May 29, 2013: UPS is offering Teamsters in Louisville Local 89 a bribe. Vote Yes and get a $1,000 check!

The Louisville Air Rider Bargaining Committee is demanding pay for all time worked, more full-time jobs and job protections.

UPS ducked these demands by going behind the back of the Local 89 bargaining committee and getting Hall and Hoffa to mail out its "final offer."

Local 89 is recommending a No Vote on the contract and the Air Rider which covers Worldport, the company's worldwide air hub.

So the company is offering a one-time $1,000 bonus for all 9,300 UPS Teamsters in Lousiville. $9.3 million sounds like a costly bribe, but to UPS this is chump change to sell a cheap contract.

Management's Cover Story

Local 89 has demanded, in line with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, that workers be paid for the time waiting for UPS's shuttle and travel on it.

In today's PCM, managers read a script which states that the $1,000 is "payable to all Local 89-represented employees who are eligible to vote on the contract," and they call it a "Shuttle Incentive."

It is actually a "Vote Yes Incentive." The bonus has nothing to do with shuttle pay. A part-timer hired next year would get exactly zero "shuttle incentive" for four years of unpaid time!

Hall's Hate Mail

Ken Hall also mailed a letter to all Local 89 UPS Teamsters— conveniently received the exact same day as UPS's bonus offer—attacking the local union over part-time dues.

It's enough that the International union, for political reasons, has failed to back Local 89's bargaining demands. Hoffa and Hall don't have to go from bad to worse by doing the corporation's PR dirty work for them too.

A contract is a serious matter. It should be debated, pro and con, on its strengths and weaknesses. Bribes, threats and dirty tricks have no place in our union. They weaken us by dividing and alienating the members when we should be coming together to take on the company.