WASHINGTON — With Ford Motor Company canceling its decades-long carhaul contract with Jack Cooper, Teamsters general president Sean M. O’Brian is promising to use the Union’s full force to defend Cooper and is urging Ford “in the strongest possible terms to reverse this decision.”
“By taking steps to end its relationship with Jack Cooper, the Ford Motor Company has officially threatened the livelihoods of more than 1,400 Teamsters-represented carhaul workers and their families,” O’Brian said. “Ford, a once iconic American brand, wants to boost its own bottom line by walking away from a family-owned company and into the arms of second-rate third parties that will pay workers less money and far fewer benefits to haul Ford vehicles.”
O’Brian noted that the entire 1.3 million-member Teamsters Union stands absolutely opposed to this “shameful and un-American decision.”
“The erosion of good-paying union jobs poses a serious threat to our entire economy,” O’Brian said. “We have seen time and again that there are no winners when corporations sell out workers to the lowest bidder. Corporate executives refuse to look past the short-term, setting their sights on an extra bonus as they race to the bottom to ruin lives, hollow out communities, and decimate the middle class. It must stop.”
O’Brian also said that the Union will continue to defend it’s members and “protect honorable union jobs in America.”
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
