Central States Fund Expands to $21 Billion
April 2, 2007: The Central States Pension Fund ended 2006 with a $1.4 billion gain in assets, reaching $20.7 billion—up from just $15 billion a few years ago. The fund projects that by the end of 2007, assets will be up to $21.2 billion, with expected investment returns. With better returns, the Fund projects that they will surpass $22 billion.
These figures are in the fund’s Financial and Analytical Reports obtained by TDU in February 2007.
This big gain in assets at Central States shows the impact of benefit accrual cuts imposed on members, and diversion of money from health and welfare to the pension fund for the third year in a row.
In addition, 2006 was a good year for investors, with the Fund’s investments earning 14.5 percent.
What Will it Take To Restore Benefits?
Last fall, UPS chief negotiator Ken Hall met with representatives from the Central States and other Teamster funds to get briefed on what it will take to protect and improve our benefits over the life of the UPS contract. The same figures will apply to the 2008 National Master Freight Agreement.
To date, that information has been kept secret from the members.
In December, the fund informed all Locals that all new contracts negotiated must contain eight percent annual increases in pension contributions, or those members will be kicked out of fund participation.
This mean that in the UPS contract there must be pension contributions of at least 40¢ per hour the first year, then 50¢, and then 60¢ by the fifth year if the contract is that long. These are minimums required to stay in the fund, not to restore benefit cuts.
UPS Teamsters have started a petition drive to stand up for our benefits.Members Launch Petition for Retirement Security
The new rule means that UPS and freight employers will pay record contributions in the 2008 contracts. But so far only top officials at the IBT and Central States (and management) know how much we need to bargain to improve our benefits.
Some Central States Teamsters at UPS have started a petition drive to demand this information and to stand up for our benefits.
The “United to Win Strong Pensions” petition states, “UPSers work hard and we deserve strong pensions, not cuts. We will not vote to approve any contract unless it delivers the retirement security we were promised in 2002.”
The petition puts forward a program that Central States Teamsters can unite around:
- Immediately restore affordable retiree healthcare
- Give Central States Teamsters a timetable for full restoration of the 2003 pension cuts
- Inform members in writing what our benefits will be before we vote on any contract
- Include part-timers in our pension fund to improve benefits for full and part-timers alike
- Reasonable reemployment rules adopted by the Central States Pension Fund
Click here to download the petition.
Click here to download the bulletin.
UPS Feeder Drivers Demand Snow Plan
April 2, 2007: After a late-winter blizzard pounded the Midwest, Feeder Drivers in the Kansas City area are asking UPS management to institute an emergency road plan for winter weather conditions. Road drivers are fed-up with a policy that intimidates and coerces operations in impossible or hazardous winter storm conditions.
UPS drivers are routinely forced into winter storms, even blizzard conditions, under threat of firing (for job abandonment). Then, if there is an accident, the driver could be fired as well. You’re “damned if ya’ do and damned if ya’ don’t”! We call for a policy to protect the safety of our employees as well as the motoring public.
Emergency plans for building operations, i.e. fire, tornado, earthquake, etc. are an acceptable and necessary requirement (OSHA-mandated) of business operations. Why should we who work our nation’s highways accept anything less?
We’re asking for a reasonable policy that gives discretion to drivers to pull off the road in dangerous conditions. Presently drivers have to rely on outside help (such as Paul Taylor of the Truckers Justice Center, and TDU), or collective self-help (if many drivers refuse to operate in unsafe conditions, they are a lot more protected). UPS has professional drivers; they should treat them accordingly when it comes to highway safety in dangerous conditions.
To get a copy of Paul Taylor’s article on your rights in snowy weather, contact TDU: (313) 842-2600 or click here to send a message.
—Michael Savwoir is a UPS feeder driver in Local 41 in Kansas City, Mo.
Funds Have Told Hoffa What We Need to Win in Bargaining to Increase Benefits
April 2, 2007: President James Hoffa has been briefed by the different Teamster benefit funds on what we need to win in the UPS and freight contracts to increase our benefits. This information needs to be shared with Teamster members.
In 2002 and 2003, Teamsters were promised that our benefits would be secure for the life of the UPS, freight and carhaul contracts.
Later, court documents revealed that the Central States Pension Fund repeatedly warned President Hoffa during the UPS negotiations that Teamsters would face severe cuts if sufficient benefit contributions were not negotiated.
Members were never told about these warnings or what we needed to negotiate to avoid the cuts. This year members need to be informed.
