Hoffa waives Ken Hall's "surprise" neutrality agreement with UPS Freight while Hall celebrates in the background.

August 26, 2013: This is not the first time Ken Hall has played politics with members' contracts and turned contract negotiations into a scripted performance.

In the last bargaining round, Hall made a surprise announcement at the Teamster Convention that he had just reached a neutrality agreement to unionize UPS Freight.

Hoffa-Hall supporters immediately said the announcement proved there shouldn't be an election for International Union officers and called on opposition candidates to drop out.

When the smoke cleared, members learned that Hall's agreement only applied to one UPS Freight terminal in Indianapolis and it only went into effect after Hall had ratified a concessionary contract at UPS.

It all went according to plan. UPSers got concessions and UPS Freight Teamsters got a weak first contract.

This time, UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters didn't follow the script.