UPS Part-Timers Launch Contract Petition Drive
June 1, 2012: Part-timers and inside workers got sold out in the last contract. This time, they're organizing to win higher wages, more full-time jobs and a contract that makes UPS deliver for every Teamster. UPS part-timers and inside workers have launched a national petition drive to demand better pay, more full-time jobs and a contract that delivers for every UPS Teamster. Click here to download the petition. Click here to download the Contract Bulletin....
Get Involved and Make UPS Deliver
May 22, 2012: Working Teamsters at UPS are working together through the Make UPS Deliver network to mobilize for a fair contract. There's no reason to settle the contract with UPS early if it means settling short. Any contract offer from UPS has to be put to a vote of the members. Our Right to Vote gives us leverage to win a better contract. If UPS sees that we will vote to reject a bad...
Hoffa Sells-Out Central States Pension Fund Again
May 25, 2012: In May the Hoffa administration signed a national contract in the pipeline industry that lets all construction contractors pull out of the Central States fund. The deal establishes a new company plan, just as Hoffa and Hall let UPS start a company plan in 2008. Unlike other Teamsters, pipeline Teamsters don't have the right to vote on their contract. The IBT Constitution contains a loophole that lets local union leaders approve national...
Is Your Pension Fund In the 'Red Zone'?
May 22, 2012: In April, hundreds of thousands of Teamsters received an "Annual Funding Notice" from their Teamster pension plan. For many, the news was not good. If you are concerned about your pension, read on. For some—those in the Western Conference of Teamsters Plan—the notice stated that their fund is in the "green zone." But for the majority of others, the notice included the words "red zone" and "critical status." From some Teamsters, such...
Central States Fund: Where are the Quarterly Reports?
May 22, 2012: The Central States Pension Fund last issued a quarterly financial and analytical statement for the second quarter of 2011, which is nearly a year behind. The Independent Special Counsel to the Fund prepares these reports, and they are provided to Paul Alan Levy, counsel to TDU members and retirees who went to court to end the secrecy about this information. Teamsters for a Democratic Union makes the information available. But late last...
International Union to Increase Payments to Officer Only Fund
May 22, 2012: The amount of members' dues money that goes to an officer-only pension fund will nearly double next year to $9 million. And an even more exclusive plan, which is reserved for International officials only, is taking another $12.5 million in dues. This announcement came in the April Funding Notice of the Teamster Affiliates Pension Plan. The International Union will pay $5 million in dues money in 2012, and increase the annual payment...
Freight Teamsters: Time to Unite for the 2013 Contract
May 22, 2012: Freight Teamsters need to get organized into a national contract network before the upcoming negotiations, to defend what we have and improve what we can. Freight Teamsters are starting to come together. It's no secret we've been on a rough road. Now is the time to get involved and put an end to concessions in our industry. If we sit back, we'll continue to slide downhill. But we don't plan to sit...
Subcontracting Problems Grow Worse
May 22, 2012: Subcontracting remains rampant throughout the UPS Freight system, and the International Union seems unwilling or incapable of protecting jobs. In the next contract we need firm language on job protection, as good as in the National Master Freight Agreement. If ABF and YRC can do their road work with Teamster labor, why can't UPS? The International union has again sent out a memo to local unions regarding the Dallas Local 745 grievance...
Truck Load Division Ripe for Organizing
May 22, 2012: UPS Freight Teamsters around the country wonder why the UPS Freight Truckload Division isn't part of the union. Now that the clerks have been organized, it seems obvious that the TL section of the UPS Freight workforce would be the next target to bring into our union. After all, the slogan for organizing at UPS has been "one company, one union" and these TL drivers can be seen in UPS Freight tractors...
Done Sitting at the Back of the Bus
June 22, 2012: Thousands of New York City school bus drivers and aides safely transport kids every day. But many Teamsters work under substandard contracts with lower wages and benefits than other workers in their same industry, and even in their same union. Local 854 drivers and school aides are working to change that. Workers at Empire State/Allied Bus Corporation started their campaign for a fair contract by circulating a membership survey to get members...