Teamsters Local 355

Local and National Union News

Important change to administration of Local 355’s Health and Welfare Plan
Effective April 1, 2024, we changed plan administration from Zenith American Solutions to BeneSys, Inc. The change will enhance the efficiency and quality of services provided to you and provide positive improvements to the administration of your health benefits. Please click here to learn more about what has changed and what has not changed.

Ascend cannabis workers join Teamsters Local 570
May 29, 2023 | Budtenders and shift leads at Ascend Cannabis, Aberdeen, Md., have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 570 in Baltimore. The workers are the first in the state to join the Teamsters Union. Ascend customers were supportive of the workers during the organizing drive, with many of them wearing “vote yes” buttons inside the dispensary during the lead-up to the vote. “We come from an area that's very blue-collar, very working class, so the customers want us to win a union just as bad as we do,” said Ryan Bennett, an Ascend worker on the organizing committee. Full press release at Teamsters.

DHL sorters at CVG push back against intense company anti-union campaign
May 28, 2023 | Publicly, DHL claims to be an “employer of choice” that respects freedom of association and collective bargaining rights. However, the company’s actions towards sort workers at its global hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) tell a different story. Workers at CVG are organizing to become Teamsters, but instead of respecting its workers, DHL has launched an intense anti-union campaign that violates its own corporate policies and the neutrality agreement it established with the Teamsters. In the past few weeks, the Teamsters have filed over a dozen unfair labor practice charges against the company for violating workers' rights and federal labor law. But instead of addressing the company's disgusting anti-union behavior, DHL’s top executives in Germany... Watch the video and learn more here. PHOTO/THE ENQUIRER

Molson Coors Teamsters ratify contract, ending strike
May 22, 2023 | After more than three months on the picket line, Molson Coors Teamsters in Fort Worth, Texas, voted today to ratify a new three-year agreement. The contract secures wage increases, improves benefits, and restores retiree health care. Throughout the strike, Teamsters launched a nationwide boycott, putting pressure on the brewery giant to reach an agreement covering 420 workers at the Texas facility. Read more here

General membership meetings suspended until September
May 20, 2023 | Members in attendance at this month's meetings in Baltimore and Salisbury voted to suspend meetings in June, July, and August. Dates for the September meetings will be posted as soon as they are scheduled.

Older articles here.

Elsewhere in the News

Week Ending 05/31/2024

• With Teamster support, Vermont Pro Act becomes law
• Has organized labor finally cracked the South?
• Update: Boeing firefighters ratify contract
• The A.I. paradox: Modern miracle or human replacement?
• Opinion: Unions must look beyond themselves to save themselves
• The delivery business shows why unions are struggling to expand
• Historian gives ‘Union Joe’ a higher grade than any president since FDR
• Labor Board GC encourages expansion of remedies for employees
• Mercedes hired squad of anti-union consultants to combat Alabama organizing
• Union leader: $2.27 billion NCAA anti-trust settlement won’t slow efforts to unionize players

Sectoral Bargaining Can Support High Union Membership

May 30, 2024 | COLLECTIVE BARGAINING | Sectoral bargaining is a type of collective bargaining that provides union contract coverage for most or all workers in a particular sector. Depending on how sectoral bargaining is structured, it is sometimes known as broad-based, multiemployer, national, or industrywide bargaining. It typically operates in conjunction with workplace-level bargaining, setting sectorwide standards that workers can seek to bargain above at their worksite. Sectoral bargaining increases the number of workers whose pay and benefits are set by union contracts compared with the worksite-only collective bargaining that is more common in the United States. It also reduces economic inequality, closes racial and gender pay gaps, and boosts economic productivity. American Progress

Wisconsin Judge to Hear Union Lawsuit Against Bargaining Restrictions

May 29, 2024 | WORKERS’ RIGHTS | A law that drew massive protests and made Wisconsin the center of a national fight over union rights is back in court on Tuesday, facing a new challenge from teachers and public workers brought after the state’s Supreme Court flipped to liberal control. The 2011 law, known as Act 10, imposed a near-total ban on collective bargaining for most public employees. It has withstood numerous legal challenges… If the latest lawsuit succeeds, all public sector workers who lost their collective bargaining power would have it restored. The Associated Press

Week Ending 05/24/2024

• U.S. labor unions are having a moment
• Union firefighters reject Boeing’s latest offer
• Casino workers are fighting for the air they breathe
• NCAA, Power 5 agree to deal that will pay players
• Vermont lawmakers lead the way, passing state PRO Act
• Salisbury workers vote to approve first union contract
• There’s good news about the Labor Movement in the South
• Pressure from unions, senators forces DeJoy to pause postal closures
• UPS, FedEx battle over small business customers while Amazon looms
• Disneyland characters, parade cast members unionize with Actors’ Equity
• Baltimore Museum of Industry uplifts the modern labor movement