The Western Conference Pension Fund has announced a big cut in pension accruals, effective July 1. This cut, if it stands, will seriously diminish pensions of those who retire in the coming years. (By law the fund cannot decrease pension credits already earned.)

Teamsters in the West have formed the Western Teamsters Pension Improvement Committee (WESTPIC) and are calling on the trustees to rescind the cut.

The trustees are insisting that they must have “full funding.” Below are answers to some questions on that issue. For more information, webmaster [at] tdu.org (contact TDU).

Why were our pension benefits cut so drastically?

After several years of record growth, the stock market has been in a cyclical downturn.

As the cycle plays itself out the market will rebound. But, in the meantime, the trustees had to choose between keeping the pension fully funded or maintaining our benefits at the historic minimum level set in 1987 (2 percent per year and 2.65 percent for members with over 20 years in the fund).

The employer trustees wanted to maintain full funding and cut our benefits. Our union trustees gave in to the employers. Thus the drastic cuts.

Don’t I want my pension to be fully funded?

“Fully funded” has a reassuring ring to it. But it’s important to understand what full funding is and who it serves.

Full funding means that if every single employer in the fund were to simultaneously go out of business, the fund would still have enough money to pay every Teamster their vested benefits.

But it is absurd to imagine that would ever happen.

That’s why other Teamster pension funds can and do responsibly assure members’ benefits with funding levels of 75, 80 or 90 percent.

Is there a downside to full funding?

Yes. Because employers want full funding, our pension benefits are being slashed!

Trustees take cyclical market swings into account in their plans. But instead of riding out the latest dip in the market, the trustees have cut our pensions, in the name of full funding.

The market will recover, but our pensions won’t. We will never make up the money we will lose while our accrual rate is slahed.

Concerned?

contact [at] nopensioncuts.org (Contact WESTPIC) at PMB #313, 10611 Canyon Rd. East, Puyallup,Wash. 98373 or at www.nopensioncuts.org. Or webmaster [at] tdu.org (contact TDU) for more information or materials.

The pension justice movement has won an important victory for UPS Teamsters in the Central States Pension Fund. After refusing for 2 years to respect language in the 2002 UPS contract, Central States has now agreed to fully credit members for years they worked as part-timers.

This will mean earlier retirement and larger monthly checks for many Teamsters who have worked as both part-timers and full-timers at UPS.

Agreement Broken

Central States and the UPS Pension Plan have long had a reciprocity agreement that let members combine years worked in both plans when calculating their retirement benefit.

For example, if a member had 10 credited years as a part-timer in the UPS Plan and 20 credited years as a full-timer in Central States, they could retire with a pro-rated 30-and-out benefit.

The 2002 UPS contract provided that members would be given a full year of pension credit in the UPS Pension Plan for any year in which they had worked over 750 hours as a part-time employee, nine-months credit if they worked between 501 and 749 hours, and three-months credit if they worked between 375 and 500 hours in the year. An age-25 requirement for earning pension credit was also eliminated.

The UPS Pension Plan lived up to this part of the agreement, but the employer and union trustees at Central States refused. Central States said they would not credit members for their part-time years unless the UPS Plan went back to calculating benefits the old way. In other words, they wanted UPS to violate the 2002 contract.

UPS Teamsters who wanted to retire got caught in the crossfire between Central States and UPS. When they would write to ask for an estimate of benefits, instead they would get letters from both sides pointing the finger at one another.

Member Pressure Wins

Some of these Teamsters contacted the Central States Pension Improvement Committee (CSPIC) and TDU.

TDU and CSPIC included these members’ concerns in our movement for pension justice. The publicity generated by TDU and CSPIC - and the threat of legal action - increased the pressure on Central States to settle the matter.

Kevin Bowman, who retired from Cincinnati Local 100 in February, took a leading role in the campaign to get Central States to respect the reciprocity agreement.

