March 9, 2010: UPS Freight Teamsters nationally have been demanding union action on widespread subcontracting violations. And they seem to have gotten the ear of our Teamster leadership.

The International Union announced at the end of the national grievance panel that it will take a “lead case” from Dallas Local 745 to arbitration.

A recent TDU special report documented subcontracting violations across the country that are putting Teamster members out of work while subcontractors take our loads. Following the report, the Hoffa administration publicly acknowledged the problem for the first time.

The IBT issued a press release that declared subcontracting a “major issue” at UPS Freight. That’s not news to UPS Freight Teamsters who are losing work while subcontractors run wild.

Ken Hall, the International Vice President in charge of contract enforcement at UPS Freight, says the national grievance committee is doing “an outstanding job” on the issue and the lack of progress on reducing subcontracting is “absolutely not their fault.”

Hall said the union needs “to take on good cases with well-developed facts and supporting documentation to win grievances and arbitrations” and that “You can’t just walk in to an arbitrator to complain that something isn’t right, because you’re not going to win.”

That’s true. And that’s why UPS Freights stewards and members across the country have been collecting evidence to document subcontracting violations. We thought the issue was well-documented and not just in Dallas!

The International Union could help by providing stewards and members with guidelines on the facts and documentation they need to win subcontracting grievances.

UPS Freight Teamsters have shown they will step up to enforce our contract. The International Union needs to do the same.

Click here to have your say. Send a comment or report on what’s happening with subcontracting and other issues at UPS Freight in your area.

Click here to read the Teamster press release on subcontracting.

By David Loyd, UPS Freight, Local 150, Sacramento, Calif.

We here in the South Sacramento service center need to be added to the report on UPS Freight subcontracting. In the past seven months we have lost 10 road jobs.

Prior to June, 2008, our terminal had three sleeper teams scheduled to Harrisburg, Penn., two to Kansas City, Kan. (making a turn and a half), and two to Dallas (also making a turn and a half).

The Harrisburg and Dallas teams are now doing halfway meets with teams from those service centers. That’s close to a 50 percent cut in pay. The rest of the freight we used to move on teams is being moved by Landspan, CRST, or by rail. Our Kansas City schedules are now being moved directly by Landspan and CRST.

Our Denver freight is being moved by HVH out of Denver. We had extra board runs going to Portland, Ore. every other day—one starting on Monday morning and the other on Tuesday. Now that so-called “overflow” freight is being put on Werner trailers. That’s eliminated at least two jobs a week from the extra board.

We asked management about losing the runs and were told they can do this because there’s no return freight. That’s not true. With the sleeper work, when we had scheduled runs, we had freight going both ways. We grieved on it but it’s been 16 months and no word on any decision.

It’s clear from the reports from other service centers that what we face in South Sacramento is just about the same as everywhere. Management is dispatching to reduce or eliminate our union jobs. This has been unfolding almost since the ratification of our contract. It’s time for the IBT to show us what they mean by union power and that starts with challenging UPS freight on subcontracting.

What's going on in your terminal? Click here to tell TDU about subcontracting and other violations, and get advice from a TDU organizer.

February 26, 2010: UPS Freight Teamsters have filed over 40 national grievances to close the loophole on subcontracting at UPS Freight.

Will the IBT take action to protect Teamster jobs?

UPS Freight management is using the one-way loophole in Article 44 and driving load after load right through it. Teamster drivers are laid-off while subcontractors are hauling our loads.

Now the IBT has a chance to stop it.

A National Problem

Members and local unions have filed over 40 national subcontracting grievances. These grievances are on the docket to be heard at the UPS Freight national panel, March 3-5 in Ft. Lauderdale.

Members and local officers have filed grievances in Nashville, Dallas, Alabama, Florida, Columbus, Chicago, North Carolina, New York, Arizona, Las Vegas, Seattle, Reno, and more.

It’s clear that UPS Freight management is getting away with subcontracting across the country.

Click here to download the docket for the March panel.

Time to Take a Stand

Back at the national panel in July, the union and the company deadlocked subcontracting grievances from Dallas to arbitration.

That same panel ruled that there was no contract violation when the company used subcontractors in Lexington, Ky.

Eight subcontracting grievances were delayed at the last panel and carried over to this panel.

Members need IBT officials to start sending a stronger message to UPS management.

Our union has the power to take action and stop UPS Freight management from violating our contract. The March panel is the time to take a stand.

Inform. Organize. Act.

TDU is helping working Teamsters form a UPS Freight network to share information, mobilize for change, and enforce the contract.

Members plan to organize conference calls, email alerts, hand bills and other initiatives to address issues at UPS Freight.

