UPS Moves To Break Up Central States Fund
June 8, 2007: UPS management has put a dangerous proposal on the table: to pull UPS Teamsters out of the Central States Pension Fund, the plan that covers 42,000 full-timers in 25 states. Under the law, UPS would have to pay $4 billion in withdrawal liability to the Central States to break out of the fund—a penalty management is happy to pay because they can make it up over time by reducing future benefit costs....
An Open Letter to Tyson Johnson: Stand Up for Our Pensions
June 8, 2007: Where is the Freight Division of our union? While Ken Hall and Hoffa “seriously consider” allowing UPS to split apart the Central States Pension Plan, the Freight Division should be sounding the alarm. Behind closed doors, maybe they are. But it’s time to come out of the closet and speak out to defend our pension plans and our Teamster unity. Teamster leaders are elected to be the members’ voice to Hoffa, not...
ABF Wants To Bust Teamster Pension Plans
“We believe there is an opportunity in this negotiating cycle to withdraw from some or all of these [Teamster pension plans] and provide benefits directly to our employees…” “We view the multiemployer [Teamster pension] withdrawal opportunity to be the most significant thing facing us.” Robert Davidson, CEO of ABF, May 8, 2007 There you have it. The CEO is telling you that ABF would love to bust our pension plans and take over employee pensions...
Freight Survey: No Mention of Retiree Healthcare
June 8, 2007: Freight Teamsters be warned: the Freight Division apparently isn’t considering fighting to restore retiree health coverage where it has been devastated. Nor is there a plan to win a timetable for pension improvements. On May 30 a three-page Freight Survey was mailed to all local union officers. It has three questions (out of 15) on pensions and health care. But none of them call for any choice other than “maintaining Teamster pension...
Workers on Disability Forced to Burn Vacation?
June 8, 2007: Thanks to a lawsuit by a Roadway Teamster, workers who are off drawing disability pay and using Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) time should no longer be forced to use up their vacation time. An employee should now have the option to take the vacation pay, or save the accrued vacation time. But Yellow Freight doesn’t recognize the decision by the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. They insist that they will...
Time for Contract Improvement on FMLA
June 8, 2007: There is a glaring weakness in Teamster national contracts—UPS, freight, and carhaul—which should be corrected in this bargaining round. The contract lets employers require a Teamster off on family or medical leave to burn up their vacation time.As it stands at present, if an employee uses leave time because of a childbirth or to care for a sick parent, they cannot take any vacation that year. The court case referenced above is...
Carhaulers: Prepare Now for Coming Contract
June 8, 2007: Teamster carhaulers have entered the one-year countdown to the next national contract. The time for rank and file carhaulers to establish our network to share information, strengthen unity and build power is now. June 1 marked the start of the contract year, as well as the date that our national contract became two-tier for the first time in Teamster history. Teamsters at Allied now make 17.5 percent less than other carhaulers. “It’s...
On Pension, UPS’s Actions Speak Louder Than Words
June 8, 2007: UPS management has been trying to win control over our pensions for years. After Teamsters defeated UPS’s pension grab in 1997 and won major improvements in our benefits, it looked like management’s dreams were finished. Then the 2002 “Best Contract Ever” and the pension cuts of 2003 breathed new life into management’s old ambitions to get control over our pensions. UPS Teamsters are angry over the cuts and they’re looking for answers....
Pension Hike or Pension Freeze in NY and NJ?
June 8, 2007: As negotiators for UPS and our union square off over the pension issue, members in the Eastern Region’s two largest UPS locals want to know whether early bargaining will deliver a real pension increase—or a freeze that keeps benefits at pre-pension cut levels. New York Local 804 and New Jersey Local 177 were the first Teamster locals in the nation to win 25-and-out and 30- and-out pensions. UPS management controls all of...
Western Fund: Restore the Cuts
“That fund is not 100 percent funded. When that fund gets to 100 percent based on their rules, they’ll do the right thing.” Tom Keegel, IBT Candidates Forum, Aug. 25, 2007 “The Plan’s vested benefit liabilities are 100 percent funded.” Memorandum to Local Union Officers from Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust August, 2007 More than nine months ago, the Hoffa administration promised Teamsters that the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust would end the...