For the first time, UPS Freight Teamsters have rejected the contract negotiated on their behalf by union leaders, the union announced.

The vote was 4,244 against and 1,897 for the tentative contract deal, according to a tabulation posted on the Teamsters website. The current contract expires July 31.

UPS and the Teamsters reached a tentative five-year deal in April for the company's freight and package divisions.

The UPS Freight agreement covers more than 12,000 workers at the less-than-truckload unit and offers a $2.50 total wage increase over a five-year span starting Aug. 1. Neither the company nor the union commented on the vote.

The last contract rejection at UPS occurred in 1997 when the Independent Pilots' Association turned down a contract offer.

It was the second contract ever negotiated between UPS Freight and the union. The initial contract was approved in 2008 after workers voted to become union members. UPS acquired its LTL unit through the 2005 purchase of Overnite Corp.

Votes that were cast on the far larger contract between Teamsters who work in UPS' package division still are being counted. Tabulations on the union's website through June 24 show the master contract is being approved by a margin of about 4 to 3.

Some side agreements to the master package contract, known as riders and supplements, were on pace toward approval, while others were pointing toward rejection.

The package contract covers about 238,000 full- and part-time workers. Its wage package was $3.90 in total over the same five-year period as the freight agreement.

Wednesday, June 26 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern

The UPS Freight contract has been overwhelmingly rejected. Click here to see a local-by-local chart of the vote results.

What's Next?

Teamsters at UPS Freight stood together in solidarity to vote the contract down, and we've got to continue working together so that we get the contract we deserve.

Join concerned UPS Freight Teamsters, stewards, and activists to discuss next steps and what needs to be won to get a strong contract.

UPS Freight Conference Call
Wednesday, June 26
9:00 p.m. Eastern // 8:00 p.m. Central // 7:00 p.m. Mountain // 6:00 p.m. Pacific
Dial-in number: 267-507-0240
Access code: 236746

Can you make it? Call TDU at 313-842-2600 or send us a message to RSVP.

June 24, 2013: The national UPS Freight Contract has been overwhelmingly rejected, by rank and file Teamsters who deserve a good contract.

The two-tier deal to create "Line Haul" drivers at essential nonunion wages and conditions has been rejected. The inadequate wages and pension improvements have been rejected.

Teamsters at UPS Freight have taken an important step by standing together in solidarity. 

The momentum for a good contract has to keep building.

UPS Freight stewards and activists are discussing what needs to be won in the contract. Join the conversation. Click here to send a message and to sign up for contract updates.

You can see the local-by-local chart of votes here.

June 23, 2013: The early trend in the voting on the national UPS Freight Contract shows that rank and file Teamsters are delivering a big NO on the tentative agreement.

The two-tier deal to create "Line Haul" drivers at essentially nonunion wages and conditions has been rejected. The inadequate wages and pension improvements have been rejected.

Teamsters at UPS Freight have taken an important step by standing together in solidarity.

The momentum for a good contract has to keep building.

UPS Freight stewards and activists are discussing what needs to be won in the contract. Join the conversation. Click here to send a message and to sign up for contract updates.

You can see the local-by-local chart of votes here. Most larger locals will not be counted until Monday, but the ballots have been opened and the trend is clear.

June 21, 2013: Updated: 8:45 p.m.  The vote count has been suspended for Friday and resumes Saturday. Most of the Eastern Region has been counted.

The national contract has been voted down in Philadelphia Local 623, New York Local 804, North Carolina Local 61, Pittsburgh Local 249 and other Western Pennsylvania locals, locals in Metro Philadelphia, Upstate New York, and some other locals. 

At the suspension of Friday's ballot count, the vote is 9,270 Yes and 7,233 No with 55 locals counted. 

A complete local-by-local chart of the contract votes that have been tallied so far is now available here.

Six supplements have been voted down so far: Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Local 926, Philadelphia Local 623, Metro Philly New York Local 804, and Upstate New York.

The count will continue through the weekend. The next region to be counted will be the Southern Region. We will continually update this website and the voting results.

More information on our observers at the count.

There is no official count of total ballots received, but it is projected to be approximately a 38% turnout for UPS package, and 50% for UPS Freight.

The final ballot pick-up was made at noon on Thursday, including from some members who took the time and money to send their ballot by Express Mail.

No UPS Freight votes are counted yet.  That count will begin on Saturday.  UPS Freight vote tallies will be available here as they become available.

There will be later post office pick-ups due to extended deadlines for three locals: 89 (June 22), 901 (June 24) and 135 (June 26).

Stay tuned for updates.

June 20, 2013:  Updated 10:00 p.m. The ballot count work is over for day one. There is no official count of total ballots received, but it is projected to be approximately a 38% turnout for UPS package, and 50% for UPS Freight.

The final ballot pick-up was made at noon, including from some members who took the time and money to send their ballot by Express Mail.

The International Union claims that only 181,000 members out of 240,000 UPS Teamsters were eligible to vote on the contract, and that is how many ballots were mailed. 

Approximately 16,000 UPSers in Locals 705 and 710 are covered under separate contracts. But that still leaves 43,000 UPSers who were not mailed ballots.  

Hoffa’s assistant at the vote count said that 30,000 UPSers at any time are new hires and not yet members, due to high turnover.

The IBT mailed out 10,000 UPS Freight ballots, out of a reported 13,000 Teamsters employed.

More details will become available tomorrow. The ballots have been secured for the night.

