January 18, 2010: Management spent last year crying that the company was losing money. But as Teamster Voice goes to press, the company has told investors that fourth quarter profits per share will be 12 to 29 percent higher than previously announced.

After taxes, UPS made $1.4 billion in profit in the first nine months of 2009 alone. Brown will announce its 2009 profit numbers on Feb. 2. TDU will post the info online at www.tdu.org.

January 18, 2010: UPS will start field-testing its latest DIAD later this year. The DIAD V is about half the size and weight of the current version. Brown has partnered with Honeywell to add new bells and whistles, some small and some that may dramatically change life at UPS—especially when combined with other new technology like telematics.

DIAD V will include a color, auto-focus, flash camera to use for proof-of-delivery. (Hopefully, it will also help drivers document when supervisors are handling packages and doing our work!)

The new DIAD also has a color display and much more memory. UPS says it will be able to use DIAD to download training videos to all drivers simultaneously. More ominously the company says future applications will include “maps” and “navigation.”

Teamsters need to be aware. Some aspects of new technology make our jobs easier. But management also has another agenda. They want to dumb down our jobs to try exert more control over drivers and make us more replaceable.

Telematics technology lets management track where we’re driving. Our DIADS may soon tell us where to drive.

The best protection for UPS drivers has always been to follow the methods and work at a safe and even pace. That will become even more necessary as management rolls out new technology.

January 18, 2010: Management is squeezing package drivers more than ever. TDU arms UPS Teamsters with the information we need to protect ourselves. Read these online resources at www.tdu.org/upstoolbox. Or call TDU at 313-842-2600.

• Using Daily Log Books: Keeping track of your day can give you back up if you’re facing production harassment or accused of stealing time—and it can help back off management too. Many UPS Teamsters use TDU’s Daily Log Book.

• Working Safe, Working Smart: UPS management is laying off drivers, adding stops to routes, and pushing package car drivers to increase production more than ever. Following UPS’s methods is the best way to protect yourself.

• Fighting Discipline for Production: Our union contract does not recognize the SPORH or any other production number. But that doesn’t stop UPS management from trying to use SPORH’s as a basis for discipline. Find out how to protect yourself—and other Teamsters—if management comes after you for production.

• New Technology Tracks Drivers’ Every Move: UPS is implementing new technology that allows management to monitor drivers like never before. Telematics combines data from the DIAD, GPS and more than 200 sensors mounted on the package car. It amounts to a daily OJS without a manager ever getting in your truck.

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.

Click on the links below to download the official UPS package delivery methods. The methods are in four parts

Do you have a question or a problem? Click here to send a message to TDU's UPS network.

UPS Package Delivery Methods
Part 1: Table of Contents to Section 5
Part 2: Section 6 to Section 11
Part 3: Section 12 to Section 15
Part 4: Section 16 to the end

December 22, 2009: UPS Teamsters in the former Central States have more questions than answers about the new UPS pension plan.

UPS Teamsters in the Central and Southern Regions and the Carolinas have more questions than answers about the new UPS pension plan they were moved into on January 1, 2008.

With 44,000 active participants, you might think UPS could put up a website to help spread information, but they have not.

Issues that were once straight forward have become complicated. One example: what happens to your pension if you go to work for the union, as a business agent or officer?

The answer is more complicated than you’d guess. Some UPS Teamsters face a major pension cut if they go to work for our union. Others could cash in and collect their pension and a union salary at the same time.

If you work for the union temporarily, such as being pulled off the job for an organizing drive, then your local will simply pay UPS $25 per day to maintain all your pension credits without any changes. So far, so good.

But if you take a job as a business agent or become a full-time officer, the union is not permitted to pay into the IBT-UPS plan. Instead, the union pays into the Central States Plan on your behalf.

The new pension credits earned by officers or business agents in Central States cannot be combined with the IBT-UPS Plan toward 25- or 30-and-out. That’s because the IBT-UPS Plan has no reciprocity with the Central States Plan, or with any Teamster pension plan.

