While studying Geology and Physics at Western Oregon University, Chris R. Muhs went to a job fair on campus where UPS was advertising fully paid family health and welfare benefits, something uncommon for part-time work. With young sons at home, Muhs anxiously joined Teamsters Local 324 on March 1, 1995, where he started working at UPS in Salem, Oregon as a part-time loader. Muhs became a part-time air-driver a short time later and was appointed by then Secretary-Treasurer, Darel Aker, as the first part-time Shop Steward at the Salem UPS facility on March 21, 1996. Muhs worked a second job during college as a Class-A Truck Driver at Mutual Materials in Salem, Oregon while he worked towards his degree. On May 12, 1997, Muhs was promoted to a full-time UPS package car driving position, making that his one and only full-time job. During the sixteen-day UPS Strike in 1997, Chris was the Picket Captain from midnight to 4:00AM at the Salem UPS Center and learned the importance of Solidarity, something that focused his career choices thereafter.

In January 2003, Muhs was elected by his UPS peers in Salem as a full-time Shop Steward and sat in on multiple Joint Council #37/UPS contract negotiation sessions for the Package and Sort Riders in 2007. On January 17, 2008, Muhs was appointed as the Vice-President of Teamsters Local 324 by the Executive Board, filling an open vacancy and later re-elected by his peers at UPS on February 29, 2008, to continue his duties as a full-time Shop Steward at the Salem facility. In late 2008, Muhs decided to run for Local Union office in the hopes of becoming the Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 324 and taking the Local in a stronger direction. After more than a year of campaigning with several other Local 324 members on his slate, he was elected by the membership as the Secretary-Treasurer (Principal Officer) of Teamsters Local 324 effective January 1, 2010, a title he still holds today.

After becoming Local 324’s Principal Officer, Muhs has been elected as a Delegate to three consecutive Teamster Conventions (2011, 2016 and 2021) and has been the Recording-Secretary on the JC37 Executive Board since September 2016. He has also served as a Trustee of the Oregon Teamster Employers Trust (OTET) Health & Welfare Plan since November 2012, serving first as an alternate, and then as a dedicated Trustee as of January 1, 2020.

On February 4, 2022, Muhs was appointed by the JC37 Executive Board to serve as a Trustee on the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust (WCTPT). On August 8, 2022, he was appointed as a Western Region Representative for the IBT Package Division by General President Sean M. O’Brien. Shortly after this appointment, Western Region Vice-President Mark Davison appointed him as the Panel Secretary for the UPS Western Region Grievance Panels on September 9, 2022. During the UPS negotiations in 2023, he served as a Co-Chair during the JC37/UPS negotiations, as the official Note-Taker for the Western Region/UPS negotiations and as a member of the Teamsters National Bargaining Committee for UPS negotiations in Washington DC.

As the Secretary-Treasurer/Principal Officer, Muhs is in charge of the administration, operation and fiduciary responsibilities of the Local. He chairs nearly all contract negotiations and oversees grievance adjudication, including arbitration. Muhs believes in bargaining strong, industry-leading contracts, building solidarity, organizing the unorganized and preparing the Local and its membership for the future.