Who Are The Teamsters?

The Teamsters are America’s largest, most diverse union. In 1903, the Teamsters started as a merger of the two leading team driver associations. These drivers were the backbone of America’s robust economic growth, but they needed to organize to wrest their fair share from greedy corporations. Today, the union’s task is exactly the same.

The Teamsters are known as the champion of freight drivers and warehouse workers, but have organized workers in virtually every occupation imaginable, both professional and non-professional, private sector and public sector.

Our 1.3 million members are public defenders in Minnesota; vegetable workers in California; sanitation workers in New York; brewers in St. Louis; newspaper workers in Seattle; construction workers in Las Vegas; zoo keepers in Pennsylvania; health care workers in Rhode Island; bakery workers in Maine; airline pilots, secretaries and police officers. Name the occupation and chances are we represent those workers somewhere.

There are nearly 1,900 Teamster affiliates throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, with the following breakdown:

Teamsters Locals – United States 358

Teamsters Locals – Canada 22

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
(BLET) Local Divisions 498

Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division
(BMWED) Local Lodges 506

Graphics Communications Conference (GCC) Locals 94

Teamsters stand ready to organize workers who want to bargain collectively. Once a contract is negotiated and signed, the union works to enforce it—holding management’s feet to the fire and invoking contract grievance procedures if management chooses not to. Wages and benefits under Teamster contracts are markedly better than those of non-union employees in similar jobs. Teamster contracts are the guarantors of decent wages, fair promotion, health coverage, job security, paid time-off, and retirement income.

The Teamsters Union also performs vital tasks in such areas as pension management, safety & health, community outreach, governmental affairs and communications. For more than a century, the Teamsters have been a public voice for the rights and aspirations of working men and women and a key player in securing them.

Teamsters Local 771 has a rich history dating back to 1937 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was founded to serve the members of the Teamsters union and their families1. Over the years, it has grown to include a diverse membership beyond just Teamsters.

The local union has been involved in various campaigns and efforts to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions for its members through collective bargaining. They have also established a credit union, initially known as Teamsters Local #771 Federal Credit Union, which later evolved into Team First Federal Credit Union to better reflect its growing membership.