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.

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January 10, 2009: Under a contract loophole, UPS and the International Union have agreed to new restrictions that will make it harder for drivers to file grievances against excessive overtime.

Our contract is supposed to protect package car drivers from unwanted excessive overtime. But in a memo dated Dec. 18, the International Union announced that it had negotiated new guidelines that will make it tougher for members to file excessive overtime grievances.

Click here to download a copy of the memo.

The new guidelines make it more difficult for members to get on an Opt-In list which gives them the right to file a 9.5 grievance—and some drivers on extended routes will not be allowed to get any relief from excessive overtime.

Article 37 of the contract gives eligible drivers the right to file grievances if the company forces them to work more than 9.5 hours a day on any three days in a work week.

In the last contract, UPS agreed to raise the penalty for 9.5 violations to triple time pay. In exchange, the company insisted that the contract require drivers to sign an Opt-In or Opt-Out list. Only drivers who sign the Opt-In list would be able to file 9.5 grievances.

The company’s goal was to limit the number of drivers who could enforce their protections against excessive overtime. But it didn’t work. Most drivers who were given the choice signed the Opt-In list and protected their right to file grievances.

In many areas, UPS never bothered to post the Opt-In lists. That made all drivers eligible to file 9.5 grievances.

Restrictive Guidelines

Under the new guidelines agreed to by our union, no driver will be eligible to file a 9.5 grievance until they have signed an Opt-In list. A driver can only add their name to the Opt-In list after they have worked three days over 9.5 hours in a workweek. Then they can go to the Center Manager’s office and request to be added to the Opt-In list. The list will not be posted. It will be kept in the Center Manager’s office.

Once a driver signs the Opt-In list, they must stay on the list for five months. After that the driver will be removed from the list. The driver will have to work more than 9.5 hours on three days in a work week again before they can sign an Opt-In list gain.

Until now, drivers in the Central Region have used Article 12 of the Central Region Supplement, which makes no mention of Opt-In / Opt-Out lists. As we go to press, there is no definitive word on whether members will continue to be able to file under the supplement without qualifying under the new 9.5 guidelines.

The new guidelines also contain a loophole that allows the company to keep drivers on extended routes from grieving excessive overtime. Under the rule, drivers on extended routes are entitled to relief from excessive overtime “provided the company can reasonably dispatch work to other drivers.”

UPS has been insisting that drivers on high mileage routes cannot file 9.5 grievances. You can bet they will use this vague language to their advantage.

Mid-Contract Change

Many members are asking how the 9.5 rules could be changed in the middle of the contract.

A loophole inserted in the new contract created a 9.5 Committee and gave it the power to “adopt guidelines” over the implementation of the 9.5 language. (See Article 37, Section 1(c).) The new guidelines were agreed to by our Union Representatives on the 9.5 Committee.

“When the rank and file voted to approve this contract, the membership gave union leaders (who do not have to work under this language) and the company the right to ‘adopt guidelines’ concerning 9.5, without insisting on the right to vote on any new changes,” said Nichele Fulmore, a shop steward in North Carolina Local 391.

“The devil’s in the details in these contracts and as the rank and file we have got to pay more attention to these details,” Fulmore said.

Enforcing Our Rights

In practice, many drivers do not file 9.5 grievances. Some want all the overtime they can get. But others fear they will lose all their overtime or face production harassment if they file a grievance.

Interviews with drivers and stewards across the country show that results vary widely. In some areas, members consistently win 9.5 grievances and have gotten overtime relief as a result. In others, very few grievances are ever filed.

Local 278 Vice President Jerry Gibson says the key is talking the issue up among drivers and relentlessly grieving violations so management cannot single out members who enforce the contract.

“Virtually all the package car drivers in Local 278 signed the Opt-In lists. We file hundreds of 9.5 grievances. Now they’re changing the rules to try to make it harder for people to fight excessive overtime, but it’s not going to stop us from enforcing our rights,” said Gibson.

