March 22, 2013: The contract buzz is on the company’s demand that UPSers pay for their healthcare and that’s exactly how management wants it. Early contract negotiations were supposed to deliver a contract that deals with harassment. Instead, the contract buzz is about the company’s demand that we pay for our healthcare. It’s understandable to a point: the company’s healthcare demands are outrageous. They’re also a trap. UPS management knows that members would vote down...

March 15, 2013: The International Union has kept a tight lid on the bargaining goals for the UPS, ABF and UPS Freight agreements. Keeping members in the dark doesn't win better contracts. Union leaders have two choices when it comes to communicating with members at contract time. The Hoffa administration's strategy has been to keep members in the dark. UPSers call it the Information Brownout. But it's not limited to UPS. Teamsters at ABF and...

Membership Rights at Contract Time Teamster members do have power and democratic rights when it comes to voting on their contracts. It was not always this way. But Teamster members united through TDU to win key rights at contract time. TDU won the Right to a Majority Vote on Teamster Contracts Teamster members have the right to vote on their contracts by majority rule. This might seem like a no-brainer. But before 1987, it took...

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...