January 26, 2007: Teamster negotiators have given UPS until just March 31 to negotiate an early agreement.

Now is the time to get involved and to stand strong and united.

Management wants an early deal. We’ve got to Make UPS Deliver or say no to an early settlement.

Our Teamsters National UPS negotiating Committee has scheduled seven weeks of intensive bargaining, beginning the week of Jan. 22, and given UPS until the end of March to reach agreement on an early contract.

UPS is the big dog of the trucking industry. With 215,000 Teamster employees and more than $4 billion in after-tax profits, Big Brown sets the bar for many Teamster contracts to follow, and will be the key to restoring our pensions and retiree healthcare.

No UPS contract has ever been more critical. It’s all on the line: our pension and health benefits; working conditions; organizing the nonunion competition; the future of of Teamster power.

The current six-year UPS contract doesn’t expire until Aug 1, 2008. But shippers and shareholders are pressuring UPS to reach an early settlement.
This gives us leverage—and we need to use it.

In 2002, UPS Teamsters were promised the “Best Contract Ever.” Instead, the contract left key problems at UPS unresolved and ushered in an era of benefit cuts for hundreds of thousands of Teamsters at UPS and beyond.

It’s time to make UPS and our union negotiators deliver the improvements Teamsters were promised five years ago.

So far, the union has said that UPS management has to pony up to secure members’ pension and health benefits for the future. The union has also put forward proposals to deal with excessive overtime, subcontracting, new technology, and the right to organize UPS Freight, Supply Chain Solutions, and other nonunion subsidiaries.

That’s a start. But our negotiators put forward a good initial package in 2002 also. When push came to shove, key issues were pulled. Members were kept in the dark and sold a weak deal that we’re still paying for today.

We can’t let that happen again.

UPS wants an early deal. We’ve got to make them pay for it. We have leverage, if we unite to use it. The company should only get an early settlement if we get what we need. Teamsters can Make UPS Deliver the contract we deserve.