“The real solution is for UPS to create more driving jobs. Until that happens, we’re going to keep filing grievances and make the company pay the triple time penalty for 9.5 violations.”

Click here to download a copy of the memo on the new excessive overtime rules.

What's the situation with excessive overtime in your building? Click here to send a confidential report to Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

A Wake-Up Call
Brothers and sisters it is time to wake up. When the rank and file voted to approve this contract, the membership gave union leaders (who do not have to work under this language) and the company the right to “adopt guidelines” concerning 9.5, without insisting on the right to vote on any new changes.

The devil’s in the details in these contracts and as the rank and file we have got to pay more attention to these details.

Nichele Fulmore, Shop Steward
Local 391, North Carolina

January 10, 2009: UPS will shut down the night sort operations at Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) in February—a move that could eliminate 70 or more full-time Article 22.3 jobs. The midnight sort at the Columbia, S.C., air hub will be shut down around the same time. UPS previously eliminated more than 30 Article 22.3 jobs in Seattle at Boeing Field.

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 because positions were never created or have been allowed to go vacant.

No Article 22.3 Teamsters should be laid off unless the company is meeting its obligation to maintain 20,000 full-time combo jobs.

Members have filed grievances demanding that UPS create all 20,000 jobs and pay full backpay to Teamsters who have been laid off or unfairly denied the opportunity to go full-time because of the company’s nationwide violations of Article 22.3.

The next National Grievance panel will be held Feb. 2-5 in Ft. Lauderdale.

Is UPS eliminating 22.3 jobs in your area? Click here to send a confidential report to the TDU UPS Committee.

January 2, 2008: For the first time in its 35-year history, FedEx is getting smaller.

From its signature air express network to the trucks in its far-flung domestic business, FedEx is starting 2009 by grounding aircraft, parking other equipment, cutting capital spending and even cutting executive pay to get the company's scale in line with a declining shipping market.

The cost reductions add up to about $1 billion in FedEx's current fiscal year, which ends May 31, 2009, and at least another $600 million in the following year, cutbacks that appear to be based on equal parts uncertainty and pessimism about the direction of expedited shipping.

Read the full article in Traffic World.

Local 804 members beat concessions and pension cuts, won new rights in their local bylaws, and organized to rebuild union power.

Local 804 members got an early start on building Teamster Power in 2008—by defeating concessions and pension cuts in December 2007.

Members held a series of rank-and-file meetings and launched a Vote No campaign—after UPS and Local 804 negotiators cut a concessionary contract deal that included pension cuts.

Members voted the contract down by three to one and UPS was forced to take the concessions off the table—including its demand to eliminate 25 & Out pensions for new Teamsters.

Jim ReynoldsWinning New Rights

Members could have gone back to business as usual then, but they didn’t. Instead, they formed a rank-and-file committee called Local 804 Members United.

“We wanted to get to the root of the problem, one of which is the lack of information members were getting from our union,” said Jim Reynolds, an alternate steward and a founding member of Local 804 Members United.

Local 804 Members United launched a petition drive to change the Local 804 bylaws to require officers to keep members informed during bargaining and to report on the pension and health funds at every membership meeting.

They collected over 2,000 signatures on a petition to change the Local 804 bylaws and voted through the changes by a more than 90 percent.

Benefits Watchdog

Local 804 Members United have monitored the local’s benefit funds—and exposed serious problems to the membership.

An investigation by the group uncovered that the Local 804 Health Fund had lost $18 million in assets in just four years—and that Local 804 officials had diverted millions of dollars in contributions from the Health Fund to the Pension Fund without ever telling the members.

Using their rights under the Pension Protection Act, members have forced UPS and Local 804 to turn over financial documents that they had mismanaged the Pension Fund’s assets for years—putting members’ benefits at risk.

“The last couple of years have been a real wake-up call as far as our pension is concerned,” said Bill Reynolds, a package car driver on Long Island and one of the members who pressed the fund to release the documents.

Tim SylvesterLooking Ahead to 2009

“We all have a responsibility to leave our union stronger than it was when we got here. That’s what Local 804 Members United is all about,” said Tim Sylvester, a 29-year Teamster and Local 804 shop steward.

