March 2, 2009: UPS is denying thousands of Teamsters full-time job opportunities—in violation of our union contract. Now, working Teamsters are getting together to do something about it.

Article 22.3 of our contract requires the company to maintain 20,000 combo jobs nationally. The company is thousands of jobs short of the 20,000 quota—and is eliminating more full-time combo jobs every day.

Texas Teamsters Take Action

At the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport, UPS dissolved more than 100 full-time combo positions in February. Members filed grievances, but got the brush off by Local 767 officials.

Instead of getting discouraged, members got active. They contacted TDU and organized a meeting with TDU Southern Region organizer Willie Hardy.

National Effort to Save FT Jobs

The following day, Local 767 members joined concerned UPS Teamsters from 25 locals on a national conference call organized by TDU. Members on the call launched a national petition drive to press our union to make UPS create all the full-time combo jobs required by the contract.

The petition calls on the International Union to file a national grievance and to conduct a national audit of full-time job elimination.

More UPS Teamsters are planning TDU meetings and petitioning at their UPS buildings. For more information on how to get involved, go to www.MakeUPSDeliver.org, or call TDU at (313) 842-2600.

Part-Time America Won’t Work, but rank-and-file power will. Let’s work together to enforce our contract and make UPS create the full-time jobs that so many Teamsters need.

This month’s Convoy Dispatch centerfold gives a national picture of UPS’s Full-Time Jobs Takeaway. Click here to view the article or view it as a map here.

March 2, 2009: UPS continues to haul in substantial profits despite the worst economy in 70 years.

Brown made $829 million from October to December 2008, according to fourth quarter financial numbers released by the company. Revenue went up 3.6 percent in 2008 to $51.5 billion. For the full year, UPS made an operating profit of $5.4 billion and after-tax profits of $3 billion.

The U.S. package operation alone made an operating profit of $932 million in the fourth quarter. International package made $366 million in profit. UPS Freight also made money despite the terrible conditions in the freight industry.

UPS Freight and the company’s logistics operations made $53 million in profit, before they took a write-off of $549 million for “goodwill impairment.” Impairment charges are an accounting write-off that allows a corporation to write off profits based on the falling value of its name or “goodwill.”

Declining Volume and Full-Time Job Creation

In the fourth quarter, total U.S. package volume fell by 4.4 percent. Ground volume was down 3.7 percent and Next Day Air volume dropped by 10.1 percent.

The company is using the drop in volume to try to justify its elimination of full-time jobs in violation of Article 22.3 of our contract. But management doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

UPS made the same claim after the 1997 strike. An arbitrator explicitly rejected management’s argument and ordered the company to create 22.3 full-time jobs regardless of volume.

March 2, 2009: A new keyless ignition and entry system is being installed on package cars in Georgia. After using Local 728 members as guinea pigs, UPS plans to go national with the system.

The technology works like this. One short push on the remote unit enables ignition. A second push on a separate dash-mounted unit actually starts the engine. Drivers toggle a switch up to start the engine and down to turn it off. A second push to the bottom opens the bulkhead door.

The remote unit can also be used to unlock and open the bulkhead door, which is on a spring system. One long push on the remote unit unlocks and opens the bulkhead door. Two short pushes unlocks, but doesn’t open, the rear door.

Drivers in the center where the new technology is being tested are being told it should take six and a half minutes off their day. Not that management is counting or anything.

March 2, 2009: In 1997, UPS Teamsters went on strike to tell the company, “Part-Time America Won’t Work.” And we won! Our contract requires UPS to combine 40,000 part-time jobs into full-time jobs—and to maintain 20,000 full-time combo jobs no matter what.

But the company is thousands of jobs short of the 20,000 quota—and management is eliminating more combo jobs every day.

Thousands of Teamsters are being denied full-time jobs that are required by the contract. Some combo Teamsters are even being forced back to part-time.

What the International Union Can Do

Up until now, the International Union has left it up to individual members and local unions to file Article 22.3 grievances. Management is simply deadlocking these grievances and buying time for more violations.

The International Union can end the stall tactics and enforce the contract by filing a national grievance. The International Union can back up this grievance by conducting a national audit.

The contract requires UPS to give the International Union a detailed list of the 20,000 jobs it must maintain under Article 22.3. The International should provide every local union with a copy of this list to document exactly how many more full-time combo jobs UPS has to create to come into compliance with the contract.

The International Union has power that no local has to win full-time job creation. It’s time to use it.

What You Can Do

UPS Teamsters from across the country have launched a national petition drive to make UPS create more full-time jobs.

The petition calls on the International Union to file a national grievance to make UPS create all 20,000 full-time jobs that members are owed under the contract. And it calls on the International Union to conduct a national audit.

