Independent Teamsters Organizing Committee Fight Against Layoffs and OZ in WSWS

[Tony R Cochran]

The late Howard Williamson was one of the great founders of the Independent Teamsters Organizing Committee (ITOC). I wish he could see the work we are doing to fight these shift closures and layoffs. We spoke about them two to three times a day, right up until the night before he went into hospital. He was my dear friend, and I am sure he would be pleased to see that we are growing. I am almost certain he would get a big, hardy laugh at the headaches we are causing Local 162's Ben Vedus and Mark Davison. I miss him. He left many legacies, I am proud to be carrying one of them.

The urgent truth demands action: we must unite now to dismantle the union bureaucracy and their corporate overlords. Our mission is to seize control of the emerging technologies that the wealthy exploit for their own gain. Together, we can redirect these innovations for the collective good, ensuring they serve the many, not just the privileged few.

[Tony R Cochran]

WSWS reports on actions against layoffs and confrontation with Ben Vedus (and Mark Davison's absence)

[Tony R Cochran]

WSWS also mentions T-Link

At the Portland meeting, Vedus refused to elaborate on the plans for automation when questioned by other workers. He also claimed that, as a member of the bargaining team for inside workers, he was unaware of these plans during the contract talks. This is absurd, given that inside workers would always have been the hardest hit by automation. But even if it were true, it only would indicate that the Teamsters made no attempt at all to protect workers from job cuts.

It must be said bluntly: The bureaucracy is not simply standing aside while UPS carries out job cuts. It is directly helping to impose them. In UPS presentations Tuesday, they emphasized that “labor certainty” was a key element in their plans. In separate comments to the press, CEO Carol Tomé bragged that the new Teamsters contract secured a sharp decrease in cost growth after the first year of the deal.

While thousands of workers lose their jobs, the Teamsters are fighting vigorously against workers’ freedom of speech. Recently, the union filed a lawsuit against TeamsterLink, a popular independent message board used by members, for “copyright infringement” for its use of the Teamsters name and logo. This thuggish attack forced the messageboard to change its name.

At the same time, pseudo-left “reform” groups like Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), which entered the leadership of the Teamsters thanks to its endorcement of O’Brien in the 2021 union election, are helping run damage control by claiming that layoffs can be fought through “contract enforcement.”

[TheMilitantTeamster]

The late Howard Williamson was one of the great founders of the Independent Teamsters Organizing Committee (ITOC). I wish he could see the work we are doing to fight these shift closures and layoffs. We spoke about them two to three times a day, right up until the night before he went into hospital. He was my dear friend, and I am sure he would be pleased to see that we are growing. I am almost certain he would get a big, hardy laugh at the headaches we are causing Local 162's Ben Vedus and Mark Davison. I miss him. He left many legacies, I am proud to be carrying one of them.

I recall him talking to you and another member on speaker phone talking about the Black Panther Party and the people controlling modern technology in 1966! The fight continues and continues and continues. Man was a forward thinker