July 21, 2009: There will be no cost of living raise this year for UPS Teamsters.

Last year, UPS Teamsters should have gotten a 15¢ cost-of-living increase but our bargaining team gave UPS a pass on any COLA raise in the first year of the agreement—a giveback that cost UPS Teamsters $1,950 over the life of the contract. (Hoffa gave himself a $12,500 COLA raise last year.)

This year we won’t get a COLA raise because inflation was not high enough to trigger it.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), measured from May 2008 to May 2009, the period designated in Article 33 of the national contract, actually decreased by 1.9 percent. This is because of the soaring gas and food prices of 2008, which later declined a bit.

The CPI has to go up 3.5 percent before it generates anything at all to UPS Teamsters. That’s an area for improvement in the next contract.