Teamsters Local 987 is an energized and progressive Local that has continued to grow by providing thorough and responsible service for our existing members to protect what we have fought hard to achieve and an aggressive program of organizing new members into the Union. We provide an excellent Member to Business Agent ratio. Modernizing the Head Office in Calgary and the sub-office in Edmonton with email, 24 hour voice mail, and cell phone access to your business agent has streamlined the exchange of information, providing greater efficiency in the handling of general requests, grievance investigation, arbitration preparation, and contract negotiation. Your Business Agents are visible at your worksites. And our website continues to evolve, providing an informative and interactive forum to inform and communicate with our members. Watch for our enhanced format and user friendly accessibility!

Explore it. Become familiar with it and visit it. It’s yours.

Organizing new members into the Union is the lifeblood of the Labour Movement. If a Local Union is not growing through organizing new members, it runs the risk of losing members. Corporate globalization is a politically correct term for jobs moving oversees or into Mexico. Consolidation and corporate takeovers impact worker security. We have sadly experienced the loss of 30 members with the sale of Colgate and the contracting out of 35 Sobeys drivers’ jobs to a non-union carrier. We have experienced the loss of 50 warehouse and driving jobs when HFS (Havi Food Service, exclusive logistics provider for Starbucks in North America) closed its North American operation in May 2010, subsequent to our members ratifying a new collective agreement for its Alberta operation in Calgary. On the brighter side we have successfully organized 250 new members employed by Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in Calgary who have voted to accept their first Teamsters collective agreement, as well as 525 First Student bus drivers and mechanics in the Greater Edmonton area, who also ratified their first collective agreement in June 2009.

Local 987 has also applied for, and won, certification for 225 taxi cab drivers at Airport Taxi Service at the Edmonton International Airport. This has been an extremely difficult struggle to win bargaining rights for this group of workers whom the employer classified as independent contractors, but we as Teamsters recognize as employees, with the same struggle for equality, the same employer oppression, challenges to pay the bills and the same desire to see their children grow up, to be educated and prosper. After numerous Labour Board hearings and legal challenges raised by the employer, the landmark decisions by both the Alberta Labour Relations Board and Court of Queen’s Bench upheld the Teamsters assertions and granted the employees of Airport Taxi Service to vote in a Union representation election. The result was overwhelming 214 to 42 in favour of the Teamsters Union. Contract negotiations concluded in April 2010 with a new collective agreement ratified by a vote of 160-2 in favour, which included a 7 year stand rent freeze and an elimination or reduction in fines, penalties and surcharges to which the drivers were subject, as well as a transparent, fair and monitored dispatch system.

Local 987 will continue to aggressively organize the unorganized and non-union workers to provide collective agreements which uphold the terms and conditions of employment with better wages and benefits, and better pensions and which bring dignity and respect to the workplace. We have recently applied for certification for over 1000 taxi drivers and dispatchers for Yellow Cab in Edmonton and an additional 350 taxi drivers and dispatchers in Fort McMurray.

Teamsters 987 is alive and well and on the move! Watch this site for new developments. As Teamsters, we need to enhance our visibility in the workplace and in our communities.

We intend to do both!

Thank you for the feedback you provide which draws our attention to your concerns. Continue to support your Shop Stewards who provide on the job insight and assistance with grievances and other issues of concern every day. Together we can make a difference in the lives of working men and women.

In solidarity,
David Froelich
Secretary Treasurer
Teamsters Local Union 987