Bowman started as a part-timer at UPS when he was 17 years old. He kept at Central States to give him straight answers and pursued his appeals as high as he could with the Central States trustees. He also called on the IBT to intervene and help enforce the contract.

Because of his good work and that of other Teamsters in the pension movement, Bowman will be receiving a big hike in his monthly pension check.

Before the change, his monthly pension check was $2,000. With it, he will now get just under $2,500 a month. Central States also gave him a one-time $2,875 check to cover what they owed him for the months since he retired.

“If it had not been for TDU helping a guy like me make a lot of noise this would not have happened,” says Bowman. “It shows that people going to meetings, throwing money in a bucket, and working together can make a difference.”

Many other UPS Teamsters and their families will also benefit from this win.

“My husband and I fought Central States for almost a year to get the benefits they owe him” says Brenda Kelley, wife of Lexington Local 651 member Jim Kelley. “We filed all our appeals with Central States and even consulted an attorney. But it took getting involved with TDU to win this change. Jim is now looking forward to retirement.”

Central States Teamsters need to bring the same kind of unity and pressure to bear on Central States and the IBT to win back the benefits that were taken from us last November.

September 15, 2005: The federal Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled on Sept. 8 against Teamster retirees who were fighting to broaden their right to work to supplement their Central States pension.

The appeals judges upheld a decision that favored the Central States Fund, which a few years ago started to crack down hard on retirees taking jobs at boat marinas, golf courses, family farms, auto repair shops, or hardware stores.

The trustees of the fund, including union chair Fred Gegare, admitted that their goal was to make it harder for Teamsters to use the early-retirement options that we all fought hard to win.

The case was backed by the Central States Pension Improvement Committee (CSPIC), the movement of Teamster members and retirees working for pension justice. The movement has already been successful in winning major changes to the reemployment rule, and now Central States retirees can work in all the fields mentioned above, and most others outside certain listed Teamster core industries.

CSPIC supporters across 25 states are proud of winning that victory, while angry about the anti-worker decision coming out of the court.

The lawsuit, filed by eight Teamsters and pursued by attorney Ann Curry Thompson, aimed to improve the rules and bring justice to Teamsters who have been wrongly penalized under the harsh old rules.

The Central States Trustees argued that the court should require the plaintiffs to pay their legal fees, but the judges shot that down. They ruled that the case raised important and legitimate issues.

The battle for pension justice continues. “We only won some of what we wanted on the reemployment rule,” said lead plaintiff Dick Herman. “But without organizing, we wouldn’t win anything. And we’re not going away until we reverse the pension and welfare cuts and get union trustees accountable to Teamsters and retirees.”

James Hoffa and Tom Keegel have apparently failed to file the International Union’s 2005 LM-2 financial report, which by law was due on March 31.

As of April 7, U.S. Department of Labor personnel report that no form has been filed, either in paper form or electronically. A spot check of the Department of Labor website reveals that nine of the other ten largest unions have 2005 forms posted.

A request to the International Union for a statement or explanation got no response.

The failure to file was predicted in advance by Hoffa administration insiders, who claim that Hoffa and Keegel want to delay the negative political impact of the contents of the report. LM-2 reports now contain information on union funds paid to PR firms, consultants, and other business associates, as well as salaries to officials.

Will Hoffa and Keegel continue to stall, or will they comply with the law? In the meanwhile, Teamster members may want to ask of Hoffa and Keegel: you wanted the big dues hike for “Teamster power,” can you at least file your financial report on what you do with our money?

March 2006: New York City Teamsters rallied on the steps of City Hall on March 5 to protest comments by the head of the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) calling Teamster warehouse workers “the lowest rung workers” whose jobs should be scrapped. Local 805 members have been fighting the city’s EDC, which is trying to shut down the last working port in Brooklyn. Teamster Local 807 jobs are also on the chopping block. Carrying signs that said, “Save my job,” and “We are NOT low-rung workers,” Teamsters rallied on the steps of City Hall along with supporters from other locals and pro-labor politicians. Local 805 President Sandy Pope told the rally, “This city is not run by Wall Street or the city bureaucrats. It is run by the people who move the goods.” Pope called on the mayor to save the port jobs and make a “public commitment to respect the workers of this city.”

