April 16, 2009: UPS’s attack on full-time combo jobs has moved to Chicago. Local 705 Teamsters are fighting back to protect the jobs we won in the 1997 strike.

Local 705 members on strike for full-time jobs in 1997.UPS has laid off 13 full-time combo Teamsters in Chicago Local 705 and eliminated more than 20 other full-time combo jobs by not filling vacant positions.

The layoffs and job eliminations directly violate Local 705’s contract, which requires UPS to maintain 1,100 full-time combo jobs in Local 705’s jurisdiction. Local 705 negotiates its own contract covering 10,000 UPS Teamsters—which is separate and independent from the national agreement.

The 1,100 combo jobs that UPS has to maintain in Chicago are over and above the 20,000 full-time combo jobs that UPS has to maintain under Article 22.3 of the national agreement.

Local 705 has filed grievances and is demanding that the company immediately fill 1,100 full-time combo positions with full backpay for members who have been denied full-time work in violation of the contract.

To back up the grievances, Local 705 is conducting a local-wide audit to track the status of each and every one of the 1,100 combo jobs required by the contract. As we go to press, management has signed off on grievances and begun to put vacant 22.3 jobs up for bid.