DRIVE stands for Democrat Republican Independent Voter Education and is the Teamsters’ Political Action Committee (PAC) fund. Local 988 works in conjunction with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to support labor friendly candidates and issues at the local, state, and federal level.
The Teamsters have a long history of understanding that harnessing political power is necessary to electing Representatives that will champion labor’s principles. The only way to combat organized money is with organized labor and united, we are much more powerful than corporations that seek to exert their influence over the laws that govern worker’s rights.
In Texas, we feel this influence on the state level, being a “Right to Work” state which makes our organizing efforts on behalf of members, both current and future more difficult than in a state where Collective Bargaining is the law.
While Local 988’s membership has always contributed to DRIVE, prior to 2009, membership contributions were incredibly limited.
Starting with Robert Mele’s leadership as President, Local 988 began concentrating on growing our DRIVE fund so that we could work towards electing labor-friendly leaders at the state and local level, and work with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at the national level. Since his direction with DRIVE began, Local 988 has gone on to become the local Teamsters union that has the biggest percentage of membership contributing to DRIVE and he regularly speaks to other Teamsters Locals and Joint Councils on how they can improve their membership contribution levels, as well, and encourages leadership at other Teamsters locals to focus on talking about the issues that directly affect their membership to encourage participation.
Robert Mele’s work to increase membership participation in the DRIVE campaign has been so impressive that it led the Teamsters to create a Platinum level for recognition of local unions where a high percentage of membership regularly contributes to the DRIVE fund.
Since 2010, Teamsters Local 988 has been repeatedly recognized for our DRIVE Contributions. We’re proud to have earned the following recognition from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters:
2010 DRIVE Award – Highest Percentage of Members Contributing to DRIVE in 2009
2010 DRIVE Award – Most Improved DRIVE Percentage in 2009
2011 DRIVE Award – Highest Percentage of Members Contributing to DRIVE in 2010
2012 DRIVE Award – Highest Percentage of Members Contributing to DRIVE in 2011
2013 DRIVE Award – Highest Percentage of Members Contributing to DRIVE in 2012
2014 DRIVE Award – Highest Percentage of members Contributing to DRIVE in 2014
2014 DRIVE Award – Most New Cards Signed in 2013
2015 DRIVE Award – Highest Percentage of Members Contributing to DRIVE in 2015
2016 DRIVE Award – Highest Percentage of Members Contributing to DRIVE in 2016
2017 DRIVE Award – Highest Percentage of Members Contributing to DRIVE in 2017
2018 DRIVE Award – DRIVE Club Member Platinum Level
2019 DRIVE Award – DRIVE Club Member Premium Level
2020 DRIVE Award – DRIVE Club Member Platinum Level
2021 DRIVE Award – DRIVE Club Member Platinum Level
2022 DRIVE Award – DRIVE Club Member Platinum Level