Politics of Division

The day before the rally, Local 805 members received a pre-recorded message from the Teamster General President. But Hoffa wasn’t calling members to turn them out for the rally. Instead, Hoffa called to attack Sandy Pope. Hoffa has poured thousands of dollars into the Local 805 delegate election to try to defeat Pope, a candidate for International Vice President. But you would think the General President could put politics aside for one day while members are fighting for their jobs. “The day before we’re uniting at City Hall to save Teamster jobs, including mine, President Hoffa was phoning us to try to divide our local. And he’s the head of the ‘Unity Slate?’ said shop steward Michael Ambrose. “To me, unity is about bringing workers together to win a better future for ourselves. That’s what Sandy Pope has done for us at American Warehousing.” In January, a mobilization by Teamster members forced the Port Authority to allow a blockaded ship to dock at the port so it could be unloaded by Teamsters. That victory has saved their jobs for now. The fight to preserve Teamster port jobs continues. It would be nice if Hoffa would join it.

This is my first-ever movie review, and ladies and gentleman this film is a doozie! Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

Since you are reading Convoy you may already know some information about Wal-Mart, but after seeing this movie you will know ALL the dirt! For a small investment of $12.95 and 98 minutes of your time you can be a part of stopping this huge worldwide greed machine. This film was created to get the word out to our friends and families about the true facts on Wal-Mart, not just the low prices and smiley face on TV.

One of the best parts is when they interview ex-managers of Wal-Mart who have done such evil things towards the workers and society that they must confess so as not to take it with them to their graves. For example, they would ride through town and bet how long each Mom & Pop store would last before going under.

You see how towns brace and prepare to battle the onslaught of the huge greed machine Wal-Mart, but then find their own state and federal taxes are used against them.

This is a true story that proves we all must work together and stop this corporate dog and tame it with the power of the union.

Be sure to go to www.walmartmovie.com or call 800-525-8212 to buy the movie or find film screening nearest you. You will never shop the same way again. Also go to www.walmartworkersrights.org to hear the Garth Brooks tune “I’ve Got Friends with Low Wages.”

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.

Yellow has announced that its USF Dugan subsidiary will close. This is after our union spent two years, millions of dollars, and countless hours of Teamster labor to organize Dugan. After USF attacked our union a year ago by shutting down its unionized Red Star division during an ill-fated strike, some 1500 good Red Star Teamsters lost their jobs, with little to no response from the International Union.

The closing of Dugan and the consolidation of USF’s remaining subsidiaries under the label YRC Regional Transportation raise questions for our union leadership.

Are we going to use this opportunity to make Yellow-Roadway a wall-to-wall Teamster company, or will Hoffa once again issue a press release parroting the company and saying he will “monitor the situation.”

USF Holland, Yellow’s biggest and most profitable regional, will grow by picking up Dugan business in the southeast and midwest, where the two operations overlap. Since Holland is under the national freight contract, this is the positive part of the story.

But that’s not the whole story. YRC Regional, now headed by former Roadway CEO Jim Staley, is rebranding 21 terminals with the Bestway or Reddaway label, and only three (all in Missouri) as Holland. Some Reddaway and Bestway terminals are union, with white paper contracts, and most are non-union. You can bet your lunch money that Yellow is not planning to have those 21 terminals go Teamster, unless we make it clear they will not operate profitably unless it happens.

We can go back to square one and start organizing them, one at a time, or we can supplement that effort with a strategic campaign to force Yellow to let its employees choose to unionize without any intimidation, with a neutrality agreement and with card check.

