Information and unity build power. TDU is providing both to Teamsters at UPS.
TDU and our Make UPS Deliver website has been the leading source of information for UPS Teamsters fighting for a good contract.

While many UPS Teamsters are involved, the TDU UPS network is the only national force in our union that is producing contract bulletins and mobilizing to beat the concessions at UPS and win the contract that members deserve.

That's why so many concerned UPS Teamsters are joining TDU now. Join TDU today to build the national movement against the concessions and to win the contract that members deserve.

Click Here to Join TDU Today: $40 Annual Membership for Full-Timers; $25 Membership for Part-Timers.

Membership includes a subscription to TDU's newspaper, Convoy Dispatch, and a copy of Rank & File Power at UPS, a book about the achievements of TDU's UPS Network from 1976 through the 1997 UPS Strike.

Make UPS put a better offer on the table. Click here to download new flyers from Make UPS Deliver.

Click here to download the new flyers at MakeUPSDeliver.org.

North Carolina Flyers

October 22, 2007: UPS Teamsters across the country are passing out leaflets and spreading the word to mobilize against the historic givebacks in the proposed UPS contract.

The National Negotiating Committee kept UPS Teamsters in the dark for more than a year about what's being discussed at the bargaining table. Now they are putting their concessionary deal to a vote on an accelerated schedule. Ballots will go out by Oct. 26 and be counted Nov. 15.

The company, the International Union and most local union officials are all selling the proposed contract which gives UPS historic concessions.

But rank-and-file Teamsters are informing members about the givebacks and mobilizing to send our negotiators back to the bargaining table. UPS made more than $4 billion in profits last year. We have not seen the corporation's best offer yet.

The Make UPS Deliver website, launched by Teamsters for a Democratic Union, has been the leading source of information for this growing movement.

While many UPS Teamsters are involved, the TDU UPS network is the only national force in our union that is producing contract bulletins and mobilizing to beat the concessions at UPS and win the contract that members deserve.

That's why so many concerned UPS Teamsters any joining TDU today. Information and unity build power. TDU is providing both to Teamsters at UPS.

Join TDU today to build the national movement against the concessions and to win the contract that members deserve.

Click Here to Join TDU today: $40 Annual Membership for Full-Timers; $25 Membership for Part-Timers

Membership includes a subscription to TDU's newspaper, Convoy Dispatch, and a copy of Rank & File Power at UPS, a book about the achievements of TDU's UPS Network from 1976 through the 1997 UPS Strike.


Click here to download contract bulletins and the tentative contract.

UPS Supplements

Informative bulletins on the proposed tentative UPS agreement are now available at Make UPS Deliver. Click here to check them out.

Click here to download the bulletins at MakeUPSDeliver.org.

October 17, 2007: UPS entered into early negotiations with our union more than one year ago because shippers and stockholders were pressuring the corporation to reach an early settlement.

That pressure gave our union leverage. Did our negotiators use it to make UPS deliver?

Has the company put its best offer on the table?

Those questions are now in the hands of Teamsters at UPS, who have until Nov. 16 to cast their votes on the tentative national deal as well as supplements and riders.

The negotiations with UPS were the most secretive in Teamster history. Our union leaders kept a tight lid on what was being discussed in bargaining and never mobilized Teamster members.

The tentative agreement they are putting to a vote contains $9 an hour in combined wage and pension improvements for full-timers as well as historic concessions that give back the pension victory and new full-time jobs we won in the 1997 strike.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) launched Make UPS Deliver campaign to keep members informed and to unite concerned Teamsters to pressure UPS and our union negotiators to deliver the contract that members deserve.

Teamsters across the country are downloading and distributing contract bulletins and other information from www.MakeUPSDeliver.org, holding rank-and-file meetings, and taking action to make sure UPS Teamsters cast an informed vote on the proposed early deal.

October 17, 2007: The most secretive negotiations in Teamster history have produced controversial agreements with UPS and UPS Freight.

The agreements raise new questions about our union’s bargaining strategies just as negotiations are getting underway with freight employers and DHL.

UPS and our union have inked a tentative early deal that delivers $9 an hour in wage and benefit improvements for full-timers over five years—but also includes monumental concessions.

If approved, the contract would allow UPS to break 44,000 Teamsters out of the Central States pension plan. It would also put an end to the creation of the new full-time jobs we first won in the 1997 UPS strike along with numerous other givebacks.

