How Much Could Your Pension Be Cut?
May 30, 2014: How much could you possibly lose from your pension if the anti-cutback provisions are repealed from federal law? The Pension Rights Center has posted a retiree cutback calculator to show you the answer. The calculator shows how drastic the cuts could possibly be to retirees in “deeply troubled” pension plans, including the Central States Plan. The calculator provides the answer. Use the calculator below to determine how much your pension could legally...
How to Raise the Minimum Wage
May 29, 2014: Other than endorsing mom or apple pie, rarely does a proposed law pass both legislative houses and get signed by the governor in less than one hour. But that happened two days ago in Michigan: the law raised the minimum wage in four steps to $9.25 by January 1, 2018. But that isn’t the news here. The news is, the governor and the bill’s sponsors are totally against raising the minimum wage!...
Labor Board Tells UPS: Respect Teamsters’ Rights
May 28, 2014: Tom Glidden, a UPS Driver at the Maple Grove Minnesota UPS facility, has passed out Teamster Voice for years. He does it in the parking lot before and after work and leaves a few copies in break areas. UPS management told him to stop. Now the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has directed management to back off and respect the rights of Teamster members. In May 2013 Tom’s supervisor told him he...
UPS Master Contract Now Available
Updated June 6, 2014: The IBT has not made the new UPS Master Agreement available. TDU has produced one for Teamsters to use to enforce the contract. TDU has compiled and posted the 2013-2018 UPS Master Agreement for Teamsters to download and use, as well as the Central Region and Western Region Supplements and various riders. More supplements and riders will be posted soon. We combined the new negotiated changes with the old language. To make it easy...
Download the Docket for the UPS National Grievance Panel
The next UPS National Grievance Panel will be held June 2-5, 2014 in Boston. TDU is making the complete list of the cases to be heard at the panel available to concerned Teamsters. Click here to download the cases before the National Grievance Committee. Click here to download the cases before the Joint National Air Committee.
UPS Black Friday Surprise
May 21, 2014: UPS announced it will implement full ground and air service on the Friday after Thanksgiving even though Black Friday is a holiday under the contract. UPS has always suspended ground deliveries on Black Friday, with Teamsters getting premium pay to do air pickups and deliveries. But this year, UPS plans to have full ground service too, according to a memo that is being read by UPS management at morning meetings called PCMs. “We...
Another UPS Contract Loophole Exposed
May 21, 2014: UPS made $4.5 billion in profits last year. So why will some package car drivers make less than new hires under the new contract? Before UPS contract negotiations, Ken Hall promised, “The more they make, the more we take.” So why will some UPS drivers make less than new hires under the new contract? Starting pay under the new contract was raised for package drivers to $18.75 an hour. But incredibly, Hall...
TDU says: Increase Support for Pension Guarantees!
May 21, 2014: The Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is calling for reforms that would help secure union members pensions. TDU backs this proposal and Teamsters should, too. The Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is calling for a major increase in insurance premiums paid by employers to provide more security to pension funds that cover Teamsters and other union members. Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) supports this proposal...
UPS Freight National Grievance Panel June 3-6
Thirty-six grievances have been carried over to be heard at the national grievance panel in Boston in June. A number of them address the serious problem of subcontracting. There is one new case from the Eastern Region addressing premium pay for Sunday work, along with a few new cases from the Central and West and South. The link for the docket is here.
Doug Mims: A Teamster with Guts and Principles
May 15, 2014: We lost a good friend yesterday, when Doug Mims passed away in Atlanta at the age of 75. Doug had been sick for quite some time. Doug was a tireless activist and a leader of the TDU movement and of the Teamsters Union. Doug started his union activity when he was a road driver in South Carolina. Later he transferred to Atlanta Local 728, where he joined TDU in 1984 and helped...