February 21, 2008: UPS wants part-time Air Drivers to pick up ground packages—a clear violation of our contract. This is the first big test of our contract. Will our union answer the call? As Convoy Dispatch goes to press, UPS has launched a new program to use Air Drivers to routinely handle ground packages—a clear violation of the collective bargaining agreement. This is the first big test of the new contract. Our International Union must...

February 21, 2008: UPS Freight workers are joining our union by the thousands. Our union can win big for them. By mid-February UPS Freight workers have signed cards to become Teamsters at terminals that employ 5,600 drivers and dock workers. This means nearly half of UPS Freight terminals have joined the drive, and they are from all areas of the country. Reports come in by the week from locals that get a majority of workers...

February 21, 2008: Conveniently at the end of the voting period for the NMFA, YRC announced the demise of 800 Teamster jobs with the closing of USF Holland and Reddaway terminals in the Southeast and Southwest. Those Teamsters can apply for another YRC job and possibly get hired at 90 percent scale under the new contract. They don’t preserve their earned vacation time or other benefits. CEO Bill Zollars predicts an upturn in profitability by...

February 21, 2008: Just before downsizing operations in the U.S., YRC found the money for expansion in China. YRC Logistics will spend close to $70 million to acquire Shanghai-based Jiayu Logistics. Jiayu is an LTL carrier with 1,800 employees and 3,000 vehicles.

February 21, 2008: The next round in the fight over drivers’ hours of service rules is likely to come at the end of 2008 or in January 2009, before the Bush administration leaves office. That will be when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will likely issue their final rule to try to maintain the 11-hour drive time and 34-hour restart provision. A change in federal administration could mean a change in policy on...

February 21, 2008: Die-hard Freight Teamsters swallowed a bitter pill when the National Master Freight Agreement (NMFA) was approved by a two-to-one margin. When the most concessionary freight agreement in history was first proposed, freight Teamsters were shocked by the givebacks. That shock turned to anger and a nationwide Vote No movement. In freight locals across the country, working Teamsters rejected the contract, including New Jersey Freight Local 641, Worcester Local 170, Philadelphia Local 107,...

February 21, 2008: Ready mix drivers in the metro Louisville area have won a new contract that keeps them in the Central States Pension Fund—despite the company’s threat to replace their defined-benefit pension with a 401(k). Local 89 members at Irving Materials Inc. started gearing up a year early to head off the pension threat and win improvements in their contract. “We went through the contract line-by-line and wrote better language,” explained Louis Bowling, an...

February 21, 2008: An “agitator” is the device in your washing machine that stirs things up and gets the dirt out. That’s also the role played by Local 804 member and UPS package car driver Ken Reiman. Better known by the name of his newsletter and website, the Local Agitator, Reiman exposes corporate greed at UPS and what working Teamsters can do about it. Never one to duck controversy, Reiman uses his newsletter both to...

February 21, 2008: Wayne Shatkoff, president of Pittsburgh Local 249, was suspended from office on Feb. 8 for a year by the Local Executive Board, after the Board heard charges of blacklisting Teamsters in the movie industry. On February 13, a judge found the Shatkoff administration guilty of the same offense. An administrative law judge who heard charges filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Local 249 to pay some $70,000 plus interest...

Report from the Freight Vote CountIt was an honor to represent working Teamsters as an observer at the freight contract vote count. Members can rest assured that the process was monitored and on the up and up. But many members have questions about who got ballots, and why? The explanation we got at the count was that all locals were responsible for creating the mailing list for the ballot. The IBT put it on the...