Writers and teamsters

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Updated Dec 14, 2009

In this IGN Entertainment article on the Hollywood writers’ strike, Judd Apatow, writer-director of the movies iKnocked Up and iThe 40-Year-Old Virgin, explains why writers are sore they aren’t getting money from new media such as digital downloads

Here’s how I would explain it. If you’re a teamster, you get paid to drive a truck. But if someone invents a new kind of truck, and you’re still driving it, you should still get paid. … We’re switching trucks at this point. But if someone comes up with a three-wheel truck, you’re still driving!

We preserved the lowercased “>teamster,” as IGN had it, as a generic synonym for “truck driver,” but we suspect Apatow mean Teamster as in the union. Does anyone in the United States refer to teamsters anymore, as opposed to Teamsters?