President Hoffa and chief negotiator Ken Hall made these historic givebacks in exchange for a deal that will make it easier to organize UPS Freight—something our union can and must do.

Our union needs to organize the nonunion competition, win strong contracts and good pensions.

The 1997 UPS contract campaign showed we can do this from a position of strength, by mobilizing Teamster members and public support to win our demands without givebacks.

The Hoffa administration has chosen a different route: using secret talks to trade away historic union gains in exchange for what the company is willing to offer.

Teamsters who have doubts about this strategy need to get united. Contact TDU today about how we can work together to rebuild Teamster Power.

Click here to read more about UPS bargaining.

Click here to read more about DHL negotiations.

Click here to read about the new freight proposals.

October 17, 2007: When the proposed UPS tentative agreement was presented to Local Union officials, the big selling point was “$9 an hour,” which sounds like a big increase in wages and benefits.

Five dollars out of this goes to full-timers’ benefits. That should be enough to maintain health and welfare, and in some areas, pension accruals will go up. That’s the most positive part of the monetary deal.

Here are other facts to consider when evaluating the monetary package.

• The $9 is actually a lower percentage increase than the last agreement: 4.4 percent per year for full-timers, compared to 4.6 percent in the last agreement. And the last agreement didn’t have all the concessions to go with it.
• The wage increases are less than the last contract, and will be split so half the increase is held back six months. August 1 this year the increase was $1. Next August it will be 35¢, with another 35¢ in February 2009.
• UPS gets big monetary givebacks in the tentative deal. One is giving away the creation of 10,000 combo jobs, so no new full-time combos will be created.
• For part-timers—the majority of UPS Teamsters, the monetary package is nothing like $9/hour. Part-timers’ pensions are cheap and their healthcare benefits are actually cut. This is not balanced out on the wage end where the starting rate is frozen and the progression goes up by just 50¢ over the next six years.

In a contract riddled with givebacks, no one was hit harder then UPS part-timers.

The proposed tentative agreement offers a wage package that is substantially inferior to the “Best Contract Ever,” opens the door to healthcare cuts for current and future part-timers, and eliminates the 10,000 new combo jobs that offer part-timers a shot at a better future.

These concessions don’t just hurt part-timers—the lowest-paid and most exploited Teamsters at UPS. They undermine the strength of our union as a whole, by ensuring that the majority of Teamsters at UPS are low-wage workers.

By 2013, tens of thousands of UPS Teamsters very likely will be making the legal minimum wage, which by then will pass $8.50 with no benefits for a year—and they will be asked to pay union dues and an initiation fee. This is bad for part-timers and bad for our union.

Full-timers and part-timers alike have a stake in beating these givebacks.

Thee language changes affecting part-timers include:

Wages

Part-timers will have to wait until Aug. 1, 2008 to get a raise of just 35¢. By comparison, under the current contract, part-timers got a raise this August of $1.20. A second 35¢ raise won’t be paid until Feb. 1, 2009.

The 2002 contract paid an extra $1 in wage increases for part-timers over the life of the contract to slightly close the gap between part-timers and full-time pay.

This contract widens the gap, by eliminating the booster raises for part-timers and freezing starting pay at $8.50.

Part-time pay will go up to $9.50 after 90 days ($10.50 for sorters on the preload only). This is a 50¢ increase from the 2002 contract. This amount will also be frozen until 2013.

Healthcare Cuts

Under the tentative agreement, new part-timers will not get healthcare benefits in their first year on the job and will have to wait 18 months for family coverage.

The tentative agreement also eliminates all contract protections that guarantee that part-timers benefits will be equal to full-timers’ benefits. (See Article 34, Section 2). All part-timers will be moved into a company health plan.

This may not affect benefits immediately, but it will open the door for the company to make cuts in the future. If healthcare costs continue to rise, we no longer would have contract language to stop UPS from cutting benefits—something that corporations have been doing across the country.

Other Benefits

The tentative national agreement would eliminate all sick days, holidays, vacation days and personal days for part-timers in their first year of service.

Part-timers in the company’s pension plan would accrue $60 in monthly pension benefits for every year of part-time service. (Part-timers in the West, New England and Upstate New York are in Teamster plans with superior benefits).

No New Full-Time Jobs

The tentative agreement gives away the language in Article 22.3 that requires the company to create 10,000 new combo jobs by combining existing part-time jobs.

This language creates more full-time job opportunities for part-timers and increases the percentage of full-time jobs at the company, which gives us more power as a union. Why give it away?