September 28, 2010: Diverting feeder work to nonunion carriers (via Logistics or Supply Chain Solutions) costs jobs and hurts our union: if not stopped it could eventually destroy the feeder department and weaken our union. Here’s one example reported by Local 688 members in St. Louis.

UPS had a large account with a company called Scholastic Books. Recently this feeder work was transferred to Werner, a nonunion truckload carrier. Werner—instead of feeders—now brings the freight into the Earth City (St Louis), Kansas City, Chicago and other hubs for distribution.

As a result feeder jobs are lost. Management’s position on issues like this is “no problem, we let the drivers bid another job” but there are still jobs lost, even if it is by attrition.

It’s time for the International Union to take this issue seriously: require management to hold sufficient feeder schools to get UPSers trained, and crack down on subcontracting to save our jobs and union strength.