To get involved in the UPS Freight network, call (313) 842-2600 or click here to send us a message.

Stay in the loop. Click here to get email updates from Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

Read the report on subcontracting at UPS Freight.

Tell us about contract violations in your area. A TDU organizer will contact you with advice.

February 26, 2010: As the January Teamster Voice reported, subcontracting is a big issue at UPS Freight. But it’s not the only issue.

Members from around the country reported in on a range of problems in response to our initial survey on subcontracting.

Kansas City

Subcontracting remains a big concern and there are other issues, but members report a small victory. A grievance was won on the right to request single vacation days. Teamsters must give the company at least seven days prior notice of the request but there is no longer a “window” for making the request in writing no more than a week in advance.

Springfield, Mass.

Vacation time is an issue. Management limits the city board to one vacation bid per week with a second at their discretion. This year, over half the board didn’t get any summer vacation bids. A grievance was filed and found for the company. UPS Freight offers the same overall number of weeks per year—just not when Teamster members most need them. The contract needs language stipulating a percentage of the board per week may be off for vacation. Even though it’s in both the national UPS and master freight contracts, it didn’t make it into the UPS Freight language.

Milwaukee

The road board has been halved over the past year. The only guaranteed runs are to South Holland (Chicago) and that’s only a 216-mile turn. Drivers get time on the dock but have seen their pay significantly reduced from years past.

Indianapolis

Still no work rules—just like every other terminal we’ve heard from. Recently, a Local 135 representative told a meeting of UPS Freight Teamsters that they wouldn’t want what the company is proposing, but he wouldn’t show them anything either. He had no answer for where things stood and why work rules weren’t being bargained. The contract calls for work rules within 60 days of ratification.

San Leandro, Calif.

Members report operations have changed significantly over the past couple of years. They recall a number of sleeper team runs to Harrisburg, Penn. and other Eastern points that no longer exist. Some of that work is now on loads for “meet-up” runs with Harrisburg drivers in Nebraska. But they know if there’s more freight coming out of the east heading into Northern California. And they know they’ve lost work to the rail (multiple trailers per day) and seen lay-offs and reduced earnings for those working.

What's going on in your terminal? Click here to tell TDU about subcontracting and other violations, and get advice from a TDU organizer.

January 18, 2010: While record cold temps are hitting the country, management at UPS Freight in Atlanta is taking penny-pinching to an absurd level.

They turned off the heat in the break room entirely. Management said that the Coke machines would keep the room warm.

It didn’t work. The water cooler froze solid.

January 18, 2010: The dates are set for the three national UPS Freight grievance panels for 2010.

The first panel will be in Ft. Lauderdale, March 3-5, at the Westin Beach Resort. It immediately follows the first UPS panel of the year.

The other panels will be on June 9-11 and Oct. 13-15, at locations to be announced.

The deadline for getting on the docket is Feb. 8. Our union can use the March panel to take on subcontracting nationally.

Now is the time to raise our voices and demand action to protect Teamster jobs.

January 15, 2010: Teamsters at UPS Freight say subcontracting is rampant while members are laid off.

TDU spoke to Teamsters around the country for this special report on protecting our contract and our jobs at UPS Freight.

Drivers from Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Memphis, New Jersey, Reno and many more places report seeing freight moving in and out on nonunion trailers daily.

The problem is in the company’s use of Article 44. Under the article, management can subcontract out runs that do not have loads returning to the home domicile.

But our report finds that the company is circumventing this language and subcontracting runs that should go to Teamsters.

“UPS Freight management is using the one-way loophole in Article 44 and driving load after load straight through it,” commented G.W. Owensby, a road driver out of Kansas City Local 41.

Here are a few of the findings from our survey:

• In Memphis, drivers report that subcontractor J&J Express is regularly running at least 20 trailers.

• At the Chicago South Holland terminal, the company has cut runs, and given the work to Covenant, Bison and Transport America. “We could probably add 6-12 bids between Chicago and Minneapolis if we could get rid of the subcontracting,” said a Local 710 road driver there.

• In Lexington, Ky., the company has practically eliminated extra-board wild work. Previously, Lexington drivers who were dispatched on one-way runs could pick up extra runs from their destination terminal to another terminal. Now this work is going to subcontractors. At least two road drivers are running only one or no runs a week because of the decrease in work. Last year the company laid off seven road drivers for five months—while subcontractors did their work.

• In Reno, four line runs have been replaced with outside carriers like CRST and Schneider.

• In North Carolina, the company has replaced scheduled runs with subcontractors and knocked road drivers to the dock.

