On May 2, when a mercury spill turned up on the main sort belt in the UPS Sharonville Building near Cincinnati, management failed to respond properly. UPS did not secure the area, isolate the spill, inform employees, nor evacuate workers from the spill area. “I always thought the idea was ‘safety first’,” says Local 100 full time steward Sam Bucalo.

Management appeared more concerned about keeping stewards from investigating the situation than about resolving the serious health risk. Both the full time and part time stewards were “taken out of service” the day following the discovery. Management claimed they had everything under control and there was no reason for the stewards to play a role in the situation.

“I was told that UPS had a response plan developed by a corporate committee for mercury spills,” explained Bucalo.

Supervisors may have already known of the mercury spill. Bucalo explained, “I was told that there was no need to shut down the belts because they didn’t know if the leaking package was there that night [when the spill was discovered] or the week before.”

UPS hazardous spill personnel just happened to be in the Sharonville building on May 2.

Following the company’s investigation, and a couple visits from OSHA, the package containing mercury remained unfound. Thus UPS could not determine where the package originated, where it was going, or which belts in the facility could have been contaminated.

Mercury vaporizes at room temperature. Breathing mercury vapors can cause severe damage to the brain, kidneys, liver and nervous system.
UPS Teamsters need to be prepared to deal with a range of hazardous materials turning up at work. Stewards need access to investigate and better assist members. Safety committees with union representation remain our best method for addressing UPS procedures.

Local 100 has filed concerns with the EPA and OSHA. Those investigations are pending. Both the local and the IBT Health & Safety Department are monitoring the Sharonville investigations.

Sam Bucalo, who was off the clock during his investigation as a steward, was terminated for what UPS refers to as “failure to follow instructions.” His reinstatement will be addressed at the UPS State Panel Hearings on June 7.

If you have suggestions for correcting UPS procedures, or if you have observed UPS management covering over hazardous spills or failing to follow “safety first” rules, please contact TDU.

UPS purchase of nonunion Overnite Transportation for $1.25 billion marks a new era of industry consolidation and poses a grave threat to UPS and freight Teamsters, and to the security of our pensions. But the purchase also presents the best opportunity in a long time for the Teamsters to reassert ourselves as a major force in the transportation industry. We need to seize that opportunity.

The New Trucking Industry

The UPS-Overnite combination is the face of the new trucking industry. The boundaries are blurring between the small parcel, freight, and logistics sectors. The future belongs to integrated transportation companies that are players in all aspects of the market and can offer shippers a variety of options on a one-stop-shopping basis. That’s why FedEx already has successfully integrated a less-than-truckload carrier, American Freight, and built it into a $3 billion a year company—twice as large as Overnite.

Now UPS has acquired Overnite as part of its transformation from a parcel delivery company to an integrated shipping and logistics operation with global reach.

Industry experts predict further consolidations. Many say the next company to acquire a less-than-truckload freight operation will be DHL, the third largest parcel and air freight shipper in the U.S., and a subsidiary of the German post office, Deutsche Post.

All Teamsters need to understand what lies ahead in the new trucking industry—both the threats and the opportunities.

Threats

UPS’ acquisition of Overnite poses a threat to UPSers, freight Teamsters, and to the retirement security of all members covered by Teamster benefit plans.

The Threat to UPS Teamster Jobs: UPS reportedly told the IBT that its acquisition of Overnite won’t affect Teamster jobs. But management is telling investors a different story—namely that the company will be looking to integrate products and operations. UPS Chief Financial Officer Scott Davis told Traffic World that UPS “…will be looking for bundled solutions.” In the past, UPS tried to get shippers to break down shipments into small parcels rather than combining them into palletized loads. Soon the UPS sales force will be promoting the exact opposite, which will divert business from UPS operations into its nonunion Overnite division.

The Threat to Freight Teamsters: Overnite, a vicious union buster and our number one organizing target in freight, is now backed by the deepest pockets in the transportation industry. UPS will look to double Overnite in size, and will have the power to undercut unionized freight companies in the process.

The Threat to Our Teamster Pension Funds: UPS already got the Hoffa administration to play ball and cut benefits in our union’s largest funds. Now management is aiming to break out of our pension plans altogether in 2008. Our union needs to have the opposite goal of drawing UPS 10,000 new Overnite employees into union benefit funds. The outcome of this battle will be key to the pension security for hundreds of thousands of Teamsters.

