Resolutions for 2023 Teamsters for a Democratic Union Convention: November 3-5, 2023

Teamsters Mobilize members put forward the first 2 of the following resolutions. We will be sharing more information about our experience at the TDU convention soon.

Resolution calling on Teamsters leadership to condemn US support and military funding for Israel’s war on Gaza

Whereas, Palestinian trade unions have issued an appeal and call to action asking their brothers and sisters in the international trade union movement to take immediate action to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s war on Gaza and occupation of Palestine, and this is especially important for unions in the U.S. given the U.S. is the biggest economic, military, and political supporter of Israel;

Whereas, a stated object of TDU is to ‘strengthen the Teamsters union from within by building a unified movement of rank and file Teamsters,’ and one of the principles of the trade union movement should be international solidarity with other workers;

Be it resolved that TDU will sign onto a statement call on IBT General President Sean O’Brien to 1) oppose the Biden administration’s proposal to send billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, and 2) call on the U.S. government to immediately issue a call for a ceasefire and condemn Israel’s bombing and ground invasion in Gaza.

Statement

Since October 7th, 2023 Israel has bombed residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, and refugee camps in Gaza, an area which Israel has blockaded by land, air, and sea since 2007, and Israel has now begun a ground invasion of Gaza.

Between October 7th and November 4th, the Israeli military has killed at least 9,488 Palestinians in Gaza (at least 3,900 of them children), and at least 145 Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank have been killed by the Israeli military or settlers. In the first 6 days after October 7th, Israel dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza, nearly as many that the U.S. dropped on Afghanistan in 2019. The hospitals in Gaza are running out of fuel, threatening the lives of thousands of patients; there is no clean running water in most of Gaza; food is scarce; and Israel claims that it is only 50% of the way through its bombing campaign.

Many of these bombs, and other weapons that Israel is using, have been supplied by the U.S. government. The United States government is and has been the biggest economic, political, and military supporter of Israel since its founding in 1948, and has sent over $225 billion to Israel since 1951. Today, the United States funds 16% of Israel’s defense budget.

And now, the Biden administration is proposing giving another $14.3 billion to Israel to fund the continued war on Gaza, much of which will be taken from our paychecks in taxes.

Irrespective of where our Teamster brothers and sisters may stand on how the decades-long Israel/Palestine conflict started and how it should end, we have a duty to stand for the working people internationally and stand in opposition to attacks waged against them. While the Biden administration has not called for a ceasefire, and instead continues to push for more funding of Israel’s forces, we must stand firmly on the side of ending the war in Gaza.

As Teamsters members, we call on IBT General President Sean O’Brien to 1) oppose the Biden administration’s proposal to send billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, and 2) call on the U.S. government to immediately issue a call for a ceasefire and condemn Israel’s bombing and ground invasion in Gaza.

Resolution on open bargaining for Teamsters contracts

Whereas, The collective bargaining process for a given union contract determines the pay, benefits, and working conditions for all employees under a given employer for years to come, and therefore must be a time of democratic activity by all members of the union,

Whereas, Mobilizing membership en masse to bargaining sessions has been demonstrated through practice in unions across the country to be an effective tactic to apply pressure and win concessions from the boss,

Whereas, Open bargaining is an essential part of exposing the fundamental contradiction of interests between employer and employee, and to thereby further educate and organize union rank-and-file membership,

Whereas, at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Candidates Forum in 2021, Sean O'Brien, the TDU-endorsed candidate, promised, “I know under my administration that there is going to be inclusion. There is going to be transparency...we'll collaborate to make the necessary change,”

Whereas, True transparency in collective bargaining, the kind that can lead to necessary change, consists not just of sharing the end results of negotiations over each topic in the contract, but also of disclosing the detailed data, analysis, and arguments both parties at the negotiating table use to arrive at those results, which is impossible to do under nondisclosure agreements,

Whereas, in the 2023 UPS contract negotiations, the IBT negotiating committee signed a nondisclosure agreement,

Therefore, be it resolved: For all future Teamsters collective bargaining, TDU will support big, open, and transparent bargaining, oppose all nondisclosure agreements, and demand copies of all proposals put forward by Teamsters and the employer should be provided to the rank-and-file.

Resolution on equal wages and benefits for equal work

Whereas, for decades, U.S. workers have fought to abolish monetary tiers between white and Black workers; men and women; US-born workers and immigrant workers; full-time and part-time workers; and higher-seniority and lower-seniority workers;

Whereas, abolishing tiers was a key demand of workers in recent contract struggles at UPS, the Big Three automakers, Kellogg, and John Deere;

Whereas, UPS warehouse workers, part-time and full-time, work side by side doing the same work day in and day out, but in 1982, UPS and the IBT leadership standardized part-timer pay across the country to $8/hour, leading to pay cuts for union members in more expensive parts of the country;

Whereas, the gap between UPS full-time and part-time pay has only widened with every new contract, and the 2023 UPS contract did abolish this tier, but created a new tier where all part-time workers who make seniority after August 1, 2023 are locked into a lower wage tier with a total of $2 in wage increases over the life of the contract, versus the $4.75 minimum in wage increases over the life of the contract for part-timers who made seniority before August 1, 2023;

Whereas, Point IX in the TDU Rank-and-File Bill of Rights, which was eliminated from the TDU Constitution in 2021, states: “IX. Equality Among Teamsters. Bring all wage levels up to the highest standards, not a lot for the few and little for the many. Fight the hardest for the lowest paid”; however, TDU did not object to the $21 part-time wage in the 2023 UPS contract or the creation of the new tier for part-time workers;

Therefore, be it resolved: TDU will work to abolish all tiers and advocate for equal wages and benefits for equal work in all Teamsters contracts, particularly for inside workers during the next UPS contract negotiations.