June 20, 2013: The vote count began today on the UPS and UPS Freight contracts and will begin on June 27 at ABF. Rank and file observers will be present at the vote counts thanks to Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

The UPS count is expected to take up to a week to complete. No counting took place on Thursday, and will not begin until possibly late Friday, as it will take considerable time to sort the ballots by local union and verify eligible voters.

The counts will be overseen by the Independent Supervisor, Ed Hartfield.

Meet the UPS Observers

In addition to observers sent by several local unions and IBT officials, there will be truly independent observers, thanks to previous legal action by Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

Mark Timlin, a package car driver in New Jersey Local 177, will be an observer. Brother Timlin initiated the highly-successful Facebook page "Vote No on the UPS Contract," which has 3,600 members.

Another observer will be Nathan 'Jumbo' Daniels, a 22.3 worker at the Philadelphia air hub and Local 623 steward.

A third observer, from the Southern Region, is Ron Beard, a feeder steward and member of Dallas/Ft. Worth Local 767.