UPS executives and Wall Street investors are crying because the company made “only” $9.9 billion in profits last year. The company will lay off 12,000 full and part-time managers as a result. Unlike management, Teamsters can fight layoffs. Here’s how.
UPS Teamsters have always gone through seasonal layoffs when volume drops after peak. The peak COVID years when volume never seemed to drop were the exception.
But unlike management, we have union protections and we can use them to fight layoffs and protect our jobs and each other.
Enforce layoff language and your seniority rights. Every supplement has different layoff language. Learn the contract language where you work and enforce it.
Sign the 9.5 list. It’s not too late to sign the 9.5 list. Fill out the 9.5 add/cut form. Fight excessive overtime and make management spread the work around.
Use your 8-hour requests. Under the new contract, drivers only have to give three calendar days notice for an 8-hour request. Ten percent of drivers in a center have to be granted an 8-hour request. Use this tool to get a break and to make it harder for management to cut routes and lay drivers off.
Grieve supervisors working. No supervisors should ever be doing our work, but especially when members are laid off. Fight layoffs by filing supervisors working grievances and make management pay for violations.
Enforce the Surepost language. The contract includes new language that allows us to recapture our work that is diverted to the post office. Any box that weighs more than ten pounds or is more than two cubic feet should not be sent via Surepost. You can file grievances on Surepost violations. Two cubic feet is a 12x12x24 box (like a microwave oven).
After UPS announced its layoff plans, no less than Fortune magazine declared, “UPS delivers 12,000 job cuts to management months after historic deal for unionized drivers—yet another sign the pendulum is swinging toward blue-collar workers.”
Let’s keep the pendulum swinging our way by enforcing the contract. United, we win.