April 2, 2014: With the Louisville Air Rider headed down in flames, Hoffa and Hall are considering a secret plan to impose the UPS contract.
UPS Teamsters in Louisville, Philadelphia, and Western Pennsylvania have Voted No and rejected their supplements.
Now Hoffa and Hall are considering a plan to take away their right to vote and impose the UPS contract.
Teamster members won the right to vote on supplements and riders in 1991 and have used that right in record numbers this year to reject 18 supplements and riders.
Sixty-three percent of UPS Teamsters work under a supplement or rider that was voted down.
The Vote No movement paid off and forced Hoffa and Hall to improve Team Care benefits, and won other improvements in some supplements.
Since then, Ken Hall has worked hand-in-glove with management to vote and re-vote the rejected supplements to get them passed.
But members in three areas have held out against concessions and for improvements in their supplements: Louisville, Western Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia.
These UPS Teamsters are ready to stand up and even vote to strike, if that threat is needed to bring the company to the table to bargain a fair contract.
The supplements could have been settled a long time ago if the International Union had stepped in and backed the members.
Instead, Hall has played politics and lashed out at the Local 89 leadership and the Vote No movement and tried to blame them for holding up the national contract and members' retro checks.
The company has taken its cues from Hoffa and Hall and refused to budge at the bargaining table. In Louisville, UPS has even reduced its offer.
This is exactly why Teamsters fought for the Right to Vote on supplements and riders in the first place: to stop employers from imposing concessions in supplements and riders by pushing through a contract nationally.
Before we had this right in 1991, the master contract and all supplements and riders were voted on in one national vote. That gave employers a tool to push through concessions at the supplement level.
The Right to Vote on supplements and riders changed all that.
In 2007, Local 804 members voted no and rejected their supplement. They won a better contract offer that saved 25 & Out pension benefits the company was trying to take away.
The Right to Vote on supplements stopped contract concessions and won improvements.
Now Hall is now floating the idea of imposing the UPS contract and abrogating members’ right to vote on the outstanding supplements. This plan has started to leak out from Hall loyalists.
All members need to be prepared to stand with these Teamsters and defend our Right to Vote.
UPS cannot operate without the Louisville Worldport and Philadelphia Airport which together handle a huge volume of air packages.
The Local 705 and 710 contracts covering 15,000 UPS Teamsters in Chicago, Illinois, and Northern Indiana are also not settled. These contracts are separate from the national agreement, still open, and vital to UPS’s operations.
With a united approach, our union has more than enough leverage to defeat concessions and win acceptable contracts in Louisville, Western Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and in Chicago Locals 705 and 710.
The Right to Vote gives working UPSers leverage. Hoffa and Hall should be using it to negotiate contract improvements, not threatening to take that right away.
“We Voted No because we oppose Team Care and want other improvements in our supplement like more full-time jobs, protecting our feeder work, and a better grievance procedure.
“The Union could easily achieve these improvements and settle the contract if they would just show some backbone for a change.
“It’s time for Hoffa and Hall to stand behind us and UPS Teamsters in Louisville and Western PA, instead of standing with the company and selling us out.”
Bobby Curry, Local 623, Philadelphia Airport