As a result, UPS Teamsters may take a hit on their pension to work for our union. That situation needs to be corrected. But it is fact at this time.

UPS Teamsters with high seniority may actually be able to cash in under the loopholes created by the new plan. It is illegal for a single-employer pension plan like the UPS-IBT plan to impose a rule against reemployment.

That means a UPS Teamster could retire with 25-and-out from the new UPS plan, go to work as a business agent, and draw his pension and business agent salary at the same time. On top of that, he or she would accrue new pension credits in the Central States Plan.

The UPS plan has provided a document to Local Unions on this matter, but the document itself raises a lot of questions.

We will try to provide answers to questions that members have on this or any other aspect about the IBT-UPS Plan. So fire away. Click here to send a question to TDU.

December 11, 2009: UPS management is cranking down the thermostat, taking a page from one of the worst bosses ever: Ebenezer Scrooge. In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Scrooge would only let his employees burn one lump of a coal at a time.

As freezing temperatures hit most of the country, UPS is cranking down the heat in many buildings as part of a national directive to cut costs.

Management has turned the thermostat down to 45 degrees in Fayetteville, North Carolina. That means many inside workers will be exposed to temperatures much lower—such as members who work near open doors.

Has UPS turned down the heat in your building? Click here to send a report to MakeUPSDeliver.org.

Language in Article 18 gives members some protection from these changes. Contact TDU for grievance advice.

If you’re a clerical employee, you have significantly greater protection under Article 18. In many cases UPS management must provide portable heaters to keep them warm.

West Tennessee: "I am a mechanic dressing in four layers of clothing, double socks, etc. This Friday I left work with no feeling in my fingers/hands. My feet were so cold every step was painful, not to mention the constant shivering and teeth chattering. They locked all the heaters at 45 degrees, but it was 27 degrees and they still weren't on!!"

Virginia: "I was told by PE that corporate told him that heat does not go on unless it’s below 40. What a joke. The only warm spot in the building for us loaders is in the bathroom."

Chicago: "The temperature in the CACH Hub night sort on December 9 and 10 was about 15 degrees. Totally inhuman."

December 7, 2009: Teamster airplane mechanics who have gone three years without a contract are taking their fight to the public—right in UPS’s backyard.

A billboard on the I-75 downtown corridor in Atlanta warns UPS that “We are prepared to strike.” Local 2727 members have also conducted informational picketing in Atlanta to draw attention to their fight to protect their job security and healthcare.

UPS has laid off more than 150 Teamster mechanics since February 2009. In the meantime, the company is outsourcing maintenance work overseas.

The company is also demanding that Teamsters and retirees start paying for their healthcare. If management wins that giveback on Teamster mechanics, you know that the company will be demanding the same concessions from every other UPS Teamster in 2013.

UPS Teamster mechanics work at 80 airports across the United States. We stand with them in their fight for a fair contract.

December 7, 2009: Have you heard managers claiming the company is losing money?

Fill them in on the facts.

UPS recently announced after-tax profits of $549 million for the third quarter of 2009 (July-Sept), up from $445 million in the second quarter. In a terrible economy, UPS has still hauled in $1.4 billion in after-tax profits in the first three quarters of the year alone.

UPS’s profits are down from last year when the company’s third quarter profits were $970 million. But UPS is still making big money—and still beating the competition. FedEx made just $181 million in the last quarter—and lost $779 million in the six months before that.

Total package volume is down 3.6 percent—a drop, but not enough to justify the number of laid-off drivers, combined routes and excessive overtime. And things are looking up. UPS expects to ship about 400 million packages world-wide between Thanksgiving and Christmas, up slightly from 2008.

UPS forecast 22 million shipments on what it expects to be its peak day, Dec. 21—equal to its peak day in 2007, when the company was making record profits.

The UPS Teamsters who bust our backs to make these profits deserve a little more respect and a lot more contract enforcement.

In a terrible economy, UPS has still hauled in $1.4 billion in profits.