March 22, 2013: The contract buzz is on the company’s demand that UPSers pay for their healthcare and that’s exactly how management wants it.

Early contract negotiations were supposed to deliver a contract that deals with harassment. Instead, the contract buzz is about the company’s demand that we pay for our healthcare.

It’s understandable to a point: the company’s healthcare demands are outrageous. They’re also a trap.

UPS management knows that members would vote down any early deal that includes paying for our healthcare. But the more the issue is on the table, the less negotiations will focus on members’ issues, including harassment.    

When UPS demanded the giveback, Ken Hall held rallies and announced that the Union would walk away from early negotiations if the company did not take the proposal off the table.

That was a month ago. But instead of following through and making the company withdraw the giveback, the International Union has asked every local union to pass out the company’s proposal to stewards and members.

Why is the IBT circulating the company’s proposals instead of the Union’s? 

Ken Hall has promised that UPS Teamsters, “will not pay $90, $9 or 9 cents” toward our healthcare. And he will keep that promise. Or members would vote to reject the deal.

The real danger in the UPS healthcare scare is that it is being used to distract members from the core issues that affect us everyday: production harassment, excessive overtime, understaffing, technology, trumped up discharges for “dishonesty” and other harassment.

UPS made record profits last year. No concessions is not enough.

Hoffa and Hall promised that harassment, pensions, and full-time jobs were priority issues. We need to make UPS deliver on our issues—instead of talking about theirs.

Find out what members are saying. UPS Teamsters Speak Out on the Contract

What would it mean to Make UPS Deliver Less Harassment