June 8, 2007: There is a glaring weakness in Teamster national contracts—UPS, freight, and carhaul—which should be corrected in this bargaining round. The contract lets employers require a Teamster off on family or medical leave to burn up their vacation time.As it stands at present, if an employee uses leave time because of a childbirth or to care for a sick parent, they cannot take any vacation that year.

The court case referenced above is only a partial solution. It says that a Teamster who is drawing disability pay from a health and welfare fund is protected from vacation exhaustion, but Teamsters on FMLA time who are not drawing disability pay are not protected. It’s time to fix this in all national contracts.