Do your part to make UPS create more full-time jobs. Pass out leaflets so members are informed. Collect petition signatures so our International Union gets the message that it’s time to enforce our contract.

Go to www.makeUPSdeliver.org to download leaflets and petitions. Or call Teamsters for a Democratic Union at (313) 842-2600.

To view the following article as a map, click here.

RHODE ISLAND

“The company has designs on 22.3 jobs. We’ve had jobs eliminated because they’re not filled when they go vacant. If management can ‘move’ these jobs, or just outright eliminate them, they will. The lives of Teamsters who need full-time jobs hang in the balance.  We’re petitioning so the International Union sees members care about this issue and want something done.”
Matt Taibi, Local 251

NEW YORK CITY

Full-time combo jobs have been destroyed because vacancies were never posted or filled.

“Part-time America does not work. It’s a disgrace to have so many work so hard for so few hours, for such a meager ‘salary.’ It’s no longer the working class but rather the working poor! Hoffa, Hall and Redmond should enforce the contract!”
William Riley Fernandez, Local 804

PHILADELPHIA

“When Article 22.3 positions have gone vacant in our building over the past year, they’ve just disappeared. We hear that they’ve been relocated, but we get no solid indication of what the International is doing to make sure the relocated jobs still exist. When members hear rumors, I want to be able to tell them, ‘Eliminating 22.3 jobs is against the contract. It will never happen.’ But it’s hard to say that when we can’t verify that it hasn’t already happened.”
Howard Hall, Local 384

BALTIMORE

“Management has refused to bid some vacant combo positions—eliminating full-time jobs. We’re getting members to sign the petition and take a stand for full-time jobs. We won these jobs by standing together, and that’s how we’ll protect them for the future.”
Bill Paul, Local 355

FLORENCE, S.C.

“As a part-timer, I know how hard it is to make ends meet at UPS. I’m working two jobs—and some of my co-workers are doing more. My Teamster brothers and sisters went on strike in 1997 to win more full-time job opportunities for members like me. I’m petitioning to do my part to make UPS deliver those full-time jobs.”
Antonio Jones, Part-Time Steward, Local 71

SYRACUSE

When 22.3 Teamsters have gone driving, their full-time combo positions are eliminated. Management claims to be “redistributing” the jobs but cannot explain where the positions have been moved. Combo positions have been reconfigured and one eliminated in Utica Local 182.

GRAND RAPIDS

Four air/preload combo positions eliminated in Grand Rapids building in November.

CINCINNATI

“Our local got the list of combo jobs the company claims it is maintaining here as part of the 20,000 jobs required nationally. My steward alternate and I found 11 jobs on the list that exist only on paper in our work area alone. Other stewards could identify another dozen or more full-time jobs that have been destroyed in our building.”
Sam Bucalo, Elected Steward, Local 100

KANSAS CITY

Twenty-two full-time combo positions eliminated through layoffs in Kansas City and Lenexa, Kan.

ST. LOUIS

Members have a grievance over 23 full-time jobs that were eliminated because management never filled vacancies.

LOUISVILLE

“Members in some cities have been told by management that their full-time combo jobs are being moved to Louisville. I can tell you that isn’t true. Under our local rider, the company is supposed to create 50 full-time combos this year. They haven’t created more jobs than that. Louisville can’t account for the combo jobs that have been eliminated elsewhere.”
Mark Huckleberry, Local 89

FLORIDA

“I took two days off work to ask members to sign the petition to create more full-time jobs. Almost every member I asked signed the petition. Part-timers want more full-time job opportunities. And full-timers remember what our union won when we stuck together in the 1997 strike. I work at Roadway—not UPS. But I know that our union is stronger when we all stick together and do our part.”
Mike Schaffer, Roadway, Local 769

SEATTLE

Management eliminated almost 40 full-time combo jobs last fall. The company agreed to return Teamsters to these positions but only after Local 174 rewrote the contract mid-term and gave up a multi-million arbitration award.

SPOKANE

Six full-time combo jobs eliminated. Members forced back to part-time.

SACRAMENTO

Fifty full-time jobs eliminated in West Sac building through unfilled vacancies. Other combo Teamsters have had their jobs reconfigured so they now perform 8 hours of loading and/or unloading. Seven more full-time jobs eliminated in the Rocklin building in January. Combo Teamsters forced to go driving or work 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. and then 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at part-time wages.

