendance and time card falsification will get you fired in an instant, anything else it takes an act of god. Plus all the grievance policies.

Our bonus's have been awesome, running about 18% or 19% a quarter and it is based on total earnings for the quarter, Straight time and Overtime.

We are the #2 after Nike in the state of Oregon and just made it on the Fortune 500 this last year.

Many people are related their as they hire a lot of family members. It is about the easiest way to get hired. I have had at least 12 of my family members work their at one time or another. My mother started working there in 1972 when I was 6 years old and retired after 30 years. I was raised with this company.

Everyone works as a team for the good of the company to make the company as profitable as we can through innovation and labor and cost reductions to increase the profit margin.

I don't like McCain that much either, But I do not want to see any more socialist left-wing loony supreme court nominations or government ruined health care system.

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

My company also manufactures aero-derivative land based turbine rings used in power generation. Mainly used at peak hours to add extra Kw into the grid. These are not made at my plant though. I work with Titanium for the planes and since they don't fly the power turbines we make those out of Stainless Steel.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Don, which company is it ....because according to Oregon Business Magazine the top 2 large companies are:

US Cellular

Edge Wireless LLC

http://www.oregonbusiness.com/.docs/action.../10002/pg/10003

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

Steven

Nike is #1 of course. I don't know why they would think a cellular company is bigger than Nike.

But I work for Precision Castparts Corp. We have 4 plants here in Portland. Large parts Steel (larger than 35 in. in dia.), Large parts Titanium(all Titanium), Small parts Steel (smaller than 35 in. and medical) and Deer Creek which does the industrial gas turbines for the power generation. It is a lost wax investment casting operation.

We also have PCC France and Centaur Cast Alloys in Sheffield, England. Plus many subsidiaries around the US. It all started from making teeth for chain saws. We just had a tour from Forbes magazine not too long ago.

When Joy comes she will work here too!

http://www.precast.com/

I am in the PCC Structurals area on the web-site.

Edited March 31, 2008 by Don_Joy's Prince

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

http://www.pccstructurals.com/locations/po...nd_titanium.php

Here you go

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

My company gives better benefits then most union shops. While still maintaining flexibility and competitiveness that is required in a global economy. I get 15 min. breaks not just 10 like the union shops. Sundays pay double time pay or anything over 20 hours OT, not just time and a half. Holidays are triple time pay. You can call in sick 3 days, take vacation for 3 days and still come in and work Sunday for double time. My company is a stickler for attendance. Attendance and time card falsification will get you fired in an instant, anything else it takes an act of god. Plus all the grievance policies.

Our bonus's have been awesome, running about 18% or 19% a quarter and it is based on total earnings for the quarter, Straight time and Overtime.

We are the #2 after Nike in the state of Oregon and just made it on the Fortune 500 this last year.

Many people are related their as they hire a lot of family members. It is about the easiest way to get hired. I have had at least 12 of my family members work their at one time or another. My mother started working there in 1972 when I was 6 years old and retired after 30 years. I was raised with this company.

Everyone works as a team for the good of the company to make the company as profitable as we can through innovation and labor and cost reductions to increase the profit margin.

I don't like McCain that much either, But I do not want to see any more socialist left-wing loony supreme court nominations or government ruined health care system.

If you had read your history books, you'd know that you wouldn't have any of this without the unions. As for that last sentence, quite obviously, it doesn't take the government to ruin the healthcare system. The private industry and the free market have done a fantastic job of ruining it. Much better a job than any government anywhere in the world could have done.