UPS Teamsters in Action Can Win a Strong Contract
April 2, 2007: Our Teamster negotiators have exchanged proposals on language and economics with UPS. Now it’s time for them to exchange information with the members. Pontiac, Mich.: A UPS Teamster signs up to get email updates from Make UPS Deliver.Our negotiators and UPS suspended further national bargaining until May after swapping proposals on wages, pensions and benefits. Bargaining over local supplements and riders will be held throughout the month of April. UPS has dug...
Three Demands That Can Help Defeat the Cuts
April 2, 2007: UPS’s $4 billion profits and new pension fund rules mean the company will pay record contributions toward our benefits in the 2008 contract. But our union has other bargaining demands that are just as critical if we’re going to beat the pension cuts and win better benefits. Include All UPS Part-Timers in Teamster Pension Funds Part-timers are already included in Teamster plans, including two of our strongest funds, the West and Upstate...
Central States Fund Expands to $21 Billion
April 2, 2007: The Central States Pension Fund ended 2006 with a $1.4 billion gain in assets, reaching $20.7 billion—up from just $15 billion a few years ago. The fund projects that by the end of 2007, assets will be up to $21.2 billion, with expected investment returns. With better returns, the Fund projects that they will surpass $22 billion. These figures are in the fund’s Financial and Analytical Reports obtained by TDU in February...
Money There to Restore Our Pensions in the West
April 2, 2007: Assets at the Western Conference of Teamsters (WCT) Pension Trust now top $29 billion and the trust is 100 percent fully funded. But hundreds of thousands of Teamsters covered by the plan are still facing a nearly 40 percent cut in their pension multiplier. Why? And when will our pensions be fully restored? The already-flush WCT Pension Trust is headed for another major influx of cash. In the next UPS contract, the...
Local 814 Movers Smacked with Healthcare Cuts
April 2, 2007: Commercial movers from Teamster Local 814 in New York City have been hit with healthcare cuts—following a concessionary contract that diverted millions of dollars in contributions from their health and welfare fund into their pension plan. Under the terms of the 2005 contract, the $3.96 per hour contribution that was supposed to go into members’ health and welfare fund went into the Pension Fund instead. Poison Pill“We said at the time that...
Allied: Real Leadership Is Needed
April 2, 2007: Allied Teamsters are currently voting on concessions that could gut the carhaul national contract. The votes will be counted on April 16. Thanks to action in federal court by TDU’s attorney, there will be pro and con observers. Allied Teamsters have a difficult choice. They know a bankruptcy judge could impose concessions even if they vote No. Even worse, they have gotten no leadership from the Hoffa administration. Teamsters have been fed...
Connecticut Teamsters Organize for Healthcare Reform
April 2, 2007: Healthcare costs are skyrocketing, putting union members on the defensive at the bargaining table. Local 559 Teamsters are doing something about it by joining forces with labor and community allies to fight for affordable, universal healthcare in Connecticut. They won an important victory last month when the State Legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee approved a bill for single payer healthcare. The vote surprised both supporters and opponents of healthcare reform. Connecticut...
Arming Teamsters with Information to Fight for Our Pensions
April 2, 2007: The 2008 UPS and Freight contracts are our chance to win the contributions we need to protect and increase our benefits. TDU is bringing together Teamster members and pension experts to talk about what working Teamsters can do to protect our benefits.To succeed, we need to understand the challenges we face and put together a plan that can win the pension protections and improvements we need. That’s why Teamsters for a Democratic...
UPS Feeder Drivers Demand Snow Plan
April 2, 2007: After a late-winter blizzard pounded the Midwest, Feeder Drivers in the Kansas City area are asking UPS management to institute an emergency road plan for winter weather conditions. Road drivers are fed-up with a policy that intimidates and coerces operations in impossible or hazardous winter storm conditions. UPS drivers are routinely forced into winter storms, even blizzard conditions, under threat of firing (for job abandonment). Then, if there is an accident, the...
U.S. Border May Open to Mexican Trucks
April 2, 2007: Mexican truckers may not be running U.S. highways in greater numbers any time soon. Funding for the Department of Transportation pilot program that would monitor this traffic was delayed by a vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The IBT claimed victory after a major lobbying effort to scuttle the program. The Bush administration decision to open up limited cross-border truck traffic raised concerns over drivers with lesser qualifications and potentially unsafe equipment,...