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International Brotherhood of Teamsters

International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Labor Union

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Official Site: Teamster.org Wikipedia: International Brotherhood of Teamsters Page Sections History Documents Article Index

A labor union formed in 1903 by the merger of two smaller unions. The word "teamster" is derived from the word for people who drove teams of draft animals; the original focus of the Teamsters union and the work for which is most often known outside the union is representing truck drivers. Since then locals have branched out into representing all kinds of manual labor work, this entry will focus on the trucking aspects of the union.

History

The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's International Brotherhood of Teamsters page on 9 June 2020, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors. The union had approximately 1.3 million members in 2013. Formerly known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, the IBT is a member of the Change to Win Federation and Canadian Labour Congress.

The American Federation of Labor (AFL) had helped form local unions of teamsters since 1887. In November 1898, the AFL organized the Team Drivers' International Union (TDIU). In 1901, a group of teamsters in Chicago, Illinois, broke from the TDIU and formed the Teamsters National Union. Unlike the TDIU, which permitted large employers to be members, the new Teamsters National Union permitted only employees, teamster helpers, and owner-operators owning only a single team to join, and advocated higher wages and shorter hours more aggressively than the TDIU. Claiming more than 28,000 members in 47 locals, its president, Albert Young, applied for membership in the AFL. The AFL asked the TDIU to merge with Young's union to form a new, AFL-affiliated union and the two groups did so in 1903, forming the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), and electing Cornelius Shea as the new union's first president. The election process proved tumultuous. Shea effectively controlled the convention because the Chicago locals—representing nearly half the IBT's membership—supported his candidacy en bloc. Shea was opposed by John Sheridan, president of the Ice Drivers' Union of Chicago. Sheridan and George Innes, president of the TDIU, accused Shea of embezzlement in an attempt to prevent his election. Shea won the election on August 8, 1903, by a vote of 605 to 480. The new grouping elected Edward L. Turley of Chicago as secretary-treasurer and Albert Young as general organizer.

Documents

Date	Document	Details
30 August 2022 filing date	In the Matter of Arbitration Between: United Parcel Service and Teamsters Local 710 Opinion and Award	Order ( PDF) 1.0MB · 16 pages Arbitrator: Gil Vernon Topics: UPS, Teamsters

Article Index

Date	Article	Author/Source
30 September 2015	Teamsters Indicted for Attempted Extortion of Reality Television Production Company	U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts
2 August 2019	Illinois State Senator Indicted for Allegedly Fraudulently Receiving Salary and Benefits from Labor Union	U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois
3 August 2022	Trustees agree to reform New York Teamsters welfare fund to come into compliance with federal laws The department’s suit alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Affordable Care Act when the Local 272 fund and its trustees replaced annual benefits limits – $125,000 for medical claims and $5,000 for pharmacy claims – with a cost-sharing arrangement requiring participants to bear all but 10 percent of the cost of claims in excess of the same limits.	Press Release (text) Publisher: Department of Labor Byline: Ted Fitzgerald & James C. Lally Dateline: New York, New York Topic: International Brotherhood of Teamsters
3 January 2023	Readout: Secretary Walsh meets with truckers, companies, Teamsters union, officials at Port of Los Angeles The discussion included truck drivers Jorge Mayorga and Todd Ellis; representatives of Universal Trucking, Sea-Logix, TTSI/Heavy Load Transfer and Pacific 9 Trucking; members and officers of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Local 848; and Port of Los Angeles officials.	Press Release (text) Publisher: Department of Labor Byline: Egan Reich Dateline: Los Angeles, California Topic: International Brotherhood of Teamsters