Contract Negotiations Timeline

Sept. 11
UPS National Article Screening: Contract proposals from locals will be screened in Washington D.C. by a committee that will prepare the International Union’s bargaining proposals.

Sept. 21
UPS Two-Person Meeting: The National Negotiating Committee will hold a two-person meeting with officers from every Teamster local representing UPSers to approve the union’s bargaining proposals.

Sept. 27
National Negotiations Open: Contract talks begin. UPS and the International Union exchange bargaining proposals

Oct 15-18, 22-25 & Nov. 12-15
National Negotiations: The National Negotiating Committee will meet with UPS to bargain non-economic issues. Wages, benefits and pension will be negotiated after peak.

These dates are subject to change. Separate contract negotiations are also being held in October and November for regional supplements and local riders. UPS Teamsters will get a vote on the national contract and on their regional supplement—and a third vote on their local rider where applicable.

Contract Proposals

Teamsters speak out on contract proposals that members have submitted to their Locals and to the Teamster National Negotiating Committee.

Less Excessive Overtime, More Full-Time Jobs

Matt Maini
Local 251, Providence, R.I.

Stronger contract language can make UPS reduce excessive overtime, adjust our loads, and hire more drivers. But it will never happen unless the IBT negotiates stiffer 9.5 penalties.

Right now, the company could care less. They pay a few grievances as a cost of doing business and intimidate most drivers from even trying to get on the list.

Members across the country have submitted proposals to increase 9.5 penalties. And some locals have submitted proposals to the IBT that take it a step further.

One proposal would make UPS pay double-time to package drivers after 10 hours, and triple-time after 11 hours.

Another proposal would make UPS create and maintain an additional package driver position every time there are five 9.5 violations in a center within any five-month opt-in period.

The Hoffa administration knows the only way to reduce excessive overtime is for UPS to hire more drivers.

A year ago, Ken Hall told a conference call of stewards that top UPS management had agreed to review dispatch numbers and hire more drivers to match growing volume.

UPS never kept this promise even though volume has steadily gone up. It's time to get it in writing.

We should not give UPS any early contract unless it includes stiffer 9.5 penalties and language that requires the company to reduce excessive loads by creating more driving jobs.

Sups Working & Production Harassment

Nick Perry, Steward
Local 413, Columbus

Ask any inside worker what some of the biggest contract violations are and they'll tell you production harassment and sups working.

As steward, it's frustrating to try to enforce the contract when penalties are nonexistent or so weak that the company doesn't care. We need stronger penalties to beef up contract enforcement.

Our current contract doesn't give penalties for an Article 37 violation. We need language that protects us from overbearing and hostile supervisors. We need specific penalties for over-supervision and respect-and-dignity violations that ban the offending supervisor from any contact with the affected employee.

The current supervisors-working language doesn't detour the problem. The company just pays the grievances and continue to violate the contract. We need stricter penalties.

In New Jersey Local 177, the second violation by the same supervisor carries a minimum penalty of two hours or the actual hours worked, whichever is greater, at double-time. On the third violation by the same supervisor, four hours or the actual hours worked, whichever is greater, at double-time the employee's rate of pay.

Here's another proposal to consider: make UPS create a full-time inside job whenever there are 40 hours of sups working violations in the same building in the same week.

These penalties would give the company an incentive to respect the contract and would give members an incentive to step up and enforce it.

Close Contract Loopholes that Gut Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Todd Hartsell, Steward
Local 90, Des Moines

The Central Region probably has the worst loopholes in the "cardinal sins" language, that allows members to be fired on a first offense.

Under Article 17(i) of the Central Supplement, the company can terminate employees for "other serious offenses." Management uses this as a catch-all phrase to fire and suspend Teamsters as they please.

Article 17(d) lets the company fire a driver for any accident that causes more than $4,400 in damage. That figure is totally outdated and lets UPS fire drivers for what amounts to a fender bender.

These loopholes gut Innocent Until Proven Guilty for tens of thousands of Teamsters.

