The union has a history of bankrupting companies, causing job losses, and pushing pointless strikes.
History of Corruption
For years, the Teamsters union was led by President Jimmy Hoffa, who was convicted of bribery and fraud before famously disappearing in what is assumed to be a mafia-related murder. Although Hoffa is gone, the Teamsters’ track record of corruption is very much alive.
In 2022, Chicago Teamsters Boss John T. Coli was sentenced to federal prison for taking bribes from Teamsters-represented businesses. He even used Teamsters members as muscle when shaking down these businesses, threatening to have members go on strike if a business decided to stop bribing him. Strikes are hard and costly on members, but with the Teamsters you might end up on a picket line if a business refused to enrich the union boss’es’s bottom line.
Sadly, bribery isn’t just isolated to Coli. In 2020, New York Teamsters executive John Ulrich was sentenced to federal prison for taking bribes from a healthcare company in exchange for the promise of keeping his members on the company’s services. In another recent case, Teamsters Joint Council 25 was found to have been illegally paying an Illinois state senator.
Overall, in the past decade 16 Teamsters officials have been charged with or indicted for financial crimes, totaling some $1.6 million.
“Yellow has shown that it doesn’t deserve and cannot be expected to continue under its current structure… It is not left to the Teamsters to save this company.”
—Teamsters President Sean O’Brien
Thousands of Jobs Lost
Teamsters union leaders seem to have little regard for their members’ jobs. It’s not uncommon for the union to push companies to the brink until the union’s every last demand is met – no matter how unreasonable.
In many cases, this tactic has backfired spectacularly. When this happens, it’s the workers – not the union leaders – that pay the price. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the case of the Yellow Corporation.
Yellow was a major trucking company that employed some 22,000 thousand Teamsters members. Last year, the company was involved in a contentious contract negotiation with the Teamsters. The Teamsters threatened to strike at the company, which caused a large number of Yellow’s customers to flee. Yellow’s freight volumes fell by approximately 80 percent within a week of the strike threat, pushing the company into bankruptcy. As a result, 22,000 Teamsters lost their jobs for good.
“The bold move I would love to see, I would love to see for one day we all unite and shut down commerce to show how important and vital we are to this country”
—Teamsters President Sean O’Brien
The Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spent the months leading up to the bankruptcy sending insulting text messages to Yellow’s CEO. Perhaps those 22,000 Teamsters would have kept their jobs if their leadership had worked together with the company to get a win-win deal, rather than picking a fight that everyone lost.
The Teamsters took a similar hard line against UPS in contract negotiations last year, loudly threatening a strike. While UPS is thankfully still in business, the company laid off some 12,000 employees, including Teamsters members, shortly after the contract.
“This is a risky game. Everybody loses to some extent.”
—Tom Anderson, Petoskey Nurse
Indifference to Member Hardship
According to Merriam Webster, a teamster is defined as a person who drives a team or truck — not a healthcare professional. The membership of the Teamsters’ union reflects this — less than three percent of their membership works in healthcare. Overall, this means that when the union makes decisions, the specific needs of nurses may not be well-represented at the national level.
The Teamsters attempted to represent nurses in Petoskey, Michigan back in 2002. The union launched a strike with nurses in the area – and kept it up for four years. It was one of the longest strikes in history and ended with a majority of the nurses signing a petition to get the union out of their workplace.
“Probably the first month, I drove around with my uniform in my car, thinking that anytime they’d call and say, ‘Come back to work.’ And then finally I took that out. And then we’d think, ‘OK, by the first of the year we’ll be back to work. This will never last till spring.’ Then we went all summer. And we’re still out here”
—Mary Clayton, Petoskey Nurse
Even this didn’t end the strike, however, as the Teamsters contested the results of the petition at the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to keep the nurses off the job even longer. Eventually, the pushback was strong enough that the union fled the workplace.
99% of political advocacy spending by the Teamsters goes to left-leaning groups
How They’re Spending Members’ Dues
The Teamsters will take a portion of your paycheck every month in the form of dues as payment for the union’s representation. Dues are equivalent to the pay of 2.5 hours each month, and are raised or lowered by decision of the Teamsters National Convention rather than being set by your local chapter.
While this money theoretically goes to pay for bargaining and representation, a large portion of it ends up paying for other expenses. The Teamsters President makes a salary of $250,000, and the union spends a collective $44 million on salaries for its officers and staff each year – all of which is paid for by members’ dues.
Additionally, the Teamsters spend a significant amount of dues payments on political advocacy. Between the years 2019 and 2022, the Teamsters sent over $9 million to left-leaning advocacy groups, while it only directed $57,050 toward bipartisan efforts and $7,877 toward GOP-led initiatives and campaigns. Overall, 99% of political spending from the Teamsters went towards left-leaning organizations, much without the consent of its members.