When UPS bought Menlo Forwarding it gave our union the chance to bring hundreds of Teamsters under the protection of the UPS Master Agreement. Menlo was a stepchild of the freight contract. Though doing essentially the same work as freight Teamsters, Menlo workers made significantly less and were scattered under local agreements.

Local Agreements Leave Many With Low Wages & Poor Benefits
The good news is that all Menlo (now called CSI) contracts will expire at the same time as the 2002-2008 UPS contract, enhancing bargaining power.

The less than good news is although Menlo/CSI Teamsters now work for highly-profitable United Parcel Service, their wages and conditions will continue to be set by the inferior local contracts.

For example, wages for Menlo workers under one of the best contracts, in Chicago, are just under $21.00 per hour. Wages under other contracts are well below that figure and in some cases ten dollars behind UPS wage rates.

Under the new UPS-CSI Supplement, wages will continue to be set by dozens of local agreements. One result: the number of wage rates at UPS will now balloon even further. Menlo CSI workers will get three-percent annual wage increases. Likewise, benefits will continue to be tied to whatever was in the old local contracts.

There is no catch-up provision to bring lower-paid CSI Teamsters closer to the national contract scale, and no provision to bring all employees into our Teamster plans.

The real battle for parity for Menlo/CSI Teamsters has been postponed and will now take place during the 2008 bargaining.

The $1,000 signing bonus is a bad omen for the 2008 UPS contract. UPS has tried this trick in years past to win approval for substandard agreements.

Danger of Subcontracting
CSI joins the growing constellation of UPS divisions. What exactly is its relationship to the UPS that employs Teamsters? What protections are in place to protect CSI Teamsters from loss of work to nonunion operations? CSI is actually a vendor for UPS Supply Chain Solutions (SCS). One manager referred to CSI as only a “preferred vendor,” which means that SCS is free to switch to others.

This fear is real: the agreement exempts CSI units from protection under subcontracting protections in Articles 1and 32 of the master UPS agreement.

It appears that James Hoffa and Ken Hall have failed to use the power of our union to win strong contract protections for Teamster members and to extend the UPS national contract to new UPS divisions. That challenge lies ahead.

“Over 2,000 new jobs created” the Teamster magazine cover trumpets. Read on and we learn that these jobs came about as a result of the IBT “turning up the heat” on UPS over subcontracting and other violations.

Turning up the heat could be welcome, but is that really the case or is this just because of the International Union election this year? The contract has been in effect for three and a half years, so why has it taken so long?

Members, stewards and officers on the ground know the real story.

“FedEx is kicking UPS’ butt in some corridors,” Kansas City feeder driver Michael Savwoir explained. “This is about improved time in transit, that is where feeder jobs are coming from.”

For some time now UPS has been shifting volume off rail and onto trucks. Rail congestion and delays are one reason for the move. Another reason is the trend within the trucking industry to offer shippers ever-tighter transit time guarantees. A royal battle has resulted, with freight and small package trucking companies competing over this profitable sector of the market.

In Atlanta, UPS is adding 60 feeder positions, most as a result of a shift from rail to truck. UPS is also shifting its feeder network in the Northeast. Work is moving from the Alexandria, Va., rail facility to Parsippany, N.J., where numerous feeder jobs will be created. Providence, R.I., is also picking up feeder positions.

In the Midwest, UPS has added sleeper and mileage runs in the Kansas City area, including a 682-mile turn to Dallas. The Earth City building in St. Louis is getting new mileage runs.

“While hard to track fully, subcontracting is basically the same,” Savwoir said. “Members and stewards in many areas have kept the heat on UPS and the IBT about the problem for years. By getting better at documenting subcontracting, stewards in some areas are winning monetary settlements on grievances. But UPS still subcontracts.”

Some subcontracting grievances have been won, and every victory is welcome. But it will take a lot more of that to end the subcontracting. In some areas UPS is routinely using Mail Contractors of America to move trailers from rail yards to UPS buildings. Grievances are still pending over this contract violation.

Sometimes what is missing tells an important part of the story. A related issue, not mentioned in the Teamster magazine, is how and when UPS plans to integrate nonunion Overnite Transportation into its operation. Trucking analysts note that in the long run, it makes no sense to keep the operations separate. FedEx has been very successful in integrating its freight, package and air operations.

The Teamster leadership needs a plan to bring all UPS divisions into our union.