“The union seems to be putting no effort into 22.3 grievances. We’re tired of the company using the grievance procedure to stall while full-time jobs are destroyed. The International is the one that can get something done on this and it’s time to focus the pressure on them. The petition sends a clear message: it’s time to enforce the contract.”
Lee Michalek, Shop Steward, Local 150

LOS ANGELES

Sixty-one unfilled Article 22.3 full-time jobs at Ontario Airport alone. Members have been waiting for these jobs for six months.

“Our local claims they’re fighting for full-time jobs and puffs out their chest, but all that comes out is hot air—no results. The bottom line is that our officials are more interested in going along with Hoffa than demanding that the International Union take action. So instead of full-time creation, we get grievances dying on the vine at the panel.”
Dan Kane, Local 63

PHOENIX

More than twenty full-time combo positions eliminated through layoffs in Phoenix and Tempe, Ariz.

DALLAS / FT. WORTH

Management “dissolved” more than 100 full-time combo positions at DFW airport in February. Full-time combo jobs were broken into two part-time positions. Members forced to work sunrise and twilight shifts at part-time pay—a pay cut of $6 or more for many Teamsters.

“UPS is using the bad economy as an excuse to destroy full-time jobs. Management saw an opportunity and they’re taking it. Today, it’s huge pay cuts. Tomorrow, we could be losing our homes. There’s no excuse or reason for it other than corporate greed.”
Karen Berry, Local 767

February 17, 2009: UPS is denying thousands of Teamsters full-time job opportunities—in violation of our union contract. Now, working Teamsters are getting together to do something about it.

UPS Teamsters from across the country are launching a national petition drive to make UPS deliver more full-time jobs.

UPS is violating Article 22.3 of our contract, which requires the company to maintain 20,000 combo jobs nationally as of August 1, 2008. The company is thousands of jobs short of the 20,000 quota—and is eliminating more full-time combo jobs every day.

In a national conference call organized by Teamsters for a Democratic Union, concerned UPS Teamsters launched a petition drive to make UPS create all 20,000 full-time combo jobs required by the contract.

Click here to download the petition.

Click here to download an informational leaflet to pass out to other Teamsters.

The petition calls on the International Union to file a national grievance to make UPS create all 20,000 full-time jobs that members are owed under the contract and to win back pay for all Teamsters who have been improperly denied full-time work—because their job has been eliminated, or because they are eligible for full-time combo positions that have not been created.

International Union Can Make the Difference

Members in local unions across the country have filed grievances. (Click here to download sample grievance language.) These local grievances, and more of them, need to be filed. But local grievances by themselves are not enough.

The company has used the grievance procedure to stall and buy time while they eliminate more jobs. The company “dissolved” 120 full-time combo jobs in Dallas-Fort Worth this week alone.

Management is playing a shell game, claiming that they are moving jobs to other locations or assigning jobs “to corporate.” In fact, thousands of jobs have been eliminated all together.

Local unions do not have all the information they need to prove this violation. The International Union does. And it's time for for the International to step up and enforce the contract.

National Grievance, National Audit

The International Union has the tools to bring an end to management’s stall tactics and shell game.

Instead of letting UPS drag individual grievants and local unions through step after step of the grievance procedure, the International Union can cut to the chase by filing a national grievance on the company’s violation of Article 22.3.

The International Union can end the company’s shell game by conducting a national audit of all 20,000 full-time combo jobs and documenting once and for all exactly how many more full-time combo jobs UPS needs to create.

Article 22.3 of the contract requires UPS to provide the International Union with a list of the 20,000 jobs it will maintain under Article 22.3 of the contract. The petition calls for the International Union to provide every local union with a copy of this list so that Teamster members will have the information they need to monitor violations and enforce the contract.

Make UPS Deliver More Full-Time Jobs

Members are getting organized to win more full-time jobs, and you can help. UPS Teamsters from coast-to-coast are getting involved in this effort.

Help do your part by passing out leaflets to members so they are informed and collecting petition signatures so our International Union gets the message that it is time to enforce our contract.

Part-Time America Won’t Work—but Teamster Unity will. Let’s work together to enforce our rights and make UPS create more full-time jobs.

Click here to download a leaflet to inform working Teamsters about the petition drive and the campaign to win more full-time jobs.

Click here to download the petition and collect signatures from concerned Teamsters.

Click here to let us know that you can help out with the petition drive.

Click here to send us a question or comment about 22.3 violations and our contract enforcement campaign.

Note: You have a legal right to distribute this leaflet and collect signatures on UPS property as long as you do it in non-work areas (the parking lot, the locker room, the break room) and at non-work times (while you and the person signing are off the clock).

If anyone from the company or the union interferes with your right to distribute this information, contact Teamsters for a Democratic Union. Click here to send a message or call 313-842-2600.

