June 8, 2007: Where is the Freight Division of our union? While Ken Hall and Hoffa “seriously consider” allowing UPS to split apart the Central States Pension Plan, the Freight Division should be sounding the alarm.

Behind closed doors, maybe they are. But it’s time to come out of the closet and speak out to defend our pension plans and our Teamster unity. Teamster leaders are elected to be the members’ voice to Hoffa, not the other way around.

One week after Ken Hall put out a press release about UPS wanting to pull out of the Central States, freight Teamsters got a nearly identical message from Freight Director Tyson Johnson.

For years now, Tyson Johnson and our own local leaders have been telling us how detrimental it is for any company to pull out of our pension fund.

A one-time payment from UPS is fine for the short term, but what about 20 years down the road? Pulling 40 percent of the contribution base out would be disastrous. Tyson Johnson needs to stand up for all Teamsters and tell Hoffa and Hall there’s nothing to negotiate with UPS when it comes to destroying Teamster pensions and Teamster power.

Greg Smith is a clerk at Yellow in Cleveland Local 407.

“We believe there is an opportunity in this negotiating cycle to withdraw from some or all of these [Teamster pension plans] and provide benefits directly to our employees…”

“We view the multiemployer [Teamster pension] withdrawal opportunity to be the most significant thing facing us.”

Robert Davidson, CEO of ABF, May 8, 2007

There you have it. The CEO is telling you that ABF would love to bust our pension plans and take over employee pensions in the next round of negotiations.

We should push that off the table right from the start, and let the carriers know that we are bargaining to improve health care and pensions, not turn control over to the employers.

The best way to start would be setting a precedent in the UPS and UPS Freight negotiations: bring more brothers and sisters into our Teamster pension plans, and not split them up.

June 8, 2007: Freight Teamsters be warned: the Freight Division apparently isn’t considering fighting to restore retiree health coverage where it has been devastated. Nor is there a plan to win a timetable for pension improvements.

On May 30 a three-page Freight Survey was mailed to all local union officers.

It has three questions (out of 15) on pensions and health care. But none of them call for any choice other than “maintaining Teamster pension plans” or “maintaining Teamster health plans.”

Maintaining a health plan is not anywhere near what we need.

We need affordable retiree health coverage restored in this contract in the Central States Fund and in other areas where it has been cut—guaranteed, in writing.

It is practical, it is in winnable, and it is necessary to restore promises made to Teamsters, and to keep our union growing and organizing.

June 8, 2007: Thanks to a lawsuit by a Roadway Teamster, workers who are off drawing disability pay and using Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) time should no longer be forced to use up their vacation time. An employee should now have the option to take the vacation pay, or save the accrued vacation time.

But Yellow Freight doesn’t recognize the decision by the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. They insist that they will continue to make Teamsters exhaust their vacation time. The IBT Freight Division issued a statement to the effect that they intend to enforce this improvement.

June 8, 2007: There is a glaring weakness in Teamster national contracts—UPS, freight, and carhaul—which should be corrected in this bargaining round. The contract lets employers require a Teamster off on family or medical leave to burn up their vacation time.As it stands at present, if an employee uses leave time because of a childbirth or to care for a sick parent, they cannot take any vacation that year.

The court case referenced above is only a partial solution. It says that a Teamster who is drawing disability pay from a health and welfare fund is protected from vacation exhaustion, but Teamsters on FMLA time who are not drawing disability pay are not protected. It’s time to fix this in all national contracts.

UPS has put an offer on the bargaining table to take 42,000 UPS Teamsters out of the Central States Fund. The CEO of ABF just announced he wants to pull out of all Teamster benefit plans.

The Hoffa administration is also considering a deal to keep all UPS Freight Teamsters out of our traditional Teamster pension plans as part of a contract that would be substandard to the NMFA.

Together, these proposals would put Freight Teamsters in jeopardy. They would undercut our bargaining power before the 2008 NMFA talks and they would put our future benefits at risk.

Freight Teamsters won’t have a vote on the UPS contract or the UPS Freight deal in Indianapolis—but we do have a voice and it’s time to use it.

We need to call on our leaders in the Freight Division to stand up for Freight Teamsters: no deals with UPS or UPS Freight that would undercut our contract or our pensions.

Call 202-624-6800 or fax 202-624-8722.

Download the TDU bulletin: Say No to Pension Grabs by UPS, ABF

Download a Freight Pension Q&A Flyer here.

May 22, 2007: YRC is acquiring trailers with flip-signs that say Roadway on one side, and Yellow on the other.

This will provide a pool of switchable trailers, especially for rail use. A number of Teamsters have expressed concern that it is a sign that merger of Yellow and Roadway may be on the horizon. But no major integration of operations is expected soon.