• In Louisville, management was using subcontractors for runs to Columbus with freight bound to Newburgh, N.Y. Management claimed there was no return freight. Drivers investigated the claim and discovered the company was diverting freight bound to Louisville to Lexington, then sending the freight back to Louisville.

Protect Teamster Jobs

The company is stretching the limits of Article 44. Our union has the power to stop the worst abuses and protect Teamster jobs.

Article 44 contains the following language that drivers can use to protect jobs:

“However, if sufficient freight is generated in the future to provide loads returning to the home domicile, the run shall be performed by members of the bargaining unit.”

If the company is violating Article 44 in your area, your first step is to gather the evidence. Document the trailer numbers and the loads that are being handled by subcontractors on both inbound and outbound freight. Once you have evidence, file a grievance. Your union representative can request more information from the company, including freight manifests from your terminal and the inbound and outbound terminals where the subcontractors are coming from or headed to.

Work with your union rep to pull together all the available evidence and dismantle the company’s case.

Drivers from a number of locals have filed grievances on this issue. Some are slated to be heard at the March national grievance panel.

Our goal is preserving and growing good Teamster jobs. If we don’t enforce this language now, UPS management will keep running all over us.

TDU is organizing a network among UPS Freight Teamsters. To sign on or tell us more about subcontracting or other issues at your terminal, call (313) 842-2600 or click here.

December 28, 2009: The International Union has set the dates for the national grievance panels for UPS and UPS Freight in 2010.

The panels will meet three times the coming year.

The first UPS national panel will be in Ft. Lauderdale, March 1-3, at the Westin Beach Resort. The other panels are scheduled for June 7-9 and Oct. 11-13, locations to be announced.

The first UPS Freight Panels are scheduled to immediately follow the UPS panels and will be held March 3-5, June 9-11, and Oct. 13-15.

The deadline for getting on the docket is February 8. TDU will make the docket and decisions available to Teamster members.

Now is the time for UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters to make our voices heard and make sure that critical issues will be addressed.

Click here to sign up for email updates from TDU.org.

December 23, 2009: The International Union has set the dates for the national grievance panels for UPS and UPS Freight in 2010.

The panels will meet three times the coming year.

The first UPS national panel will be in Ft. Lauderdale, March 1-3, at the Westin Beach Resort. The other panels are scheduled for June 7-9 and Oct. 11-13, locations to be announced.

The first UPS Freight Panels are scheduled to immediately follow the UPS panels and will be held March 3-5, June 9-11, and Oct. 13-15.

The deadline for getting on the docket is February 8. TDU will make the docket and decisions available to Teamster members.

Now is the time for UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters to make our voices heard and make sure that critical issues will be addressed.

Click here to sign up for email updates from MakeUPSDeliver.org.

December 26, 2009: UPS Freight drivers and dockworkers had high hopes when they signed on with the Teamsters.

Now, a couple years later, they’re looking at what needs to be improved.

UPS Freight Teamsters got a national contract, and some grievances have been won. But in key areas like subcontracting and written work rules, grievances have been filed but little progress has been made. The company is having its way, something that UPS is good at.

“A big issue at the South Holland terminal is the amount of subcontracting going on,” commented Rick La Fever, a road driver out of Chicago Local 710.

“The company has cut so many runs, giving the work to Covenant, Bison and Transport America. We could probably add 6-12 bids between Chicago and Minneapolis if we could get rid of the subcontracting.”

“I hear it’s going on other places so this is a serious problem. I know there are grievances filed but they’re bogged down in the process. So the company gets its way while good Teamsters are on layoff.”

Subcontracting of union work destroys jobs and weakens our union. But the IBT seems asleep at the wheel.

Other UPS Freight Teamsters report work rules are an issue. The contract states that within 60 days of ratification, the company and the union were supposed to establish a Joint Committee to document agreed upon work rules and practices in existence at the terminals. Any disputes were to be referred to the chairs of the company and union negotiating committees. It’s been nearly two years and no language is in place.

Management wants rules by region. Members and their stewards want work rules by terminal. Local officers say any decision on a procedure for establishing work rules needs to be resolved nationally. Ken Hall, the union chair of the committee, has said nothing.

In fact, the International Union has had little to say about UPS Freight since the ratification of the contract.

“The IBT made a lot of noise about bringing us into the union,” said La Fever, “but they haven’t shown much fire power in standing up for us.”

“I’m a second generation Teamster so I know our union is more than the officers. It will take the membership getting organized in the terminals if we’re going to make UPS Freight live up to the contract and get what we deserve.”

“The union is more than the officers. It will take the membership getting organized in the terminals if we’re going to make UPS Freight live up to the contract and get what we deserve.”

Rick La Fever, UPS Freight Local 710, Indiana