Some 1,975 votes from Louisville Local 89 have been set aside, they were cast using the first ballot mailed to members there. A second ballot mailing was later done in Louisville and members were asked to revote. 

Local 89 members who did not mail in a second ballot should have their first ballot counted and not be disenfranchised because the IBT could not organize a proper ballot mailing.  The same principle should be applied to the 600 votes on first-ballots from Local 135 members.

The ballot envelopes are being separated regionally by the color coded return envelopes, and now are being sorted into trays for each local union.

Counting will likely start Friday afternoon or evening, and will proceed through the weekend.

We will continue to provide updates, and vote results as they become available. A template for local union counts and supplemental counts for UPS is available here. Click here for UPS Freight.

The UPS and UPS Freight ballot envelopes (and even many ABF Freight ballots) were picked up commingled together, due to the International Union's screwing up of the ballot mailings.

There will be later post office pick-ups due to extended deadlines for three locals: 89 (June 22), 901 (June 24) and 135 (June 26).

More information on our observers at the count.

Stay tuned for updates.

June 20, 2013: Updated 12:30 p.m. The bulk of the UPS and UPS Freight contract ballots were picked up from the post office at 9 a.m. and a second pick-up was made at noon.

The total number of ballots has not been tallied yet. We expect it to be more then 70,000 who voted on the 2007 UPS package contract.

The UPS and UPS Freight ballot envelopes were picked up completely commingled together, due to the International Union's screwing up of the ballot mailings. Some ABF Freight contract ballots were also mixed in with the UPS and UPS Freight ballots and are now being sorted out for that count, which will begin one week from today.

No wonder they have trouble negotiating a good contract, they can't even organize a ballot mailing.

The separation process, using the color-coded return envelopes, continues this afternoon. The ballots have not yet been sorted by local union, nor has there yet been a total count of ballots received.

No ballots will be counted today. Today will be spent sorting envelopes and verifying eligibility; then the ballots will be counted by local union and supplement, perhaps starting tomorrow.

UPS Freight is a separate national contract and will be a separate count by local union.

More information on our observers at the count.

Stay tuned for updates.

June 18, 2013: The vote counts on the UPS, UPS Freight and ABF contracts have been screwed up in too many ways to count.

When our contracts are being voted on, Teamster members deserve a ballot process they can have confidence in. If you work for 25 or 30 years, you may only get to vote on about five contracts, determining your benefits, wages and working conditions.

Consider just a few examples:

• Many thousands of UPS Teamsters received the wrong ballot return envelopes, directing their ballot to the UPS Freight vote count post office box. These ballots now have to be sorted and re-directed at the count.
   
• The International Union sent so many wrong ballots to the 10,000 UPS Teamsters of Louisville Local 89 that the IBT had to mail out a second ballot. Members who voted with the first ballots had to revote. Local 89 ballots are due by Saturday, June 22 as a result.
   
• The members of Indianapolis Local 135 also received the wrong ballot materials, with incorrect information about their benefit plan. A second ballot was mailed, and is now due on June 26.
   
• Every ABF Teamster was sent incorrect ballot instructions which say that a No vote is a vote to accept the agreement!
   
• Numerous ABF, UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters have received postcards and mailers urging them to vote yes… for the wrong contract.

Worst of all, many Teamsters were denied their right to vote altogether because they never got a ballot—even after they promptly notified their local.

In Orange County Local 952, the situation is so bad that even the stewards did not get a ballot! The local union claims that they are all coded as "inactive" by the International. Early requests for replacement ballots has yielded no results.

The IBT could have addressed this widespread problem by simply extending all voting by a week, as was done for Local 135 already. The vote count could have gone forward as planned with a supplementary vote count next week. Instead, thousands of Teamsters will be disenfranchised.

The International Union's keystone cop routine undermines members' confidence—not just in the IBT leadership but in the Teamster democratic process. That's bad for our union no matter how you're voting on the contract.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union will be there to observe the vote count. TDU members have won critical contract voting rights. The voting process on the contracts this year shows more remains to be done.

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.

June 12, 2013: UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters are in a final push to get out the vote on the proposed contracts.

Contract ballots must be received by 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 20. There's still time to vote and to make sure other UPS Teamsters mail in their ballots and have their say.

Angry Teamsters at both UPS and UPS Freight are organizing a No Vote in many areas.

In San Diego, members are passing out leaflets at the gates to urge members to Vote No and stop changes in their healthcare plan.

In Louisville, TDU members David Thornsberry and Zach Pfeiffer organized a Vote No rally that built Teamster solidarity and caught the attention of the media. The Local 89 Executive Board is actively opposing the contract at the gates and in the media.

In Philadelphia, members are pushing for a No Vote on the national contract and their supplement to defend their healthcare and demand improvements in the supplement including more full-time jobs at the Philadelphia Airport.

A Vote No on the UPS Contract Facebook page continues to grow and give concerned UPS Teamsters a forum to speak out.
 

TDU: Your Contract Watchdog

Teamsters for a Democratic Union works to enforce the rights of all members to a fair and informed vote, regardless of how you intend to vote. Rank-and-file observers from both UPS and UPS Freight will be present at the vote count.

UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters who value an independent information source and nationwide rank-and-file network are joining TDU. You can too for just $40 a year.

If any member has concerns about the balloting, feel free to call TDU at 313-842-2600 or send us a message.

We urge all UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters to discuss the issues and vote on the contract.