Opportunities

These threats are very real. But the UPS-Overnite combination also presents the Teamsters with the opportunity to reassert ourselves as a major force in the transportation industry.

At one time, the Teamsters moved America with two million members, most of them in freight, warehousing and at UPS. A Teamster strike then had the potential of stopping the flow of goods and paralyzing the economy. That power is how we won the wages and benefits we enjoy today.

Deregulation changed the rules of the game. Nonunion companies flourished, especially in the truckload sector of freight. Our union membership declined.

Now, consolidation is the watchword of the new trucking industry. And with it, the pendulum can swing back in our union’s direction if we act decisively.

Within a few years, the trucking industry will be dominated by a small number of huge, integrated companies all competing for market share. With the exception of FedEx, our union already has a presence in each of these trucking giants: Yellow-Roadway, DHL and UPS.

But it will not be enough to represent a fraction of the employees at these integrated trucking giants. Our ability to maintain our wages and benefits—and win new gains—will depend on our union’s power to organize these companies wall to wall.

To have leverage at the bargaining table, our union must have the power to shut down a company’s operations—not a fraction of their operations.

That is why our union’s actions at UPS-Overnite are so critical. Our power to tackle this challenge will never be greater than it is right now. Our union represents more than 200,000 UPS Teamsters. The Overnite division has just 10,000 employees. UPS Logistics coupled with Overnite already diminish the power of a strike weapon. But the threat they represent is nothing compared to what they will become if they are allowed to expand as nonunion entities inside UPS. We need to act decisively now.

Organizing Overnite will protect UPS and freight Teamsters from nonunion competition, and protect our retirement security by bringing 10,000 to 20,000 new Teamsters into our pension plans. And it will do more.

Organizing Overnite will demonstrate that the Teamsters can and will organize integrated transportation companies wall to wall. Organizing the nonunion divisions of Yellow-Roadway and DHL is also critical.

UPS management understands the stakes. In conference calls, UPS’ chief financial officer referred to any possible union at the Overnite subsidiary as “third-party representation”—union busters’ favorite code for unions.

‘Hopeful’?

In response, the Hoffa administration issued a limp statement saying, “We are hopeful that UPS’ long history as a company with Teamster representation will create new opportunities for Overnite workers to achieve their goals in the workplace.”

Sunny press releases won’t diminish the challenges we face. They won’t organize Overnite. And they won’t position the Teamsters to reestablish ourselves as a major force in the new trucking industry.

If the IBT leadership takes a wait-and-see attitude, the changes in the industry will pass us by and further undermine our union’s power and the wages and benefits of Teamsters in our core industries.

We can’t let that happen. Teamsters need to demand that our leadership rise to the occasion with a plan to organize, grow and win. “Teamster Power” is not a label for our union’s past. It can be our future if we’re bold enough to fight for it.

“We are hopeful that UPS long history as a company with Teamster representation will create new opportunities for Overnite workers to achieve their goals in the workplace.”
—James Hoffa, May 16 IBT statement on UPS-Overnite


“The Teamsters will never rest until workplace justice is a reality for our brave brothers and sisters at Overnite.”
—James Hoffa, August 2001 Teamster Magazine

Which is it, Mr. Hoffa: Hoping management will do the right thing, or promising a fight for workplace justice?

How about instead carrying out a plan to make it happen?

Experts agree that UPS needs to integrate a freight company into its operations. At stake is UPS position as the world’s leading transportation company.

Overnite is a $1.65 billion-a-year company. UPS plans to double Overnite’s size to compete with FedEx Freight. UPS has to make this acquisition succeed. This gives our union tremendous leverage, and we’ve got to use it to organize Overnite.

Shippers and stock analysts are closely scrutinizing the UPS-Overnite acquisition. Everyone knows that union representation at Overnite is a major issue. To be successful, we need to turn organizing rights at Overnite from an “issue” into a deal-breaker.

The Goal: A Free and Fair Choice

We know from experience that Overnite will spare no expense—and violate any law—to keep out the Teamsters in an NLRB election.