“Brown can’t move a package in New York City without a Local 804 Teamster: that gives us power. Our local used to use it to win top contracts and pensions.”

“Local 804 members used to feel that power. We want to bring the pride and the power back,” Sylvester said.

Working together, the members of Local 804 Members United are on the road to doing just that.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union is running a series of stories about Teamster members who made a difference in 2008. Click here to read more stories in our series.

You can help make a positive difference in our union in 2009. Click here to join Teamsters for a Democratic Union and become a part of our movement.

Chicago Local 705 mounted a credible a strike threat—twice—to win new full-time jobs and contract gains for 10,000 Teamsters at UPS.

Chicago Local 705 Teamsters are proud of their local’s independence and power. The 10,000 UPS Teamsters in Local 705 are covered by a separate agreement from the national UPS contract.

Twice over the past year, Local 705 used strike threats against UPS to deliver gains for working Teamsters.

The first strike threat brought a multi-year campaign against supervisors working to a victorious conclusion.

Over a three-year period, Local 705 business agents and shop stewards won a total of 4,000 to 5,000 grievances—including 700-plus grievance settlements where the company agreed to cease and desist from having supervisors work.

The Local 705 contract gives the local the right to strike if UPS does not comply with grievance resolutions.

When supervisors continued to work despite the “cease and desist” agreements, Local 705 smacked UPS with a 72-hour notice that the union would strike UPS for its failure to abide by grievance decisions. The strike threat brought the company to the table to seriously negotiate the creation of additional jobs.

As a result, Local 705 forced UPS to create new package car and part-time jobs and to curb future supervisors working violations.

Contract Talks Go to the Wire

The second strike threat came before Aug. 1, 2008, the day of the expiration of Local 705’s contract with UPS. Local 705 did not settle early when the International Union did but used the contract expiration deadline to maximize their bargaining leverage.

The local printed up T-shirts that said, “August 1, We’re Done.”

More than three thousand Local 705 members turned out to the union hall to participate in a vote to authorize a strike against UPS. Five hundred members were lined up at 9:00 a.m. when the doors opened to start the voting. Balloting continued until 5 p.m.

Members voted to authorize a strike should one be necessary by an overwhelming margin of 2,993 to 232.

The union bargained down to the wire, negotiating to the last day before expiration. Management was forced to start diverting packages away from Chicago, and major shippers were near to canceling shipping contracts.

The union also put nearly 200 deadlocked grievances on the table, to end management stonewalling.

On the last day of negotiations, the company dropped its hard-line approach and agreed to some key union demands.

A priority union goal was to win stronger contract language, and Local 705 won improvements on such issues as seniority and bidding rights, air operation and an improved grievance procedure.

Members won an extra personal day off each year, and an extra week vacation (8 weeks total) at 30 years seniority. The contract also delivered a large number of new feeder shuttle jobs.

December 11, 2008: The Central States Pension Fund has lost $9.8 billion in assets during 2008, according to a report from CSPF Director Thomas Nyhan.

As of Nov. 30, 2008, the fund’s assets were $17 billion. That is $4 billion down from the Sept. 30, 2008 figure, which we published in November.

Nyhan notes that the fund has lost 32 percent on its investment portfolio during 2008. Most pension funds, along with 401(k)s and other accounts that hold stocks and bonds, have lost similar percentages.

In the Winter edition of the fund’s Teamwork newsletter, Nyhan indicates that participants should “keep a long term perspective” and that history teaches us that the “financial markets will recover and investment values will return.”

Central States is much more dependent on investment returns than on a steady stream of employer contributions. That’s because last December, the IBT leadership allowed UPS to exit the Central States Plan, and UPS Freight was organized but not brought into Teamster pension plans.

Congress has spending billions to bail out Wall Street—but they have not taken steps to protect our pensions. Now is time for the Teamsters and the whole labor movement to launch a campaign to protect the pensions that millions of American workers are counting on.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) will be there to join and advance this movement.

