December 19, 2013: UPS contract ballots will be mailed out in early January in Teamsters Local 710, Western Pennsylvania, and Indiana Local 135.

Teamsters Local 710, which represents UPS Teamsters in downstate Illinois, Northern Indiana, and Davenport Iowa, along with feeder drivers in Chicago, has reached a tentative agreement with management.

The Local 710 agreement, which covers some 6,000 UPSers, is being kept secret. Local 710 members are not being told how many new full-time jobs are created by the contract, whether it will allow 4-10 workweeks, and other important issues.

One piece of information has made it through the Information Brownout: the proposed deal would move UPSers into the Central States H&W Fund (Team Care).

The Local 710 contract is separate from the national agreement, and not a supplement.

Chicago Local 705, with some 10,000 UPS Teamsters, also has a separate contract.  They have a number of rank and file UPS Teamsters on their bargaining committee, and are not near to settling a contract.

In a memo to local unions dated yesterday, Ken Hall also announced that the supplemental negotiating committees for the Indiana Local 135 Rider and Western Pennsylvania supplement have reached tentative agreements, and ballots will be mailed early in January.

Members in Western Pennsylvania have been waiting for six months since they rejected the first contract offer by a 6 to 1 margin. The new proposal has some promises of full-time jobs, but still falls short.

Threats of, “it will get worse if you vote no” are baloney; every supplemental rejection has led to improvements! UPS management wants this contract over, and is willing to bend a little to make it happen. The members’ rejections are giving leverage to the union negotiators.

The Philadelphia supplement and the Ohio Rider have been twice rejected and no third offer is yet ready to be voted. The important Louisville Air Rider is also not settled.