The IBT’s goal needs to be card-check recognition at Overnite with an enforceable neutrality agreement. A card-check would mean that if a majority of workers sign a Teamster card, then management would recognize the union. A neutrality agreement means that workers are free to choose whether to sign a card without a management campaign of fear and intimidation.

Campaign to Make it Happen

UPS didn’t buy Overnite to bring more members into the Teamsters union and our benefit plans. Management is only going to allow Overnite workers a free and fair choice on unionization if the alternative is worse.

What is such an alternative? A Teamster campaign that targets UPS and Overnite customers with information about Overnite employees’ right to organize. If necessary, we have to be ready to escalate to asking major shippers to drop UPS-Overnite. We may even have to target major shippers with pressure campaigns.

First Steps

Of course, no one is suggesting that we launch a corporate campaign tomorrow. But preparation has to start now. Some first steps would include:

Involving Teamster members: The IBT needs to launch a major internal campaign to inform UPS and freight Teamsters on what’s at stake for the future of our union, our job security, and our pension plans. We need to start building local Overnite organizing committees of UPS and freight Teamsters that are coordinated as part of an International program.

Outreach to Overnite workers: Management will be hitting Overnite workers with all kinds of anti-Teamster, pro-Big Brown propaganda. Our union needs a worker-to-worker welcome program in place by the time of the merger this fall.

Tracking freight and building customer lists: We need to immediately start tracking freight and coordinating grievances. At first there may be little loss of volume from UPS to Overnite, but it will grow over time. We need a computerized plan that starts in every building and terminal and is coordinated nationally. As part of this program, we need to assemble a major customer list as well. This information will be worth a fortune for winning subcontracting grievances. But much more importantly, it will give us the ability put the hurt on the company if we need to.

Is this the definitive, winning plan? Of course not. But it is an outline of the kind of plan we need. A plan to win needs to come from the leaders working with UPS and freight locals, stewards and members along with Overnite workers.

No Time to Wait

Organizing Overnite cannot be put off until 2008. By that time UPS will have an ingrained and growing nonunion culture inside the brown machine, and some ready-made ability to undercut a potential strike.

Now is the time to move. Many Overnite workers are talking about their chance to get a union, since UPS already has 200,000 Teamsters under contract. We need to organize now to encourage UPS to do the right thing, by showing them the consequences of doing the wrong thing.

UPS today is not the same company many higher seniority Teamsters went to work for: First air freight, then global reach, technology, logistics. The biggest single change is about to happen: UPS’ conversion to a full-service freight carrier.

In the links below, we examine the consequences of this change, and what we can do to turn it to our advantage. If our union fails to take that step, we could pay a big price.

Consider just some of the challenges. Our feeder jobs are endangered, if not right away, in the long run. We need to monitor the cross-over freight, as parcels are bundled onto pallets and moved by Overnite. Will we have a strong, viable strike threat by 2008, without taking positive action now? Not if UPS has a large and growing nonunion trucking operation.

The IBT didn’t deal with unionizing UPS Logistics in the last contract, and now that failure is biting us. This new configuration could eat us alive, unless we act now. Talk over the issues with your fellow Teamsters. Start talking to Overnite workers. And start thinking about new leadership for the IBT.

On October 1, 1998, “UPS told me to get out of here and don’t come back,” relates preloader Paul Stimpson.

The wheels of justice grind slowly, but after seven years the courts have ordered UPS to put Stimpson back to work. The exact details remain to be worked out, but Stimpson will get very considerable back pay.

On May 18, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, “We find substantial evidence that Stimpson was terminated in retaliation for his grievance activity.” Stimpson won at every step with the NLRB, but UPS delayed his final victory with appeals.

The preloader had filed grievances over managers doing bargaining unit work, violations of seniority for work assignments, management threats against him for being injured on the job, and more. Stimpson???s manager accused him of being a “troublemaker” and asked why he was “filing these bull-___ charges.”

Stimpson filed NLRB charges against UPS because the company failed to respond to an information request related to the workplace injuries.Stimpson says the order has him returning to work in early June at the Madison Heights, Mich., UPS hub.

He expects to get the back pay in July. He added, “We’ve got a contract—I abide by my half if they abide by theirs. They broke it and I spanked them good.”

