“The union plans to address pensions and healthcare first.” IBT press release on UPS early bargaining, Oct. 2, 2006 December 6, 2006: Less than two months after the IBT announced that it would “address pension and healthcare first” in UPS bargaining, the company imposed a 30 percent pension cut on thousands of UPS Teamsters in New York City (see article on page 3). In pushing through the cuts over the objections of Local 804, management...

December 6, 2006: The IBT election is over, and James Hoffa won the power to oversee the union’s bargaining with UPS. A centerpiece of Hoffa’s election strategy was to win big at UPS, our union’s largest employer. He didn’t. Despite outspending Leedham 10-1 and with 90 percent of local officials campaigning for him, Hoffa had to settle for no better than half of the UPS vote. Tom Leedham won the majority of the UPS vote...

December 5, 2005: In an historic win, our union has organized two FedEx Ground stations near Boston. Workers voted 22-8 for Teamster Local 25 at the two small stations. Instead of recognizing the union and bargaining, FedEx intends to challenge the union victory at the NLRB and court, to drag it out. FedEx Ground drivers are contractors who buy their own trucks, but the NLRB has ruled that they are employees. The union has lost...

December 5, 2006: An academic study by three economists entitled “Corporate Political Contributions and Stock Returns” and reported in the New York Times indicates that in recent years UPS has donated PAC money to more Congressional candidates than any other corporation. UPS’s corporate PAC gave to 629 Congressional and Senate candidates from October 1999 to October 2004. The study found that corporate buying of Congressional influence has a positive effect on stock price. It shows...

December 5, 2006: UPS’s third-quarter after-tax profits rose to $1.04 billion, with strong growth in domestic and international shipments. Profit in the largest business line, domestic packages, rose 8.8 percent and international profits jumped 22 percent. UPS reported only one weak spot: integration of Menlo Forwarding (UPS Cartage Services Inc.) and Overnite (UPS Freight).

December 5, 2006: Just two months into early negotiations with UPS to protect Teamster benefits, the company has cut the pensions of thousands of UPS Teamsters in New York City. Local 804 members will be hit with a 30 percent cut in their pension accrual effective Jan. 1. The cuts send a clear signal that UPS management is continuing its offensive against Teamster benefits.The largest UPS local in the East, Local 804, was the first...

December 5, 2006: While Hoffa can boast of a 65 percent winning margin overall in the IBT election, he would be well advised to look at the big groups of Teamsters who voted for a change of direction—starting with the with 175,000 Teamsters in the Central States Pension Plan (CSPF). These voters sent a strong message that we need new pension and benefit policies. Most Central States participants belong to mixed locals along with the...

December 5, 2006: Jim Santangelo, the same one who holds his conferences at Waikiki Beach, signs his letters as the “CEO” of Local 848. This terrible idea, local Teamster leaders calling themselves the “CEO” of the local, started with him in Los Angeles and seems to be spreading in the West. Should our local unions be imitating the worst in corporations? We don’t think so.

December 5, 2006: On Nov. 15 some 150 Teamsters at Land-o-Sun Dairies in Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia won the right to stay in their preferred local union, stopping International Vice President Fred Gegare from a power grab against Local 549. The IBT Election Supervisor and the Appeals Master ruled decisively that Gegare transferred these Teamsters, without even consulting them, to five other locals in retaliation against their local president for his participation in the...

December 5, 2006: Tom Leedham’s campaign for Teamster General President did more than win 35 percent of the vote. It strengthened our union for the future. Since the 1997 UPS strike, employers have been on the offensive against our union. We have lost 150,000 members. Overnite defeated our organizing drive, paving the way for UPS to purchase it and operate it nonunion. And hundreds of thousands of Teamsters have suffered the first big pension and...