Hoffa knows what we need to win in bargaining to pay for benefit improvements in the different funds that cover Teamsters at UPS and in freight. Management has the same information.
The only possible reason to keep members in the dark is to give our negotiators room to settle short again.
This is our contract and these are our benefits. It's time for Hoffa to tell us what benefit contribution levels we need to win in our 2008 contracts.
Get Informed in a Pension Rights Workshop
March 19, 2007: The attack on our pensions began while the ink was still drying on Hoffa’s promise that our benefits would be secure under the ‘Best Contract Ever.’ First came the pension cuts in 2003. Then the misnamed Pension Protection Act.
After three years of attacks, contract negotiations give us the chance go on the offensive and win the pension improvements we need.
To help Teamsters make the most of this opportunity, Make UPS Deliver will be helping to organize meetings and workshops to bring UPS Teamsters and pension experts together to talk about:
?What's at Stake in UPS Bargaining—and What Can Be Won
?How the Pension Protection Act Will Affect Our Benefit Funds
?What Teamsters at UPS Can Do To Protect and Improve Our Pensions
Every Teamster benefit fund has been affected differently by the attack on our retirement security. Teamsters in the Central States, for example, face specific challenges based on new policies adopted by the fund after the 2003 cuts and the agreement trustees made last year with the IRS. Other funds face different issues.
Each workshop will address the particular issues affecting your pension fund—the challenges that apply as well as the opportunities to win improvements.
Now is the time to act. The next UPS and freight contracts will determine the future of our Teamster benefits for years to come. Get informed. Know your rights. And get involved. Your participation now can make the difference.
This article is from Make UPS Deliver. Click here to visit MakeUPSDeliver.org.
New Make UPS Deliver Bulletin Available
March 19, 2007: Six months have passed since our union kicked off bargaining with UPS. Early bargaining has now lasted longer than the entire 2002 talks—and we’re still being kept in the dark.
Here's how you can help.
Download the new bulletin to put pressure on the International Union to end the news blackout.
Download an email sign-up sheet to build our rank-and-file network.
Info Blackout Continues Six Months Into UPS Talks
Our union has now been in intensive negotiations with the company for nearly three months. During that time, the IBT has issued just two bulletins. Each one has told us nothing, except when the next bargaining dates are. That’s not acceptable—not when our pensions, benefits, wages and workplace rights for the next five years are on the line.Never before have Teamster members been kept this deep in the dark. Negotiations do not need to be held behind closed doors—unless there's a reason to hide what's being discussed.
March 30th Deadline Looms
In January, lead negotiator Ken Hall announced that he has no intention of meeting with the company past March 30. That’s two weeks away and Teamsters at UPS have not gotten a single meaningful report from our negotiators on
?The key issues that are being negotiated
?What progress has been made on language issues and where UPS is opposing the improvements we need
?What our union is demanding to protect and improve our pensions and benefits and what the company’s response has been
Reportedly, our union negotiating committee and UPS have not even exchanged proposals on pensions and healthcare. That’s strange because both Hall and General President Hoffa repeatedly pledged that, “We will tackle these critical issues before addressing other key issues such as work rules, safety and wages.” (President Hoffa, Teamsters Kick Off Negotiations for National UPS Contract, 9/19/2006).
No Info and No Action
UPS is making record profits and stockholders are pushing for an early settlement, preferably before the company’s 100-year anniversary on August 28. We have leverage to strengthen our pensions and our rights on the job on a host of issues: excessive overtime, subcontracting, fairness for 22.3s and part-timers, and more.
Management needs to see that members are informed and involved and ready to take action if we have to. Six months into the 2002 negotiations, our union had already held more than 50 rallies plus a nationwide truck caravan. And that was 2002, which by any measure was quiet compared to our contract campaign in 1997.
The current negotiations have now lasted longer than the entire 2002 talks—and the IBT has not sponsored a single rally, petition, sticker day or unity-building activity of any kind.
According to officials familiar with the talks, UPS is taking a hard line. This is all the more reason our union needs to be informing us about what’s going on and organizing actions at the hubs and centers to demonstrate to the company that we won’t settle short again.
Make UPS Deliver
The Make UPS Deliver campaign was launched to inform and unite UPS Teamsters to win the contract we deserve.
We’re prepared to get behind any campaign by the International Union to mobilize Teamsters at UPS and increase our bargaining leverage. But we can’t afford to wait for Hoffa and Hall. That’s why Make UPS Deliver will continue to build our rank-and-file campaign, to spread the word and to arm Teamsters with the information we need to win a strong contract.
