March 15, 2013: Contract time is the time for all Teamsters to think about where we stand and our future. UPS has made record profits even in the recession. UPS's freight and cartage division has done quite well and continues to grow in importance to the overall corporation. It's an ideal time for UPS Freight Teamsters to make gains in our job protections and benefits. A proposed tentative agreement may be delivered to Teamster members...

March 15, 2013: As Teamster Voice goes to press in mid-March, the International Union has informed local unions that YRC's proposed change of operations is being reviewed for substantive and procedural issues, and no hearing on it is set for March or April. There are good reasons for a serious review. First, the sheer size of the change, with over 1,200 Teamster jobs being moved, and 230 being lost altogether. Second, the specifics of locations....

Excessive Overtime "We need tougher 9.5 penalties in the national contract that requires management to adjust our loads. "Pay penalty is great. But it doesn't stop the 11-hour days or get me home at night to see my family. "UPS preaches safety and keeping your body healthy, but they keep us out until 9 or 10 o'clock at night so we're eating dinner late and not getting enough sleep. It's a total contradiction. "We're a...

March 15, 2013: UPS is making record profits in a tough economy by using technology, harassment and excessive overtime to pile more work on drivers. Hoffa and Ken Hall kicked off bargaining by saying there would be no agreement unless UPS addresses this production harassment. But they have kept a strict information Brownout on what protections we're actually fighting for. UPS Teamsters need to carefully review any proposed new contract and judge for themselves if...

March 15, 2013: Does a ten-year freeze in pension benefits sound too long to you? That is what half of all UPS full-time Teamsters could face, unless there are improvements put in Article 34 of the UPS National Contract. The IBT-UPS Pension Plan covers Teamsters in 24 states (the southern region, the Carolinas, and most of the central region), but this plan has the lowest benefits of all Teamster pension plans! Fortunately, that situation can...

March 15, 2013: Some 50,000 UPS Teamsters stand to draw a pension from the Central States Fund, even though UPS was allowed to pull out of that fund in 2008 and set up their own IBT-UPS Pension Plan, run by the company. The way it works is that UPS pays the pension until the retiree reaches 65. Then Central States pays its share of the pension (which would be most of it), and UPS makes...

March 15, 2013: Instead of parroting the employers who want to cut our pensions, our Teamsters Union should be proposing positive legislation to protect workers' hard-earned benefits. How about these ideas: Build a coalition of unions, retiree groups, AARP to push for positive legislation to protect and shore up pensions. Propose enhanced protection from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). It is presently funded by tiny contributions from various pension plans: increase them to provide...

March 15, 2013: The third quarter financial report on the Central States Pension Plan indicates that the fund had $18 billion in assets as of the end of September 2012. This means the fund held its own for the first nine months of 2012, but surely fell behind in the fourth quarter, when the stock market made no gains. The fund has 30 percent of its total assets pegged to the S&P 500 index of...

March 15, 2013: Many members think that union meetings are just a place you go to hear long reports or to listen to beefs that you don't understand by members who work at other companies. And sadly, many union meetings are not much more than that. Local unions can and should make meetings informative and a forum for ideas and questions. Expert speakers and workshops can be alternated with union business and contract issues. But...

March 15, 2013: More than 150 Teamsters gathered in New York City on March 9th for a day of educational workshops and stewards trainings. The conference, organized by the N.Y. Chapter of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, brought together UPS workers, construction workers, school bus workers, dairy workers, and food warehouse Teamsters for workshops on grievance handling, legal rights, and just cause. Commercial movers met in a special workshop on picketing rights and tactics to...