Ryan Haney is a truck driver in the freight industry and member of Teamsters Local 745 in Dallas, Texas.
Organizing Amazon, holding the line against UPS — the Teamsters are at the center of key struggles in American labor. Which makes the outcome of their leadership election, in which reformers are vying to unseat the old guard, particularly crucial.
Short-sighted union leaders who oppose Medicare for All — like James Hoffa of the Teamsters — think they can strengthen their own individual unions by using private health insurance as an organizing tool. But they’re sacrificing their members’ wages in the process.
Federal workers have dealt with low pay, degraded working conditions, and repeated employer lockouts. If they want to improve their conditions, they’ll have to organize.