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| Local 628 |
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Harrisburg, PA 3/13/2009
U.S. Foodservice, Inc. Using Bullying and Scare Tactics against Teamsters Local 628
U.S. Foodservice, Inc. took a large ad out in the Philadelphia Inquirer seeking replacement workers in an attempt to intimidate Local 628.
Local Union No. 628 represents 284 workers at U.S. Foodservice, Inc. President John Laigaie said the company is doing nothing more than saber-rattling. "We understand that times are difficult, but in this case I think the company is acting out of corporate greed. There is no reason to use such scare tactics." said Laigaie.
Although the Local authorized strike action they are still in negotiations at this time.
See additional articles and the large ad below.
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| Local 773 |
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LOCAL 773 TRUCKER PUBLISHES BOOK The Philadelphia Inquirer (R)
Trucker offers wisdom for road
The 22-year driver from Pennsburg wrote a guide to surviving driving.
By Larry Lewis
Inquirer Staff Writer
Toll takers along the Pennsylvania Turnpike have come to know Stroehmann's driver Richard Freer of Pennsburg pretty well. He's the guy who maneuvers his tractor-trailer load of fresh rolls up to their booths, leans out the window, and hands them a copy of his new book. "I have a chapter about tollbooths and how drivers treat people in them so badly," said Freer, 42, a commercial driver for 22 years. "People gun their engines when they pull away, and leave the booths full of fumes."
There are 24 chapters in all in his book, Survive Your Drive: A survival guide for driving in the new millennium, available since October. "It's a little raw in places," he said. "But that's OK. I'm a truck driver." What the 150-page volume does have is a professional driver's insights into life on the road.
"I'd like to sell books, sure," said Freer, a 1979 North Penn High School graduate who struggled with classroom English. "But I really want to save lives. If I could save just one life, wouldn't that be great?"
He has driven an armored truck in Arizona, delivered theater tickets by motorcycle, and was, for 15 years, a driver for Consolidated Freightways, now out of business. "We covered every zip code in the United States," Freer said. "That's just an interesting business. You go in every business, talk to people, learn how things are made. If you name any business in this five-county area, I've been there." Driving runs in his family, he said. His mother has been a bus driver in the North Penn School District for 26 years.
His two brothers and his sister are on the road a lot as salespeople. "I used to get mad like everybody else," Freer said. "I would get irate. I would yell out the window. One day, about 10 years ago, I got really mad at a guy, and I realized I was killing myself with stress. It really did change my life."
He began looking for ways to take the stress out of driving. Whatever he discovered he wrote down in a black-and-white composition book he bought in a dollar store. He wrote for years, while waiting to get into loading docks, on breaks, at lunch. He wrote the manuscript on a hand-me-down computer in his basement.
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