Driving a Soft Bargain

Teamsters Local 638, representing more than 100 drivers of those big green Star Tribune trucks, gave the thumbs-up last week to a four-year contract only a penny-pinching corporation's mother could love.

Some veteran drivers took exception when they learned that the union negotiated the elimination of as many as 14 non-union jobs in the Star Tribune's circulation department. Duties such as fixing broken paper dispensers, collecting the coins, and managing accounts with stores who keep a rack by the register are being transferred to drivers.

Gregory Kujawa, who has been a driver for 28 years and served on the union's bargaining committee, says the concession is "embarrassing."

"I don't think organized labor ought to be in the business of eliminating other people's jobs," he says. "That's corporate behavior. We should be organizing those people."

Robert Moore, a spokesman for the union, says Local 638 tried to organize the circulation workers four years ago and were turned down. "My job was to negotiate extra work" for union members, Moore says.

According to Kujawa, he raised this issue with a member of the Local 638 bargaining committee before the vote. The response, he says, was a four-and-a-half word essay on Teamster leadership: "Fuck 'em, they're non-union."