On December 1st, your employer sent you a letter entitled Your right to know – your right to choose. We read this letter very carefully and noticed that your employer omitted a number of very important details that will help you make your decision about whether or not to join the Teamsters Union.

We ask that you please re-read the letter, this time taking the following information into account:

• UNION DUES ARE DEDUCTIBLE FROM TAXABLE INCOME. Therefore, in concrete terms, you will get back a good part of what you have paid to the union when you file your income tax return at the end of the year.
• DO YOU HAVE A RETIREMENT PLAN? Unlike the majority of workers at unionized trucking companies, workers at your company do not have a retirement plan. Is this normal? We believe it is not.
• A UNION IS NOT A PRISON. The Teamsters Union does not force workers to sign a union card or remain unionized if it no longer suits them.
• IS YOUR EMPLOYER REALLY CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR WELL-BEING? The majority of unionized workers in your industry have a retirement plan. They are paid during truck inspections and switches. Their seniority is recognized and they are not subjected to arbitrary employer decisions. Above all, they benefit from strength in numbers when the time comes to bargain a fair employment contract.
• YOUR EMPLOYER MAKES PROFITS, PART OF WHICH IS YOUR DUE. Is it normal that your pay hasn't increased over the past years? While your purchasing power decreases, your employer is raking in profits!

An industry in crisis?

Some people say that the trucking industry is suffering the direct effects of the economic crisis and that this is the reason why your working conditions do not improve. Has this crisis been going on for five years?

No, it started in 2008.

So, how do we explain this? When the industry is doing well, you get nothing; when the industry is doing poorly, you don't get anything either. Are you being made fun of?

United we stand

The Teamsters Union inspires fear in employers from your industry. Why? Because we improve the lot of thousands of truckers every day, because we believe that bosses should respect workers, and because a company's success is not built in an office, but rather on the road.

Your employer must have forgotten this, because dozens of you have contacted us and it is one of your complaints.

Above all, do not forget that UNITED WE STAND and that you alone are putting yourself at the mercy of unfair decisions.