The growing number of mileage and sleeper runs, and their effect on the whole feeder operation is another issue for the future. UPS has a long-term plan for transforming the way feeder work is done.

Global Warming 2006: UPS Teamsters need to brace themselves for a major warming trend in 2006. Hoffa’s PR machine has started pumping hot air. The forecast for 2006, at least until the IBT election, is for the hot, sticky conditions to continue. The only relief will be an organized and informed Teamster membership.

Gold! Rumors of gold! It was said to be everywhere! According to Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, “Fortune lies upon the surface of the earth as plentiful as the mud in our streets.”

So began the historic California Gold Rush of the late 1840s and 1850s. Most came away with nothing more than fool’s gold.

History repeats itself.

This time the promise of gold has hit UPS facilities in the form of a rogue group called APWA (The Association of Parcel Workers of America). This group intends to be a “UPS Only” union that promises equal or better pensions and better health coverage than what we currently have.

If this doesn’t sound like gold, I don’t know what does!

I caution you not to be fooled by their glam and glitz. The APWA has retained attorney Tom Coleman, the former Chairman of the CUE Labor Lawyers Advisory Committee. CUE stands for “Council on Union-Free Environment.”

The group is comprised primarily of business and industry executives. It is quite clear that a growing number of Teamsters are not content with the current direction of our union. The answer, however, is not to take your ball and go home.

The answer is as simple as this: get involved in the union you currently have. Would you consider exchanging our Teamsters Union for an upstart antiunion association? If you even consider this exchange, realize that you will end up with nothing but empty promises and a much bigger set of problems.

The APWA is “prospecting for gold” and I encourage you to see this for what it is: a slick and alluring effort at union-busting.

Ever since UPS announced it would buy Overnite Transportation, the Hoffa administration has been promising to unveil a “comprehensive plan to both organize Overnite and win a good contract.” Teamster members and officers are still waiting. Nine months have passed. During that time, Hoffa has issued six press releases trumpeting plans, meetings, and the union’s “renewed commitment to organizing Overnite.” Last June, the IBT called Teamster leaders from every UPS local to Chicago for a national meeting where Overnite was to be at the top of the agenda. No organizing plans were announced at the meeting, and no plans have been put in motion since—just four more press releases. In the meantime, UPS management is moving ahead with plans of its own—and those plans do not include Teamster representation at Overnite. “We believe it is important to stay nonunion,” said CEO Leo Suggs. UPS management is backing up its plans with actions—buying Overnite, changing its name, purchasing new equipment, cross-training its sales force, and integrating nonunion operations into the Teamsters’ largest employer. This threat to Teamsters at UPS and freight—and to our union’s benefit plans—needs to be met with more than press releases. It’s time for less talk and more action.

Six months after buying Overnite Transportation, UPS unveiled its plan on Feb. 28 to change Overnite’s name to UPS Freight. The company’s equipment will sport a new logo that combines Overnite’s with the UPS brown. “Overnite Goes Brown” screamed the headlines in the trucking press. But this change is about a lot more than looks and a logo. The launching of UPS Freight is part of a long-term plan by UPS management to wed a nonunion freight company with its existing Teamster parcel delivery operations. The goal is to bring customers a “single-source provider for any transportation need,” says Overnite CEO Leo Suggs. The sales force for UPS and UPS Freight will cross-sell a combined “transportation package” of both freight and package services. UPS Freight drivers will soon start using the UPS DIAD, the Delivery Information Acquisition Device that Big Brown is famous for. But that synergy stops at the union hall door, say industry analysts. “UPS Freight’s key competitors are nonunion companies,” Suggs told Traffic World. “So, we believe it is important to stay nonunion.” Allowing UPS Freight to remain nonunion could mean the end of Teamster power in the trucking industry. We can’t maintain union standards in the freight industry if the most profitable transportation company in the world, UPS, is bankrolling and growing a major nonunion carrier. And we can’t maintain our bargaining power at UPS if management can use a nonunion division to undercut us. Management is clear about its plans to keep UPS Freight nonunion and integrate it into the core of the UPS operation. Our International needs to be just as clear with an action plan to organize UPS wall-to-wall. The Hoffa administration has been promising to unveil its plans for months. In the meantime, UPS management is charging ahead. Overnite has gone brown. It’s time for our union to go after Overnite. Click Here: The Road Ahead Runs Through UPS Freight Click Here: PR Won't Organize UPS Freight