Congratulations to Paul, and also to his lawyer, long-time TDU attorney Ellis Boal.

The May 16 acquisition of Overnite by UPS means that our biggest nonunion competition now has the deepest pockets in the freight industry.

UPS has the means to undercut union carriers to increase Overnite’s market share and you can bet they plan to do it. FedEx has turned its own LTL carrier into a $3 billion player.

To compete with FedEx, UPS intends to double Overnite’s size.Unless we act decisively, Overnite’s increased market share will come at Teamster members’ expense.

The IBT doesn’t seem to get this. On the day of the purchase, the Hoffa administration issued a press release saying, “If this purchase helps UPS to continue to successfully compete in the global marketplace in the long run, it will increase our members’ job security.”

How is a stronger nonunion Overnite going to increase freight Teamsters’ job security? That kind of talk has members asking if the Hoffa administration has given up on freight altogether.

Threat and Opportunity
For freight Teamsters, the UPS purchase of Overnite is a major threat. But it’s also our best opportunity to organize Overnite once and for all.

Our Teamsters union represents the vast majority of employees at UPS-Overnite. The question is, will the IBT use this leverage to organize Overnite? Or will the Hoffa administration stand by and watch as UPS grows its nonunion freight division?

The early signs are not good. Hoffa’s statement on the acquisition said only that the IBT will “monitor” the situation. The arch union-buster of freight is now backed by the biggest bank account in the transportation industry and the best that Hoffa can do is promise to “monitor” developments?

Teamster representation at UPS gives us new leverage over Overnite. We’ve got to use it to bring the 10,000 drivers and dock workers at Overnite into our union and into our Teamster benefit plans.

The national freight grievance panel ruled on April 28 that former Red Star employees are entitled to be hired at the new USF Holland terminals in the East. The workers learned in May that the company has to back-date their seniority to when they should have been hired, but not provide back pay.

Thanks to a grievance filed by members of Philadelphia Local 107, the panel ruled that USF Holland failed to hire the former USF Red Star employees in order of seniority. The right to preferential hiring was part of an earlier agreement worked out between the IBT and USF last July, following the shutdown of Red Star and USF Holland’s decision to open terminals in the northeast.

Angered by the fact that USF has not lived up to the agreement, and the IBT has done little about it, Philly Teamsters filed the grievance and also filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

These Teamsters lost their jobs in the USF Red Star fiasco and now have been denied even new-hire jobs at USF Holland. The decision also allows for yet more stalling. The panel established a subcommittee of Dan Virtue for the union, and Leonard Waldo for the company, “to review the applications.” After all these months, this should not be needed. Since there is no backpay in the decision, the company can stall all it wants if the IBT continues to allow it.

After the decision, USF Holland advertised for drivers and dock workers in an ad in the May 22 Buffalo News, apparently still intending to deny jobs to Teamsters.

It’s been many months, and it’s time for the union to stand behind the people the union put on strike. USF (and Yellow) need to understand that they will face consequences up to strike action if they don’t comply with the agreement.

The Hoffa administration hired a polling firm in May to ask many of the 4,000 Teamsters employed by Allied Automotive Group if they would accept mid-term contract concessions.

The poll asked Teamsters if they would forego the June 1 wage increase of 40 cents per hour or accept other concessions. U.S. and Canadian Teamster carhaulers have not had a raise in three years. Allied management (or is it mismanagement?) has once again demanded concessions, claiming that the carrier may go under unless they get them.

We expect Allied and all carriers will comply and pay the 40 cents, which is only a two-percent raise (after three years) and a one-percent increase in overall labor costs.

The poll was so company-oriented that several Teamsters told us they were shocked that it came from the union. Rob Hackett, an Allied driver out of Moraine, Ohio, Local 957, said, “After I hung up I started thinking about it. They seemed pretty company-oriented. They sort of put us on the spot over the pay raise. I wondered if it was really legit and done by the union.”

The poll also asked Teamsters to rate these individuals on a scale from one to five: James Hoffa, retiring Carhaul Director Doc Conder, and their BA. The International election is coming up in 2006.

Since our dues paid for the poll, shouldn’t the results be made available to the members?