February 13, 2009: Last month UPS dramatically raised the cost of retiree healthcare. Now UPS will have to explain their actions before a judge.

Yesterday, a judge in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois set a hearing for March 9. UPS will have to explain to a judge how their midcontract hike in retiree healthcare contributions didn't violate the contract or the law.

In January, UPS management suddenly raised the monthly health and welfare contribution for Local 705 UPS retirees from $50 to $157.58 for a single retiree and $315.17 for a retiree and spouse.

The Local 705 contract with UPS states that “if required, additional contributions would not be implemented until after the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement.” The agreement runs until 2013.

Local 705 and retirees took action. Members filed a class action lawsuit and bombarded UPS management with letters of complaint. Now they will get their day in court.

What do you think? Click here to send your comments to Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

Stay in the loop about pension and benefits. Click here to sign up for email updates from TDU.org.

March 2, 2009: The good news is that the starting wage for UPS part-timers in Washington State has gone up. The bad news is that the raise is only a nickel—and it took a hike in the state minimum wage to make it happen.

That’s right. The minimum wage in Washington State is now higher than the starting wage in the biggest Teamster contract. As of Jan. 1, the minimum wage in Washington is $8.55. The starting rate for part-timers is $8.50. What an embarrassment.

The minimum wage in several more states will top the starting wage for part-timers before the end of the contract, including California, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts,. Oregon and Vermont.

The starting wage for part-timers was cut to $8 in 1982. That wage has gone up only once since then: after the 1997 strike. If wages had kept pace with inflation, the starting wage for part-timers today would be more than $18.

Starting wages competing with the minimum wage—and no healthcare for the first year (18 months for family coverage).

No wonder UPS is eliminating full-time combo jobs and using part-time labor instead.

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

January 30, 2009: Chicago Local 705 UPS retirees are mad as hell, and they’re doing something about it.

They’re mad because UPS management suddenly raised their monthly health and welfare contribution from $50 to $157.58 for a single retiree and $315.17 for a retiree and spouse.

Today Local 705 and two retirees filed a class action suit in federal court against UPS, and reportedly they are considering other actions as well. (A copy of the complaint is available, and may be accessed below.) UPS retirees received a letter this week from Local 705 secretary treasurer Steve Pocztowski, who states in it that UPS “claims to be a people-oriented company but has decided to do the unthinkable, raise your monthly insurance premiums.”

Retirees say this big premium hike was unexpected, because the Local 705 contract with UPS states that “if required, additional contributions would not be implemented until after the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement.” The agreement runs until 2013. That’s a good contract clause, especially in this era of long Teamster contracts.

Iggy Green, a retiree and plaintiff in the lawsuit stated, “It’s shameful. UPS didn’t raise the issue during contract negotiations and then sent a letter raising the rates. That’s just not right. They need to live by the contract. I’m working with Local 705 to make sure this gets fixed.”

Teamster retirees in many areas of the country have seen their retirement benefits limited and their health premiums raised. Maybe UPS management felt the Local 705 Teamsters would take it lying down, or would abandoned their retired brothers and sisters. If so, they were wrong.

Every Teamster struggle to protect pensions and affordable health care is important for all Teamsters. We should all stand with the Chicago UPS retirees in their fight.

Click here for a copy of Local 705’s letter to retirees

Click here for a copy of the complaint in the lawsuit Green v UPS Health and Welfare.

What do you think? Click here to send a question or comment to Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

January 29, 2008: UPS management is moving to eliminate every Article 22.3 job at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport—the single largest cut since UPS started slashing full-time jobs last year.

In all, the company is planning to eliminate 120 Article 22.3 positions at DFW.

“I was on the picket line every day in 1997 holding a sign that said 'Part Time America Won't Work.' I never dreamed the company would try to force me back to part-time. “We have stood up for our union. Now we need our union to have our back.” Sandy Gustafson, Local 767 Steward, UPS, Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport

Members report that the company is making all Article 22.3 employees bid on two part-time positions and reducing them to part-time wages. This will mean a pay cut of $5 an hour or more for many Teamsters. Members are also being forced to work split shifts.

UPS is eliminating the night sort at DFW on Feb. 12. But the company is eliminating the Article 22.3 jobs on every shift, not just the night sort.

"UPS is trying to get rid of 22.3 jobs all together and put everyone back to part-time. That's what they really want," said Jacqueline Jones, a Local 767 steward.

The contract requires UPS to maintain a minimum of 20,000 Article 22.3 full-time jobs nationwide at all times. The company is thousands of jobs short of the required number but the International Union has taken no action to enforce the contract.

