Teamsters Attribute Recent Growth in Part to Cannabis Industry

The organization has added 50,000 members in less than three years.

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Teamsters

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced today the union has grown by an astounding 50,000 new members in the last two-and-a-half years, a direct result of key investments in strategic organizing under Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien and General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman since March 2022.

"Since being elected to lead the Teamsters, our team has been determined to make this International Union bigger, faster, and stronger. These massive organizing numbers in such a short period of time are proof positive that the Teamsters are doing something right," O'Brien said. "They're also a reminder that American workers are fed up with corporate greed and the hollowing out of the middle class by Big Business and the political elite. We see workers fighting back in every state, taking hold of their futures, and joining the Teamsters in record numbers. We will proudly represent everyone and continue to win stronger industry standards and richer labor contracts for all workers."

"The labor movement today is more robust than it's been in generations, and workers in nearly every sector are showing some real backbone by becoming Teamsters," Zuckerman said. "Not only are the Teamsters growing stronger in delivery and logistics — at UPS, DHL, and Amazon — but we're attracting and protecting younger and more diverse workers in every industry from public health to film and television and fast food. The Teamsters have strength because workers have power, and they are exercising it like never before."

This summer alone, 10,000 workers organized with the Teamsters for the first time at a wide range of employers in traditional Teamsters industries like transportation and delivery, including at DHL, UNFI, UPS, and Sysco. Teamsters organizers have also found runaway success bringing more workers into the labor movement at once non-traditional companies, including Amazon, the American Red Cross, Costco, and cannabis dispensaries nationwide.

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