UPS’s Record Profits and Our 35¢ Raise
August 11, 2010: When Hoffa and Hall inked the current contract with UPS, the company was making record profits of more than $6 billion a year. The reward for working Teamsters was a 35¢ raise. To add insult to injury the contract also included no COLA in 2008. That year, UPS Teamsters were entitled to a 15¢ COLA because of skyrocketing food and fuel costs. We got nothing. In all, the 2008 contract had more...
The UPS Pension Divide
August 11, 2010: Hoffa and Hall’s decision to let UPS pull out of Central States saved the company billions. It also locked tens of thousands of Teamsters into a substandard pension. The Hoffa-Hall UPS Pension Plan pays the lowest pension benefits to UPS Teamsters in the country. The plan covers 44,000 UPS Teamsters in the Carolinas and Central and Southern regions—the single largest group of UPS Teamsters covered by any plan. The pensions of these...
No Protection from New Technology and Production Harassment
August 11, 2010: Drivers are paying the cost for another Hoffa-Hall surrender in bargaining—this time over the language on technology and discipline. Telematics is like an OJS every day. Hoffa and Hall watered down contract language to protect drivers from new technology.Brown’s new telematics system increases surveillance and pushes drivers even harder on production. The technology enables management to track drivers at all times by combining data from the DIAD and more than 200 sensors...
Passing the Buck on 9.5 Violations
August 11, 2010: Are long days, production harassment and 9.5 violations a problem? Not to Hoffa and Ken Hall. Hall told stewards on a national conference call in July that, “The 9.5 language isn’t perfect, but it is getting better.” It’s a strange claim to make—since Hoffa and Hall have spent the last two years watering down that very language. Before the current contract, any package car driver could file a grievance if they worked...
New England Pension Fund
August 20, 2010: The New England is our union’s third largest fund. Where it stands and what it will take to protect our pensions and rebuild union power. A new Actuarial Valuation Report from the New England Teamsters pension fund shows that the fund is seriously underfunded. But it can recover with a long-term plan to build Teamster power. The March 2010 report was obtained by members under the disclosure provision of the Pension Protection...
On Strike for Equality
August 11, 2010: They work side-by-side with Teamster movers who make a living wage and get decent benefits. But some workers at ATM Enterprises are making $8 an hour with no healthcare. On July 19, more than 40 workers at ATM Enterprises and a related company, Trucking Office Products System, dropped their dollies and picked up picket signs—to transform these poverty-wage jobs into decent jobs with a living wage. ATM workers voted to join Teamsters...
YRC Teamsters Denied Overtime Pay
August 11, 2010: Since March, laid off Teamsters on-call for YRC terminals in Cleveland and Copley, Ohio have had weeks where they are working six and sometimes seven days. YRC is telling them they must be available for work at either terminal at any time. But management is refusing to pay them time and a half for a sixth punch and double time on a seventh punch. “YRC shows no respect by stonewalling us on...
YRC Kills the Radios for Three-Million-Milers
August 11, 2010: In a move that can only be called petty and mean, YRC management in the Southeast has ordered some of their best road drivers to remove their AM-FM radios from their assigned tractors. A grievance has been filed in Memphis, to try to protect this years-long practice, but it may not even be heard until October. Roadway Express gave assigned tractors to road drivers with three million safe driving miles, and YRC...
Puerto Rico Local 901 Teamsters Take Legal Action for Justice
August 11, 2010: Local 901 strikers and reformers are fighting for their rights—and they’ve won each legal battle. But officials and management are working together to delay justice. Rank and file reformers and strikers in Puerto Rico Local 901 continue to fight for their rights. They’ve won each legal battle, but Local 901 officials and management at Coca-Cola are working together to delay justice. To speed up the process, workers have now filed suit in...
Carhaulers Ask "Where's the Union Leadership?"
August 16, 2010: Teamster carhaulers have been hit as hard as anyone by the Great Recession, which has drastically cut auto production. With the economy just starting to recover, carhaulers are asking “Where’s the union leadership?” In June, Allied Teamsters returned to full union scale for the first time in three years, a most welcome development. But the International union has signaled that Allied can come back for concessions, and most carhaulers expect that to...