Click here to read the text of Nyhan's memo to CSPF staff on the fund and the state of the economy and prospects for the future.

What do you think our union should do to protect our pensions? Click here to send a comment to Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

December 9, 2008: Ballots are out and YRCW Teamsters are voting on concessions under the threat of the company going into bankruptcy. How did we get to this point?

The International Union today mailed out some 40,000 ballots to Yellow Roadway Corporation Teamsters on whether or not to accept a 10 percent wage cut for more than four years. The decision is in the hands of Teamster members.

Teamsters are angry and bitter at corporate mismanagement and the Hoffa administration blunders that have put us in this hole. Many believe at this point we have little choice but to take the concessions. YRCW Teamsters are voting with a gun to their heads.

The ballots will be counted on Dec. 30. Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) is working to have independent member-observers at the count, to ensure a fair vote.

How Did We Get Here?

YRCW management has taken three well-run companies and driven them to the brink of failure.

The recession has affected every trucking company to one degree or another— including nonunion ones like Con-Way and Old Dominion. But the company’s problems go well beyond the economy.

ABF has the same labor costs as YRC, but it is debt-free and well-managed. There was no concessions-talk coming from ABF management until YRCW opened the door. But YRCW—mismanaged and leveraged to its eyeballs—has gone into crisis.

It’s time for Zollars and the top management team at YRCW to admit their mistakes—and to be held accountable for their failed leadership. The same thing goes for the Hoffa administration.

Need to Look at Our Own House

Hoffa came into office promising to Restore Teamster Power, improve our pensions, and to organize the nonunion competition. Many freight Teamsters supported him back then. But by now it is clear the Hoffa administration is never going to deliver on these promises.

When YRC demanded concessions, the Hoffa administration rubber-stamped the company’s plan and agreed to a deal with no snap-back clause to phase out the wage cuts if and when YRCW returns to profitability.

After Hoffa’s ten years in office, freight membership is down to 70,000. Tens of thousands of freight Teamsters have suffered pension cuts and reductions in our retiree healthcare. Our wages and benefits are moving backwards.

The Hoffa administration did organize UPS Freight, which was a step forward. But they gave UPS Freight a substandard contract that allows the company to continue to undercut YRC. The same contract also keeps UPS Freight employees out of Teamster pension plans.

Maybe worst of all, Hoffa let UPS pull out of the Central States Pension Fund. They did it knowing they were recklessly putting Teamster pensions at risk. If YRC fails, it could jeopardize the pensions of hundreds of thousands of Teamsters.

Where to Now?

Whatever happens on Dec. 30, we need a plan for going forward. For years, freight Teamsters have watched as YRCW officials have mismanaged the company and top union officials have failed to protect our interests.

It’s time for us demand a new direction. For all of the hits we’ve taken, freight Teamsters still have a lot of power, including the power to change the course of our union.

That will only happen if we treat Dec. 30 as a beginning and not the end. Thousands of freight Teamsters feel just like you do. They’re angry about the givebacks; they’re worried about the future. Teamsters for a Democratic Union gives us a tool to work together for change.

The next Teamster election is three years away. If we want to elect new leadership that will fight for us, we need to start getting ourselves organized today.

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

Click here to join Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

Click here if you want to be contacted by a TDU organizer to get more information.

November 14, 2008: Mary Seumaala went on strike in 1997 to win a full-time job at UPS. Now UPS has taken her full-time job away.

It’s time to make UPS deliver for thousands of Teamsters who are being denied full-time jobs in violation of the contract.

Until recently, Mary Seumaala was working full-time at Boeing Field in Seattle. Today, this 18-year Teamster is working four hours or less a day.

With her son in the hospital, Mary was moved to an inferior company medical plan for part-timers.

And Mary is not alone. UPS has laid off forty Article 22.3 Teamsters in Seattle—and hundreds more across the country. In all, UPS is short-changing thousands of Teamsters out of full-time jobs.

