July 2, 2018

It is our bittersweet privilege to announce that Local 174’s most senior Senior Business Agent Tim Allen has retired after decades of dedicated service to the Teamsters Union. He will be spending his twilight years enjoying the Teamster pension he spent his entire career building, traveling the country with his wife and enjoying time with family. Tim will be deeply missed by everyone who had the pleasure of interacting with him on a regular basis.

Tim’s Teamster career began in 1980 when he was hired as a Package Car Driver at UPS in Seattle. Before that, he worked as a teacher and coach in the Seattle School District after graduating from the University of Washington. Tim spent 11 years driving for UPS, 8 of those years as a Shop Steward.

In 1991, he was hired on as a Business Agent at Local 174 under Secretary-Treasurer Al McNaughton, and thus began almost 30 years of representing Teamster members in nearly every job classification, at three different Local Unions (Local 174, Local 313, and Local 162).

In addition to his duties as a Local 174 Senior Business Agent, Tim also served as our Director of Education and was responsible for running our Steward and Activist trainings as well as new member training at the monthly Initiates Meetings. Now that Tim has retired, that baton will be passed to Senior Business Agent Michael Gonzales.

As we mourn the loss of Tim Allen, Local 174 is also pleased to announce the hiring of Adam Murphy as a full-time Business Agent to help fill the gap Tim is leaving behind. Adam had been serving as a Trustee on the Local 174 Executive Board since 2013, but he has now officially left the Executive Board to take on the role of Business Agent. His jurisdiction includes Alaskan Copper and Brass, American Steel, Bloch Steel, Bunzl, Columbia Distributing, EMJ, Macy’s Logistics, Pacific Metal, Seattle Iron & Metals, Univar, and Veritiv.

Adam has been a proud Teamster for over 16 years, coming out of Columbia Distributing where he worked since 2002. During his time at Columbia, he became progressively more active and involved until he was elected Shop Steward in 2007. He also served on the Bargaining Committee for every Columbia Distributing contract negotiation between 2007 and 2018, and served the membership as a Local Union Trustee from 2013 until 2018.

“We are excited to have Adam on board, and we know that he will do everything in his power to fill the large shoes that Tim Allen is leaving behind,” said Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks. “The retirement of Tim Allen feels like the end of an era – I remember when he was my Business Agent back when I was just a rank-and-file UPS driver, and now we are sending him off into the sunset. We wish Tim the best, and look forward to what the future holds for us here at Local 174.”

There will be a number of jurisdictional changes at Local 174 in the wake of Tim’s retirement. Please refer to the table below to see who your new Business Agent is.

Congratulations Tim, and enjoy your retirement!