Subcontracting & Surepost

John Youngermann, Steward
Local 688, St. Louis

Our union's responsibility is to protect our work and create more jobs—especially good feeder jobs. We need to use our leverage at contract time to do just that.

Every day we are demoralized as we watch Werner and CFI (Con-Way) bring more and more trailers into the Earth City (St. Louis) hub, work that was once done by feeder drivers. Our feeder board has shrunk, while UPS's volume has grown.

We've documented and grieved it too many times to count, and we've gotten nothing.

We need the International to tighten up the language and enforce the contract to bring back good feeder jobs. Article 2 of the National Master Agreement should be changed to bind the whole corporation, including UPS Logistics, which farms out Teamster jobs.

Management benefits from Surepost. Our union should demand more feeder jobs and more package car jobs in return. It isn’t bargaining if we give them Surepost and get nothing in return.

We should get more full-time jobs in package car that allow drivers relief from excessive overtime and part-timers a full-time future—and more feeder jobs that will allow advancement of part-timers and package car drivers.

"Dishonesty" and the Technology Trap

Willie Ford
Local 71, Florence, S.C.

Discipline for "dishonesty" and "falsifying records" is a major problem.

Most people think of dishonesty as stealing or outright lying. But the company uses "dishonesty" as a catch-all to justify all kinds of discipline.

The dishonesty language negotiated last time is too vague. It's time to tighten it up.

Article 6 (Technology) should state that, "No employee should be discharged based solely upon information from the DIAD, IVIS, GPS, Telematics or other information technology."

This was the International Union's proposal last time. They let the company water it down and for five years management has abused the language to unfairly fire good employees.

It's time to fix this broken language.

End Part-Time Poverty, Create Full-Time Jobs

Raymond Hebert, Alternate Steward
Local 804, New York

More than half of UPS Teamsters work inside. In the last contract, we got sold out. This time, we have to make sure we make UPS and the IBT deliver on our issues.

First of all, we need a wage increase, especially for part-timers. The starting wage for part-timers has been frozen at $8.50 for 15 years! And it's only gone up by 50 cents since 1982. That's ridiculous.

If the starting wage had kept pace with inflation since 1997, it would be $12.15 today. That's the kind of starting wage we should be fighting for, with a $1.35 increase when part-timers make their union book.

Part-timers should have a wage progression to top rate. We could protect the long-time part-timers who make a lot of money under the current system and have a progression that takes care of the rest of us for the future.

We also need more 22.3 jobs and stronger language to make UPS fill these positions and keep them filled. Article 22.3 should require UPS to:

• establish 2,000 22.3 jobs every year of the contract
• fill and red-circle all 22.3 jobs created in the 1997 and 2002 contracts
• maintain all 22.3 jobs in the local union where they are first created

Every one knows how hard it has been to enforce Article 22.3. My local is putting in two proposals that would make a big difference.

The first requires UPS to provide reports to the IBT and every local union listing all 22.3 jobs (sorted by local union and broken down by current building, start time, job assignment[s] and the employee working each job).

The second states that if UPS is found to have violated the requirement to maintain full-time 22.3 jobs, then the affected employee(s) who fill a 22.3 job shall be entitled to double-time pay for all hours missed.

These proposals would give us contract enforcement tools with teeth and make UPS maintain the 22.3 jobs they owe us.

Raise the Pension

Jim Collum
Local 407, Cleveland

More than 44,000 Teamsters in the Central and South get just $3,000 a month for 30-and-Out in the new UPS-IBT Pension Plan.

That's the lowest benefit of any full-time UPSer in the country. It's time for a pension increase.

If we can get a sizeable increase many of us old timers will retire opening up full-time jobs.

UPS Teamster Contract Summit | Chicago
TDU Convention | Oct. 26-28

"I'll be at the TDU Convention to meet with UPS Teamsters from across the country. The workshops at the convention arm you with tools for handling grievances. It's the place to be if you believe in standing up to UPS. We are proud be hosting here in Chicago."

Craig Karnia, UPS Steward
Local 705, Chicago