Instead of using our dues to soften up members, our union leaders should have a plan to save unionized carhaul, including taking on the manufacturers, who are squeezing the unionized carriers too hard.

Mergers and acquisitions are the name of the game in the new trucking industry as companies scramble to compete against one another in all sectors of the market: LTL freight, parcel delivery and global logistics.

DHL may be the next big player to buy a major freight carrier. Analysts agree that if they intend to grow and compete with UPS and FedEx, DHL cannot remain strictly an airfreight operation. Airfreight’s rapid expansion is over and shippers are moving to full-service carriers.

Meanwhile, our Teamster organizing drive at DHL is running into trouble. After some 1,500 workers who move DHL freight but work for “independent contractors” voted for the Teamsters, DHL is starting to dump those contractors.

Only a full-court press by the Teamsters against DHL will sustain our good organizing work here and bring 10,000 nonunion DHL workers into the fold.

USF Teamsters Still Fighting for Jobs
The national freight grievance panel ruled on April 28 that former Red Star employees are entitled to be hired at the new USF Holland terminals in the East. The workers learned in May that the company has to back-date their seniority to when they should have been hired, but not provide back pay.

Thanks to a grievance filed by members of Philadelphia Local 107, the panel ruled that USF Holland failed to hire the former USF Red Star employees in order of seniority. The right to preferential hiring was part of an earlier agreement worked out between the IBT and USF last July, following the shutdown of Red Star and USF Holland’s decision to open terminals in the northeast.

Angered by the fact that USF has not lived up to the agreement, and the IBT has done little about it, Philly Teamsters filed the grievance and also filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

These Teamsters lost their jobs in the USF Red Star fiasco and now have been denied even new-hire jobs at USF Holland. The decision also allows for yet more stalling. The panel established a subcommittee of Dan Virtue for the union, and Leonard Waldo for the company, “to review the applications.” After all these months, this should not be needed. Since there is no backpay in the decision, the company can stall all it wants if the IBT continues to allow it.

After the decision, USF Holland advertised for drivers and dock workers in an ad in the May 22 Buffalo News, apparently still intending to deny jobs to Teamsters.

It’s been many months, and it’s time for the union to stand behind the people the union put on strike. USF (and Yellow) need to understand that they will face consequences up to strike action if they don’t comply with the agreement.

Click on the stories below for more information about the UPS-Overnite deal:

UPS+Overnite = Danger Ahead
What Does it Mean for Freight Teamsters?
New Threats and Opportunities
Now's the Time to Organize Overnite
Teamster Pension Funds Could be Strengthened
DHL: The Next Move?

The $1.25 billion acquisition of Overnite Transportation by UPS marks a turning point in the transportation industry and for our Teamsters union.

The largest employer of Teamsters will soon operate an enormous nonunion freight division. And the Teamsters’ worst nemesis in the freight industry, Overnite, will be financially backed by the most profitable transportation company in the world.

UPS-Overnite is the face of the new trucking industry in which all the big players—Yellow-Roadway, FedEx, DHL—are consolidating and positioning themselves to compete as integrated transportation companies.

Nonunion Operations to Grow?
Each of the emerging global giants has both Teamster and nonunion operations, with the exception of FedEx, which is almost entirely nonunion. Left unchecked, the nonunion operations at “Teamster” employers will grow and undermine our bargaining power, job security, and pension plans.

We can’t let that happen.

UPS-Overnite symbolizes the threat posed by the new trucking industry. But just as important, UPS-Overnite gives our union an opportunity to take on that threat and win by organizing the world’s largest integrated parcel-freight-logistics company wall-to-wall.
We have the power to do that at UPS-Overnite, setting the pattern for organizing the other trucking giants—Yellow-Roadway, DHL, and ultimately FedEx.

The stakes have never been higher. If we act decisively, the Teamsters union can reassert ourselves as a major force in the new trucking industry, restoring Teamster power, not as a slogan, but as a source of security for a new generation of Teamsters.


Click on the stories below for more information about the UPS-Overnite deal:

UPS+Overnite = Danger Ahead
What Does it Mean for Freight Teamsters?
New Threats and Opportunities
Now's the Time to Organize Overnite
Teamster Pension Funds Could be Strengthened
DHL: The Next Move?