September 19, 2013: The ballots are in the mail for the second time for some 60,000 UPS Teamsters voting on their contract supplements. Copies of the seven supplements and riders being re-voted are available below for your review.
Some 50,000 UPS Teamsters are covered by the Central Region Supplement, which essentially had a change of one word since the first big rejection three months ago. In the hated Article 17(i), which allows management to fire Teamsters for all "other serious offenses," the proposal changes the word "serious" to "cardinal." Three months to bargain this? Ken Hall claims this word will lead to big improvements at the grievance panels.
The Philadelphia Local 623 and Philadelphia Area supplements are also being voted. The new Supplement has no improvements: no new full-time jobs, no grievance procedure improvements, nothing.
New York Local 804, on the other hand, won major improvements in their supplement, including pension increases, more full-time jobs, and an expedited grievance procedure. Those changes can be accessed here, on the Local 804 website.
The International Union has put on a very expensive campaign of mailings, calls, shop visits and meetings to sell the health care benefit package, which was a big factor in the rejection of the supplements.
Many UPS Teamsters would like to see this money and effort put into winning a good contract, instead of working with management to sell a concessionary deal.
The ballots are due back on October 9.
The Western Region, Western Pennsylvania and New Jersey Local 177 supplemental agreements are not being voted.
In the West and Local 177, they await the announcement of the benefits provided by a new health plan. Reports from officials in the West indicate that they will be essentially the same benefits as provided by the enhanced Central States Fund, which has been re-branded as TeamCare.
In Western Pennsylvania, the rejection was by a 6-1 margin, so Hoffa and Hall are afraid to re-vote it.