Under the contract, UPS is required to maintain a minimum of 20,000 Article 22.3 full-time jobs nationwide. But many of these jobs were never created. Other positions were never posted or filled after they went vacant.

This nationwide contract violation requires a nationally coordinated response. Instead the many grievances that have been filed on this issue are being treated on a case by case basis—and getting bogged down in grievance panels.

As usual the company is using the grievance procedure to stall and delay—rather than resolve the problem.

Hoffa Has the Hammer to Nail Down Full-Time Jobs

Fortunately our International Union has a major weapon that can break through company stonewalling and make UPS deliver the 20,000 full-time jobs guaranteed by our contract.

In the Central Region, the union has the right to strike over deadlocked grievances. When a grievance in the Central Region is deadlocked, the union has the right to strike—and to extend picket lines across the country. (Article 5, Section 3 of the Central Region Supplement.)

President Hoffa has rightly said that the right to strike on grievances gives our union a “Hammer” when the company is violating the contract and deadlocking grievances to avoid resolving the problem. That is exactly what is happening now.

Earlier this year, Chicago Local 705 invoked a similar right in its contract—and put the company on a 72-hour strike notice. UPS immediately came to the table and agreed to create 200 package car jobs and curb future violations of supervisors working.

No strike was necessary. What mattered was that the company knew that Local 705 was prepared to take strike action if necessary. With thousands of Teamsters being denied full-time jobs, our International Union needs to send UPS the same message.

None of us wants to strike. Fortunately, it is extremely doubtful that strike action would be necessary. UPS is not going to provoke a strike at peak season. But management will continue to drag their feet on grievances and deny thousands of Teamsters full-time work—if our union lets them get away with it.

Deliver Justice for the Holidays

UPS is not just refusing to create full-time jobs; they are rubbing the issue in our union’s face.

Under the contract, the company had until February 2008 to give the International Union a complete list of the 20,000 Article 22.3 full-time jobs. It is almost 2009 and the list that UPS has given to the Package Division is incomplete and includes many full-time jobs that do not exist.

Meanwhile the company is laying off long-time Article 22.3 full-timers and forcing them back to part-time. Under the contract, UPS is prohibited from laying off combo Teamsters unless the company is maintaining 20,000 Article 22.3 full-time jobs nationally.

The holidays are here. A recession is on. And our union’s largest employer is denying full-time job opportunities to thousands of Teamsters who have a contractual right to a full-time job.

It’s time to remind top UPS management that we’ve got the hammer and we’re ready to use it.

I Need a Full-Time Job

“I’m a single mom with five kids. I need a full-time job.

“Under the contract, UPS has to maintain 20,000 full-time Article 22.3 jobs and they’re not doing it. In my hub alone, there are dozens of vacant full-time jobs that UPS refuses to fill.

“All we want is for the company to live up to the contract and create the full-time jobs we’re entitled to.

“UPS treats this like a game. But this is no game. These are our lives we’re talking about.”

Nicole Halliday, Local 150, Sacramento

November 28, 2008: Under the contract UPS had to give the International a list of the 20,000 Article 22.3 jobs the company claims it will maintain.

Our local union got a copy of that list from the IBT Package Division. My Steward Alternate and I found 11 jobs on the list that exist only on paper. That list includes workers that have moved to package car or feeder jobs. That list even includes workers that have quit or been fired.

These 11 jobs are in my work area alone. I expect that other stewards will identify another dozen or more unfilled Article 22.3 jobs in other shifts and buildings. These are full-time jobs that belong to working Teamsters.

Some of these full-time jobs have been vacant for more than a year. During the same period, UPS has double shifted about 30 part-time workers to help cover the vacant jobs.

UPS Teamsters across the country should be asking our locals to contact the International Union and get the list of full-time Article 22.3 jobs the company claims it has created in your area so we can document all the missing jobs.

We’ve got to push our locals and the International Union to make UPS deliver every one of the 20,000 full-time jobs we are owed under the contract.

Sam Bucalo, Elected Steward Local 100, Cincinnati