Teamsters

No you wont be expected to become a teamster unless whomever you hire on with is a union shop, most driver jobs are non union jobs and some driver jobs that are union are not teamsters, they might be organized under the warehouse union for example. Dues vary, I paid 54.00 a month a year ago, pay and benefits were good but when it came crunch time and we got laid off there was some things that our union could have done and they didnt, but hey there was only a few of us so what did it matter to them.

 

Rockie is right, it'll cost you about $54 a year.

No, it definitely is not like the Hoffa days. There is a an old saying among teamster members, "The Teamsters Union died along with Jimmy Hoffa." In many ways that is true, the teamster policy of co-operation with management has all but destroyed the very foundation of worldwide respect it once had.

I spent over two decades in the teamsters and seen it slowly dilute itself by appeasing management. Management is the one who really call the shots. I would never trust my job to teamster "representation" ever again.

 

Whatever problems exist at the Teamsters, if you have the opportunity to start there, you need to take it, and learn to deal w/whatever politics you must.

If you want to be thrown into the non-union OTR fire, you might do well, but the odds are bleak.

Take it from someone that (in my humble opinion) has so far at least succeded at OTR.

 

it depends on the company as to how powerful and "thuglike" the teamsters are. some of the food haulers in my area are teamsters, they get away with crap that the rest of us would never get away with. I've watched these them defend guys who've gotten DUI's on the job and convinced the company to keep them around. About 10 yrs back, Nobel Sysco got raided by the cops, drugs, dealing drugs, and a few other items were found in lockers. The teamsters defended most of the employees against the company, and in a few cases against the charges.