June 20, 2013: Updated 10:00 p.m. The ballot count work is over for day one. There is no official count of total ballots received, but it is projected to be approximately a 38% turnout for UPS package, and 50% for UPS Freight.
The final ballot pick-up was made at noon, including from some members who took the time and money to send their ballot by Express Mail.
The International Union claims that only 181,000 members out of 240,000 UPS Teamsters were eligible to vote on the contract, and that is how many ballots were mailed.
Approximately 16,000 UPSers in Locals 705 and 710 are covered under separate contracts. But that still leaves 43,000 UPSers who were not mailed ballots.
Hoffa’s assistant at the vote count said that 30,000 UPSers at any time are new hires and not yet members, due to high turnover.
The IBT mailed out 10,000 UPS Freight ballots, out of a reported 13,000 Teamsters employed.
More details will become available tomorrow. The ballots have been secured for the night.
Some 1,975 votes from Louisville Local 89 have been set aside, they were cast using the first ballot mailed to members there. A second ballot mailing was later done in Louisville and members were asked to revote.
Local 89 members who did not mail in a second ballot should have their first ballot counted and not be disenfranchised because the IBT could not organize a proper ballot mailing. The same principle should be applied to the 600 votes on first-ballots from Local 135 members.
The ballot envelopes are being separated regionally by the color coded return envelopes, and now are being sorted into trays for each local union.
Counting will likely start Friday afternoon or evening, and will proceed through the weekend.
We will continue to provide updates, and vote results as they become available. A template for local union counts and supplemental counts for UPS is available here. Click here for UPS Freight.
The UPS and UPS Freight ballot envelopes (and even many ABF Freight ballots) were picked up commingled together, due to the International Union's screwing up of the ballot mailings.
There will be later post office pick-ups due to extended deadlines for three locals: 89 (June 22), 901 (June 24) and 135 (June 26).
More information on our observers at the count.
Stay tuned for updates.