Teamsters Local 705 Stands Up to Shady Financial Investors

International Adopts Investment Resolution, Encourages Greater Scrutiny

Teamsters Local 705 is leading a nationwide charge against TPG Capital and other global investment firms that are quietly and unilaterally slashing benefits for union members.

One month before Teamsters gathered in Las Vegas for the union’s 28th National Convention, Local 705 Recording Secretary Juan Campos, alongside drivers George Sterba and Ronnie Burchett, and several business agents, journeyed to San Francisco to protest the financial company’s anti-worker investments outside its national headquarters. Just days before the convention kicked off, the local also rallied against Nexeo Solutions LLC, a recent TPG acquisition in Oak Brook dismantling health and pension benefits for its workers.

Local 705’s actions culminated in the unanimous adoption of a new resolution on the final day of the National Convention, calling on all Teamsters to withdraw their investments from companies like TPG and Nexeo, who ignore the interests of working families to boost profits.

“TPG Capital is using substantial amounts of money invested by multi-employer pension plans, including the Teamsters, to fund their own anti-worker investments,” said Neil Messino, Local 705 Contract Administrator, who attended the rally in San Francisco. “We’re hoping this resolution sheds new light on these investment firms and encourages Teamsters everywhere to join us in the fight to protect our pensions and benefits.”

In April, TPG purchased Ashland Distribution—the chemical distribution company now known as Nexeo—which employs Teamsters at facilities across the country. Shortly after acquisition, Nexeo began altering existing and expired collective bargaining agreements to increase health care costs and reduce coverage for workers. At its Willow Springs facility, the company changed its retirement plan as well, forcing workers to abandon their Local 705 pension benefits for a new, company-defined 401(k).

“Our own money is working against us,” said Messino. “Unions have been using TPG to make investments for years, and in return TPG is using its profits to turn employers into union-busters. This has to stop. This cycle could have a devastating impact on our members.”

TPG is also currently invested with Armstrong World Industries, Inc., a flooring products company in West Virginia. In March, the Teamsters International issued a letter to all affiliates on Armstrong’s attempt to drastically increase health care costs for Teamsters at its facilities. The company currently employs more than 1,500 workers with collective bargaining agreements at six plants nationwide.

“Delegates to the National Convention made a bold and responsible decision in adopting Local 705’s resolution on pension investments,” said John T. Coli, President of Teamsters Joint Council 25 and a Central Region Vice President. “This resolution will prompt further investigation of TPG’s actions and a renewed focus to protect the interests of our members at all costs.”

The International officially adopted the Protecting Teamster Participants From Pension Destroying Investors Resolution on July 1, 2011. In addition to acknowledging the members of Local 705 and Teamsters Local 70 employed by Nexeo, the resolution encouraged Teamster locals to withdraw benefit funds from investors that could inflict damage on tens of thousands of Teamster participants.

“Employers who try to substitute weaker plans for their workers’ defined benefits with the Teamsters will ultimately cause greater economic crisis for themselves and their industries,” said Coli. “It is time to draw a line in the sand and stand up to these financially reckless and irresponsible corporations.”

CLICK HERE to read Local 705’s pension investment resolution.

For more information on the labor relation policies of Nexeo or how labor disputes could affect TPG’s broader investment portfolio, please contact Neil Messino of Teamsters Local 705 at (312) 738-5279.

Teamsters Local 705 is an affiliate of Teamsters Joint Council 25, which represents more than 100,000 hardworking men and women throughout Illinois and Indiana.

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