We need your help building our information network. Sign your co-workers up to receive email updates. The bigger our network, the bigger the impact we can have.
Download an email update sheet.
Make UPS Deliver
"We can't sit back and leave it to Hoffa and Hall. Members need to be informed, united and involved. TDU's UPS network is our tool for making that happen."
Darwin Moore, Local 243 Steward, Detroit
Contact our rank-and-file network at UPS.
UPS Teamsters in Milwaukee sign a Make UPS Deliver banner.Make UPS Deliver
Make UPS Deliver is a national network of UPS Teamsters working together to win the contract we deserve.
Click here to visit MakeUPSDeliver.org.
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Record Profits Mean We Can't Afford to Settle Short Again
February 27, 2007: UPS's record profits guarantee that our next contract will be the richest in Teamstser History. But we learned last time that money doesn't make the "Best Contract Ever." This time, we can't be fooled by the dollar signs.
UPS reported more good economic news last month. The money is there to pay to restore our benefits and address the many quality of worklife problems at Big Brown.
UPS reported a profit of $1.13 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006. The results were 7.5 percent better than 2005’s fourth quarter. Overall, UPS took in a record $47.55 billion in revenue and $4.2 billion in after-tax profits last year.
Brown’s profits are up by more than 70 percent under the “Best Contract (for UPS) Ever.”
“The best news about UPS is they have money,” General President Hoffa told representatives from every UPS local at a meeting of the two-person committee in October. Hoffa said that the 2002 contract was worth almost $10 billion and bragged, “We’re going to set a record this time.”
Unlike most Hoffa promises, that’s one that you can take to the bank. Given the company’s record profits, our next UPS contract is guaranteed to be the richest in Teamster history.
The question is will UPS put enough of its record profits on the table to end the cuts in Teamsters’ pensions and retiree healthcare—and improve our benefits for the future? And will we win the stronger contract language (and tougher enforcement) we need to resolve chronic problems like excessive overtime, supervisors working, more full-time jobs, and fairness for combo workers and part-timers?
That’s how we’ve got to measure any contract put before us for a vote.
If a contract offer falls short of these goals, why would we settle early? We’re going to have to live with our next contract for years to come.
If that takes bargaining through 2008 to win lasting solutions, that’s what we should do.
Martin Luther King Holiday: Why Not Now?
March 5, 2007: On Jan. 15, Local 728 proudly joined in the Martin Luther King Day march here in Atlanta, Dr. King’s home and also the headquarters of UPS.
It’s time for UPS to recognize the Martin Luther King holiday that our country celebrates, but too many corporations ignore. If we win this at UPS, we can take that win to lots of other Teamster employers.
One of UPS’s two big competitors, the Postal Service, already observes this holiday. If UPS were to come on board, pressure could then be put on FedEx to do the same. There would be no competitive disadvantage at all to UPS.
It’s time to recognize Dr. King and the nonviolent struggle for equality for all Americans. Furthermore, how long has it been since we won a single new holiday in our contract?
To our union negotiators: this is an easy one. Please do the right thing, and insist on the holiday in the UPS contract.
Eric Robertson
Local 728 Business Representative
Atlanta
New York UPSers Respond Angrily to Pension Cuts
Hit by a 30 percent pension cut, many New York Local 804 Teamsters feel it’s time to fight back.
Local 804 President and fund trustee Howie Redmond voted against the cuts, but never informed members that UPS management was seeking cuts.
“Local 804’s officers certainly knew we had a problem and that management wanted cuts. Why was that hidden from the members?” said Local 804 alternate steward Jim Reynolds. “Now they’re going to blame everyone but themselves. Respect and responsibility come from what is done, not what is said.”
“Local 804 officials have said ‘our pension is sacred’ so what’s happened is sacrilege,” Reynolds said.
The announcement was kept under wraps until Nov. 30, just after the Local 804 election and the International election. Could that be a coincidence?
Local 804 officers say the cuts affect them, too. True, but they don’t mention that they are covered by at least two pension plans plus a 401(k).
“Howie is on the national negotiating committee that right now is supposedly negotiating to protect our pensions. We’re always told how powerful he is,” Reynolds said. “But when our pensions were on the line, he and Hoffa and Hall came up empty-handed.”
“If Local 804 members want to reverse these cuts, we better stand up for ourselves and get involved,” Reynolds said. He suggests that members turn out in force for the union general meeting Sun., Dec. 17.