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Local and National Union News
Maryland Teamsters authorize strike at Zum Transportation
Oct. 3, 2025 | Teamsters Local 570 members at Zum Transportation have authorized a strike after voting overwhelmingly to reject the company’s unacceptable last, best, final contract offer. More than 300 bus drivers, van drivers, trainers, and attendants provide student transportation for Howard County Public Schools. Learn moreTeamster nurses leave picket line to help church shooting/fire victims...
Oct. 1, 2025 | For going on five weeks, Eva Kerzka and about 700 other nurses employed by the Henry Ford Genesys Hospital had been on strike (see earlier post below) amid negotiations on a new labor contract. The nurses gathered daily on the grassy shoulder [nearby], waving protest signs and chanting. But on Sunday, Kerzka saw police cars and ambulances flying past her spot on the picket line and later noticed black smoke rising toward the sky from a church about a mile away. With permission from the president of Teamsters Local 332, she and other nurses left the picket line and raced to the hospital, to the church, and to a nearby triage center to offer whatever help they could. CNN But! Administrators ordered the nurses out of the hospital when they arrived.Local Union 355 Election Plan submitted to IBT Election Supervisor
Sept. 30, 2025 | Local 355 submitted on September 28 its proposed plan to nominate and elect delegates to the IBT Convention to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, in June of 2026. For your convenience, members can view the submission plan here in English and here in Spanish. For a summary of the material updates to the Election Rules for the 2025-2026 IBT election, click here.Older posts can be found at 355 News
Elsewhere in the News
Union Fury After Trump Suggests Not All Furloughed Workers Will Receive Shutdown Pay
Oct. 8, 2025 | FEDERAL WORKERS | The American labor movement erupted in outrage yesterday after President Trump appeared to go back on the government’s promises to provide back pay to all of the estimated 750,000 furloughed federal workers when the government shutdown ends. Last month, as a shutdown loomed, the US Office of Personnel Management, an independent government agency that oversees the country’s civil service, published guidance for federal agencies stating definitively that “after the lapse in appropriations has ended, employees who were furloughed as a result of the lapse will receive retroactive pay for those furlough periods.” This follows a federal law, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act signed by Trump during the last shutdown in 2019, which requires that furloughed employees “shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations.” But the Trump administration has begun to walk back that promise. Common Dreams
Striking Teamster: ‘They Don’t Even Recognize Us As Human Beings’
Oct. 7, 2025 | STRIKES | Firefighters are some of the most courageous people on Earth. They brave smoke and flames to save lives. They risk their health and safety to protect others. And they do it using equipment made right here in Dublin by my fellow Sutphen Corp. workers represented by Teamsters Local 284. For a long time, Local 284 enjoyed a productive relationship with Sutphen. But unfortunately, we were forced to launch a strike several months ago because of the company’s refusal to respect the 90 Teamsters who make their profits possible. Sutphen Teamsters manufacture specialized equipment that is used on firetrucks — and we’ve done it for over 40 years. Generations of firefighters across the country have relied on our work to keep their communities safe. The Columbus Dispatch
Pensions Can Be Labor’s Weapon
Oct. 6, 2025 | VIEWPOINT | Pensions are not considered the sexiest corner of the labor movement. But they are one of the most important. Pensions are where all the money that workers fought so hard to earn is going. Union researcher Chris Bohner has calculated the combined financial assets of American unions at about $35 billion, but the total assets held by collectively bargained pension plans stand at trillions of dollars. Until we shift the perception of pensions from “a delicate resource that we must hoard” into “a weapon,” the working class is leaving a chunk of its power on the table. There are three concentric circles of thought about what we can — or should — do with workers’ pensions… In These Times
Unions Sue to Block Mass Firings During Shutdown
Oct. 1, 2025 | LEGAL BATTLES | Federal government labor unions sued Tuesday to block the Trump administration from conducting mass layoffs during the [government shutdown]. Employees are usually temporarily furloughed during a shutdown, except for exempted workers, and receive back pay after a shutdown ends. But Trump and the White House budget office have suggested permanent firings could be on the table if government funding expires. The unions’ lawsuit alleges they misinterpreted federal law governing shutdowns. It “is a partisan attempt … to punish federal employees and the labor unions that represent them if members of Congress do not surrender to the President’s demands,” the lawsuit states. The Hill
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