January 23, 2008: Bargaining at DHL is set to restart in February and the International Union is softening up members in advance for concessions.

The Hoffa administration’s latest DHL update plays up Wall Street concerns about DHL’s financial losses in its U.S. operations and warns that “there is immense pressure on them to turn around operations.”

Here are few things Hoffa’s PR Department forgot to mention:

• DHL’s parent company, Deutsche Post, is the world’s largest transportation company. Fortune magazine reported last year that DP had more than $79 billion in revenue—as much as UPS and FedEx combined.
• DP has known all along that it will have to put up with operational losses to establish itself as a major player in the North American market—a key component of their long-term business strategy.
• DP is following the same strategy as UPS, which suffered huge losses for years to establish itself in Europe and overseas.

Why Our Union Is Doing DHL’s Dirty Work

Usually, it’s management job to soften up the members by crying poor. Why is the Hoffa administration doing DHL’s dirty work?

Because our negotiators, led by Hoffa’s special assistant Brad Slawson, have already agreed to concessions.

The International Union wrapped up non-economic negotiations with DHL in December. Officers involved in these negotiations report that the company is balking at using National Master Freight Agreement language as the basis for the new DHL agreement.

They also report that the proposed tentative deal will include the greatly increased use of part-timers on docks and for air pick-ups.

Full-time jobs and overtime are on the line. The company is offering to protect existing full-time Teamsters by offering them 40 hours work—but this red circle will be by name, not by full-time position.

As these full-time Teamsters leave, DHL could bring in more and more part-timers. This would destroy good Teamster jobs, undermine our union’s bargaining power, and also eliminate overtime opportunities.

We Can Stop the Givebacks

DHL Teamsters have already stopped this deal once—last summer.

Members are already starting to organize now to Vote No on the concessions in the national agreement. We can stop it for good this time.

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