Teamsters Local 355

Local and National Union News

Members at Hertz BWI and Anne Arundel County ratify new contracts
May 17, 2025 | Members at Hertz BWI unanimously ratified a successor contract with a three-year term providing wage increases, personal time off (PTO), and maintained healthcare benefits. “This was my first negotiations and I expected a lot of push-back from the company,” said Keiya Todman, shop steward and bargaining committee member. “I heard that previous negotiations were a tussle but this time, the committees worked honestly and respectfully to get an agreement, and while we didn’t get everything we wanted, we got what our members needed to go forward.” Anne Arundel County park rangers, correction program specialists, and 911 operators ratified two-year contracts providing cost of living (COLA) and merit increases for all members. Anne Arundel County fire battalion chiefs approved a one-year agreement that provides the same financial package.

Chicago zoo terminates 33-year Teamster steward without cause
May 15, 2025 | The Chicago Zoological Society doing business as the Brookfield Zoo Chicago (the Zoo) has terminated long-term Teamsters Local 727 member and union steward, Carrie Sapienza. Carrie worked at the Brookfield Zoo for 33 years and was a senior groundskeeper and union steward at the time of her unjust termination. “Even if Carrie did what the Zoo alleges that she did, which she vehemently denies, it’s simply not terminable,” said John Coli Jr., Secretary-Treasurer of Local 727. “The Zoo did not do any investigation whatsoever, and this was clearly a witch hunt against a very active union steward…” Learn more here.

Teamsters at Toyota in Maryland ratify strong new contract
May 9, 2025 | Warehouse workers at the Toyota distribution center in Glen Burnie, Md., represented by Teamsters Local 570, have voted by a 97 percent margin to ratify a new three-year collective bargaining agreement. The Glen Burnie facility package and ship parts for Toyota across the mid-Atlantic region, playing a critical role in the company’s supply chain. Despite Toyota’s long-standing opposition to unions, these workers are demonstrating that even the world’s largest, foreign automaker can be held accountable by a united and organized workforce. Learn more here.

Teamsters respond to Trump's union job-protecting film tariffs
May 5, 2025 | Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien and Teamsters Motion Picture Division Director Lindsay Dougherty released the following statement on President Donald Trump’s announcement to place a 100 percent tariff on films produced abroad: “For years, Hollywood studios have hollowed out the industry by following Corporate America’s crooked playbook of outsourcing good union jobs…These gigantic corporations line their pockets by recklessly cutting corners, abandoning American crews, and exploiting tax loopholes abroad. While these companies get rich fleeing to other countries and gaming the system, our members have gotten screwed over. The Teamsters Union has been sounding the alarm for years.” Read the full statement here. Why this matters: Local 355 represents local-area movie industry Teamsters.

Elsewhere in the News

Union Train Engineers Reach a Deal That Could End Strike

May 19, 2025 | STRIKES | Negotiators for New Jersey Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), the union representing 450 striking engineers, have reached a tentative labor agreement that could bring an end to the three-day strike, according to the union. “This is a good result for labor. It’s a good result for NJ Transit. It’s a good result for commuters and taxpayers,” Gov. Phil Murphy said in a Sunday evening press conference.“While I won’t get into the exact details of the deal reached, I will say that the only real issue was wages and we were able to reach an agreement that boosts hourly pay beyond the proposal rejected by our members last month and beyond where we were when NJ Transit’s managers walked away from the table Thursday evening,” said Tom Haas, the union’s general chairman at NJ Transit. CNN

Week Ending 05/17/2025

• On Labor: To tariff or not to tariff…
• Reuters: CSX reaches TA with BLET Teamsters
• AFSCME: Judge blocks reorganization of fed. govmt
• Teamsters: $1.2M in Hoffa Scholarships available
• Maryland Matters: Key Bridge collapse upended workers far beyond Baltimore
• NYT: Kennedy Center workers push to unionize amid job security concerns
• NBC: 2,000+ Starbucks baristas went on strike to protest dress code
• Baltimore Fishbowl: Port of Baltimore unlikely to see tariff impact until June
• T eamsters: Rail Teamsters on strike for fair contract at New Jersey Transit

NJ Transit Train Engineers on Strike

May 16, 2025 | STRIKES | Today, New Jersey transit engineers went on a historic strike, affecting more than 350,000 commuters. The workers, members of BLET, who have been without a union contract since 2019, are demanding pay raises that would allow them to live in the areas they serve. In March, their union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (Teamsters Rail Conference press release), reached a tentative agreement with NJ Transit. However, the union's rank-and-file voted down the deal by an 87% margin… Despite pressure from angry commuters, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says he fully backs the right of workers to strike while seeking a deal to end the strike. Payday Report

Longshore Union Says Tariffs Put American Workers Last

May 15, 2025 | JOBS | Empty containers unloaded from cargo ships are piling up in Long Beach, Calif. One-fifth of container cargo ship trips into its port for the month of April were cancelled. Stevedores—the people who load and unload the ships—along with port truckers and warehouse workers are all losing their jobs. Unions are pissed. Workers are worried. Economists predict a coming slump, no matter what comes of the trade war. And the local congressman is really upset. …tariffs are starting to bite, even as Trump signals pauses and a partial retreat on his high tariff barriers—taxes the U.S. public will pay—against goods made in China and other countries. “The reality is clear: These tariffs don’t put ‘America First.’ They put American working people last.” Peoples World