May 17, 2007:The House passed legislation (H.R. 1773) May 15 that establishes strict requirements for an administration pilot plan to let Mexican trucks operate inside the United States under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) said the "Safe American Roads Act of 2007" would assure in-depth audits and oversight of the Department of Transportation program to allow Mexican trucks to cross into the United States. DeFazio said he wished the president would withdraw from NAFTA provisions requiring the United States to open its border to Mexican truck traffic, but that at least Congress is being assured DOT is protecting America's roadways.

The legislation was approved 411-3 under suspension rules, which require a two-thirds majority for passage. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.

DOT Delayed Pilot Program

DOT in April suspended plans to move forward with a pilot program to open the border that it had earlier announced in February (84 DLR A-10, 5/3/07 ). The agency in May published a notice in the Federal Register seeking comments from interested parties on the pilot program after being sued by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and other plaintiffs for not complying with public notice provisions.

H.R. 1773 limits pilot program participation to 100 Mexican motor carriers and 1,000 commercial motor vehicles. It also requires DOT to establish the pilot program through notice and comment rulemaking, describes required elements of any program, and states that the program will be terminated if DOT does not comply with any provision of the bill.

The bill would also require the DOT inspector general to issue a report to Congress prior to initiation of a pilot project and establish an independent review panel to monitor and evaluate the pilot program.

In addition, the bill would require the Mexican government to have a reciprocal program for U.S. carriers that seek to transport goods in the Mexican interior. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said in May, upon delaying implementation of the program, that the pilot program would not begin until U.S. carriers had obtained reciprocal operating authority for long-haul operations in Mexico.

Hoffa Praises Bill's Passage

Following passage, IBT President James P. Hoffa said that the bill "ensures that the American traveling public is protected. The Bush administration can no longer ignore Congress and the American people on this important safety and security issue," he said.

"The Bush administration has given us sketchy information about its plans to throw open our borders to unsafe Mexican trucks," Hoffa said. "We don't know how safety laws such as hours of service and drug testing would be enforced. This vote by the House repudiates those questionable attempts to open our borders without adequate safeguards."

May 11, 2007: “We believe there is an opportunity in this negotiating cycle to withdraw from some or all of these [Teamster pension plans] and provide benefits directly to our employees, and we’re prepared to negotiate that with the Teamsters in the coming negotiations.”

“We view the multiemployer [Teamster pension] withdrawal opportunity to be the most significant thing facing us.”

-- Robert Davidson, CEO of ABF, Interviewed on May 8, 2007 by transportation stock analysts

There you have it. The CEO is telling you that ABF would love to bust our pension plans, and take over employee pensions, in the coming round of negotiations.

There is no reason for this demand to be considered by our union or our members. We should push that off the table right from the start, and let the carriers know that we are bargaining to improve health care and pensions, not turn control over to the employers.

The best way to start would be setting a precedent in the UPS and UPS Freight negotiations: bring more brothers and sisters into our Teamster pension plans, and not split them up.

To hear audio of the report by ABF CEO Bob Davidson and YRC CEO Bill Zollars, click here.

May 11, 2007: by John Gallagher in Traffic World Online --Arkansas Best Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Davidson said he's willing to take the financial hit necessary to negotiate with labor an end to its multiemployer pension fund contributions.

"We can provide the same benefits that we're providing now directly to our employees at significantly less cost than we're now paying," Davidson told Wall Street analysts at a conference sponsored by Bear Stearns in New York May 8. "That money would allow us to amortize the withdrawal liability that we would pay to the funds, and would lower our operating ratio to allow us to be even more competitive in the marketplace."

According to SEC filings, ABF estimates it would cost the company $600 to $650 million in "contingent liabilities" to withdraw from the plan, payable over a 10 to 15 year period.

Such a move, however, is likely to be a major sticking point with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The National Master Freight Agreement expires in March 2008, and both sides are gearing up for the latest round of talks.

It could also prove a sticking point with YRC Worldwide, which is also part of the NMFA.

"We probably have a little bit of difference" with YRC when it comes to the pension issue, Davidson said. "We have the capital structure to allow us to do it, so the plan is to pursue that aggressively, and hope Yellow and Roadway are on board with us for it."

YRC President Bill Zollars, who was on the same panel with Davidson, said he considers the pension issue "an investment like any other investment, and what the return on that might be. It all depends on how much we put in and what we get back for it."

Satish Jindel, a principal with SJ Consulting Group, said if the Teamsters are willing to negotiate a pension fund withdrawal as part of the contract, ABF and other union carriers would be in a better position to compete with non-union carriers.

But he pointed out that the last attempt by union carriers to seek changes in pension plans with union workers was in 1997 by UPS - which resulted in a 14-day strike.

"Ten years later, if the union is realizing they need to show flexibility to give companies the opportunity to grow and create more jobs, that would be great news. But I'm not sure what leverage (management) has other than (warning labor about) the possibility of losing more jobs to non-union carriers."