December 7, 2009: The Hoffa administration may be silent while the company walks all over the contract. But some locals are making themselves heard.

Anticipating a visit by CEO Scott Davis, New Jersey Local 177 booked a plane to circle the Edison hub with a banner: “UPS Stop Mistreating Your Employees.”

Outside the hub, Local 177 officers distributed leaflets in the parking lot with the same message.

Local 177 members are fed up with UPS’s stonewalling of grievances. The local has thirty arbitrations scheduled on supervisors working violations—each one dealing with serial violations by individual supervisors.

Under a special provision in the Local 177 supplement, the penalty for supervisors working increases if there are multiple infractions by the same sup. On the second violation, the minimum penalty is two hours at double time pay. On the third violation, the minimum penalty is four hours work at double time pay.

Management has dragged out the hearing on the first supervisor for five days with no end in sight. And that’s just on the first arbitration. There are 29 arbitrations to go—each one on multiple violations by individual supervisors.

Production harassment and ridiculous write-ups of package drivers are other major issues—just like they are across the country.

As the plane circled the building, top regional management descended on Edison in a panic. You can see their worried faces and cell phone scramble in a video called “upsflyby” on YouTube.

It shouldn’t take an airplane banner to get management’s attention.