September 12, 2007: If you liked the “Best Contract Ever” President Hoffa has good news for you. In the latest update on negotiations from the International Union, Hoffa announces that he is committed to negotiating the “Very Best Agreement” this year.
Unfortunately, UPS Teamsters looking for more substantial information from our International Union leadership will find that, despite our union’s new Contract Hotline, members are still being kept out in the cold when it comes to any meaningful information about negotiations.
According to Hoffa, our union is demanding “more contributions toward all members’ pension, health and welfare plans than any other UPS contract in history.” Hoffa does NOT mention that the 2002 contract also delivered the highest pension and benefit contributions ever—along with the worst benefit cuts in Teamster history.
With a tentative agreement expected soon, UPS Teamsters deserve more than empty slogans and misleading PR. UPS is making record profits. The upcoming tentative agreement will obviously be the richest contract in Teamster history. That’s not the question. The real issue is will the upcoming contract will provide the long-term retirement security, benefit improvements and stronger contract protections that Hoffa promised UPS Teamsters in 2002.
In the statement, Ken Hall says that the company and the union are still far apart—including on non-economic issues. But members are given no information on what these issues are.
Hoffa and Hall have promised an agreement by Oct. 1 but still refuse to tell members what we are fighting for on issues like new full-time jobs, 9.5, eight-hour requests, supervisors working, stronger protections and fair pay for combo workers, higher wages especially for part-timers, subcontracting to UPS freight, protection from UPS’s spy technology and other issues.
As contract talks came down to the wire in 1997, our International Union mailed every UPS Teamster a detailed comparison of our union’s contract proposals and the company’s offer. That bulletin from our union was entitled, “What We’re Fighting For.”
With a contract deadline of Oct. 1, that’s exactly what the Hoffa administration should be telling Teamsters at UPS.
Click here to read the 1997 bargaining comparison “What We’re Fighting For.”
Click here to read the statement on negotiations from Jim Hoffa and Ken Hall.