"UPS owes us a minimum of 20,000 jobs and they're in clear violation of the contract," says Local 767 steward Sandy Gustafson. "I was at the picket line every day in 1997 holding a sign that said 'Part Time America Won't Work.' I never dreamed the company would try to force me back to part-time. We have stood up for our union. Now we need our union to have our back.”

The next national grievance panel is scheduled for Feb. 2-5.

Click here to download a bulletin on the UPS Full-Time Jobs Massacre.

Will the International Union take up a national grievance? Or will Hoffa and Hall continue to leave local unions and working Teamsters holding the bag while the company steals our jobs and shreds our contract?

What’s going on in your area? Click here to report problems with 22.3 job elimination where you work.

Stay in the loop. Click here to sign up for email updates from TDU.org

January 29, 2009: Our union’s failure to enforce the Article 22.3 full-time jobs provision of the contract has forced Seattle Local 174 members to make a devil’s choice: your money or your jobs.

When UPS laid off dozens of Article 22.3 Teamsters, Local 174 filed a grievance and promised to win back the jobs.

Now local officials have cut a deal that would give back a separate grievance victory worth $1 million or more. In exchange, UPS would put laid off 22.3 Teamsters back to work and guarantee a minimum number of 22.3 positions in Local 174's jurisdiction.

The proposed deal has divided members. The jobs at stake belong to 22.3 full-time employees. Most of the $1 million or more in back wages is owed to part-timers.

“We’re more or less being blackmailed into this,” said Merritt Miller, a Local 174 steward on the night sort in the Redmond Building. “The company is playing a shell game with the 20,000 22.3 jobs and the union doesn’t seem to want to do anything about it.”

Million Dollar Grievance Giveback

The Joint Council 28 Rider to the national contract has specific language that requires the company to double-shift part-timers when Article 22.3 or 40 combo workers are on an excused absence (vacation, holiday, personal day, etc.).

UPS agreed to this language in the 2002 negotiations, but never complied with it. Local 174 grieved the violation and ultimately won the case in arbitration, including back pay for some 150 part-timers. UPS refused to pay. Interest on the back pay piled up while management stalled.

UPS now owes Local 174 members $1 million or more in back pay. Local 174 officials have cut a deal to give up this grievance victory and to allow management to rewrite the contract to eliminate the language that requires the company to pay part-timers overtime to fill in for absent Article 22.3 workers.

In exchange, the company would guarantee a minimum of 160 full-time Article 22.3 jobs in Local 174. Before UPS started eliminating combo jobs, Local 174 had some 200 Article 22.3 positions.

The company would also create enough Article 22.3 jobs on a temporary basis to make sure that all Article 22.3 Teamsters who have currently been reduced to part-time will be returned to full-time status. But when those Teamsters move on, their Article 22.3 jobs can disappear too.

Of the millions in unpaid wages, the company will pay only $100,000. Local 174 officials made sure the deal includes up to $40,000 in legal fees for the local. Local 174 officials have justified the deal by saying it is the best they can do and told members that they are on their own if they vote it down.

"Local 174 officials have allowed the company to keep them on their heels through the entire process and have resorted to Old Guard fear tactics to sell a flawed deal," said Local 174 steward Dan Scott.

“If that wasn't enough, they see fit to wrench almost 30 percent of the final monetary agreement from the affected members' pockets and keep it for themselves," Scott said.

Where is the International Union?

Click here to download a bulletin on the UPS Full-Time Jobs Massacre.

The attack on full-time jobs reveals a glaring weakness in the contract. Article 22.3 has no language that prohibits the company from reducing the number of full-time jobs in any one location. The clause only requires 20,000 jobs nationally. This gives the company a weapon to punish locals that enforce the contract or win arbitration decisions the company doesn't like.

But the biggest weakness that is being revealed is in our International Union. Our contract requires UPS to maintain 20,000 full-time Article 22.3 jobs. They're not doing it. The Hoffa administration knows it but has taken no coordinated action to stop the company and save these full-time jobs.

Not every local has a multi-million dollar grievance to trade away to get UPS to stop eliminating Article 22.3 jobs in their jurisdiction. Local 174 members wouldn't have to be voting on this devil's bargain at all if our International Union would use its leverage to make UPS maintain the 20,000 full-time jobs they owe members under the contract.

Instead, members are being forced to choose between unpaid wages and full-time jobs when the contract says we have the right to both. Their ballots must be returned by the end of January.

Download the proposed change to the Joint Council 28 Rider.

What do you think? Click here to send your comments to the TDU UPS Committee.

What’s going on in your area? Click here to report problems with 22.3 job elimination where you work.

Stay in the loop. Click here to sign up for email updates from TDU.org