Yellow Roadway — like UPS-Overnite — is on the move. Consolidating, expanding, and making a major investment in China. Will the Teamster leadership get on the move to make this a fully unionized corporation? Now is the time.

January 6, 2006: Greenville's Roadway Express facility is losing a significant number of jobs as the company realigns its business to better reflect traffic patterns and reduce transit times, said Michael J. Smid, the company's president and chief executive officer. Although Smid declined to say how many positions would be affected, a local union official put the number at more than 200 jobs.

Skip Barnett, a Teamsters Local Union No. 28 business agent who works with freight contracts, said the union expects to whittle that number to about 200 positions and added that union employees would be allowed to move with the work.

"This is a lot of middle-class jobs for the Upstate to lose," Barnett said.

Salaries for Roadway's long-haul drivers -- among those affected -- average between $60,000 and $85,000 annually, Smid said.

"If you take this by itself, it's bad, but you can handle it," said Bill Pendleton, area manager of the state Employment Security Commission's Greenville office. "If you look at the big picture -- what's been happening for the past year or two -- it's concerning. But as tough as we have it, we're still below the state average" when it comes to unemployment.

Greenville County reported an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent in November, compared with 7.1 percent joblessness for the state as a whole.

Roadway's Greenville facility, which presently has more than 300 employees, has both a consolidation and distribution unit and a local delivery unit, Smid said. Roadway Express is eliminating the consolidation and distribution function in Greenville.

Barnett said between 80 and 85 employees represented by the union would remain at the facility. A few office workers and supervisors not covered by the union contract also would continue to work there.

"Greenville is part of a change in our national transportation network," Smid said. "The change is an effort to improve the speed, the reliability and the efficiency" of the company's service and to reduce the amount of cargo handling.

The greatest impact of realignment would be felt at the company's terminals in Hagerstown, Md., and Greenville. They will "continue being facilities and operations, but their scale will change," Smid told TrafficWorld, an industry-related magazine.

More than 1,000 people nationwide will be affected by the changes, he said. Affected employees in Greenville include drivers, freight-handling professionals, supervisory personnel and support personnel.

"In each change of operations, we are repositioning our people, our resources and our assets to match changes we have seen in traffic patterns," Smid said.

Roadway plans to reduce freight handling in the Northeast and deliver to distances of 1,000 miles in two days or less. Coast-to-coast deliveries will be made in no more than four days. Deliveries from the central part of the country to the West Coast will take three days.

Although no changes have been implemented yet, the restructuring will be completed in the first quarter, Smid said.

He said the realignment will not reduce the size of the overall work force, and Barnett said the company probably would hire about 40 additional drivers. About 30 locations will gain employees as work is moved to there.

"Anybody who is working under a contract is being allowed to follow their work if they wish," Barnett said, who added the company would pay moving expenses.

Smid said that employees also have the option to move to the local delivery unit if jobs are available.

Barnett said workers who choose not to leave Greenville would be placed on layoff and are eligible for recall for five years. He said any of those employees also would be eligible to be hired at other unionized carriers in the area and must be considered before other applicants.

Smid said the company's work agreement does not include a severance package because the employees are subject to recall.

Barnett said he believes that anyone who wants similar work in the region would be able to find it even though trucking is a little slow this time of year.

Although some union members are upset about the Roadway restructuring, about half of Greenville's work came to the area the same way years ago, he said.

Roadway Express has initiated the required legal notifications to the Teamsters Union and state agencies, Smid said.

Pendleton said the state Department of Commerce's Rapid Response Team has been notified by Roadway of the change of operations. Employment Security Commission personnel hope to meet with employees soon to explain unemployment insurance benefits, other services and what they can expect in the job market here.

The job situation is not as good as it could be, he said.

"I hope we will see a better 2006 than 2005," Pendleton said."

Reprinted from The Greenville News, January 6, 2006
By Jenny Munro
/jmunro [at] greenvillenews.com">jmunro [at] greenvillenews.com