Beaten UPS Driver Wins Teamsters Settlement

A United Parcel Service driver who was beaten and stabbed with an ice pick after crossing a picket line during a 1997 strike won an undisclosed settlement in a civil suit against a Teamsters union local in Miami, his lawyers said. Rod Carter, a UPS driver and former linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys football team, was pulled from his UPS truck by a group of men, beaten and stabbed six times with an ice pick Aug. 7, 1997. The attack came during a 15-day Teamsters strike against the package delivery giant. It came one day after Carter was interviewed on a television news broadcast and said he kept working during the strike in order to provide for his family. Carter, 35, filed a civil lawsuit accusing the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 769 of racketeering, conspiracy, assault and battery, and infliction of emotional distress, alleging union leaders encouraged members to harass and threaten employees who worked during the strike. The suit, which was pending in state circuit court, was settled in an agreement that bars the parties from revealing details, according to National Right to Work Foundation attorneys who represented Carter in the case.