Hundreds of St. Louis Teamsters and families rallied today in downtown St. Louis to show support for Anheuser-Busch workers nationwide in the wake of the purchase of the iconic American beer company by Belgium-based brewing giant InBev. Carrying rally signs that said “InBev: Keep Your Promises!,” rally participants, along with Teamster trucks, overflowed Kiener Plaza next to the famous St. Louis Arch.

This full story appeared first at Budwatch.com; it is printed here with permission.

Teamster Ready Mix drivers from Local 200 in Milwaukee voted 110-4 to extend their contract into 2011.

The drivers, who work for a number of Ready Mix companies, including Meyer Material, Central, Sonag, Ace, New Berlin, Ojibwa, Ottawa and Okauchee Ready Mix, were concerned about their future retirement benefits. Talk of the weak economy and possibly concessions by the employers of the Ready Mix Association in the upcoming 2009 negotiations also got Local 200 leaders moving on a plan of action.

Lenders Pull Plug on Company

PTS announced today that it was shutting down, effective today, and Teamster carhaul negotiators are setting the record straight about the company's demise.

On Friday, June 6, leaders from local Teamster unions that represent PTS carhaul members unanimously approved a strike against the company beginning at 9 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) Monday, June 9.

For most of the 35 years at Federal Express, the hard work and dedication of the Express workforce delivered the profits that fueled the so-called “People-Service-Profit” slogan.  But something happened between 1998 and 2000 when Federal Express became “FedEx” and the company bought RPS/Caliber.  Those people – the workers at Express – who delivered all those years of profit saw more and more money going to acquisitions and less and less money put into their wages and workplace benefits like health care and pension.
 
The acquisitions have only quickened since 2000.  FedEx Express profits funded the $1.2 billion purchase of American Freightways, the $2.4 billion purchase of Kinko’s (now something called FedEx Office????) and the $760 million purchase of Watkins.  FedEx Express profits funded the $1.8 billion build-out of the Ground network.  FedEx Express profits funded the purchase of ANC in England, the purchase of DTW in China and the purchase of PAFEX in India.

Mike Guglielmo, a former Boston convention center worker, reached out to Teamster Local 82 when he found out his newborn son Giovanni was battling a rare and lethal disease that would require bone marrow to survive. New England Teamsters and other unions in the area took heed to the call - in a big way.