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State Teamsters Leader Fights Pact

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<i> Bloomberg News</i>

A California Teamsters union official in San Francisco is leading an effort to reject a tentative contract agreement between the union and the nation’s long-haul truckers. Chuck Mack, president of the union’s 55,000-member Joint Council 7, called the accord “too little for too long,” and urged the 136,000 drivers to vote it down in balloting later this month. His opposition runs counter to what has been a joint union-management effort to reach a quick and uncontested agreement. The union and truckers want to prevent nonunion trucking firms from exploiting shippers’ concerns of a nationwide strike. The tentative pact, called the National Master Freight Agreement, was reached Feb. 8. The current pact expires March 31. The contract also serves as a guide in setting wages and benefits for another 160,000 Teamsters in related industries. Negotiators for the 1.4-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters agreed to terms with a group representing the four largest trucking companies that specialize in hauling trailers filled with cargo from multiple shippers. The contract calls for a $750 bonus in the first year, and annual increases over four years.

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