March 19, 2010: The decisions from the first meeting of the National Grievance panel of 2010 are now available from TDU.

The most common grievance at the panel dealt with Article 22.3 and the company’s elimination of full-time combo jobs we won in the 1997 strike.

Members across the country have filed grievances to save thousands of full-time combo positions that the company is eliminating in violation of the contract. The national panel did not hear any of these cases in 2009. Hoffa and Hall kept that streak intact at the first panel of 2010.

More than twenty Article 22.3 grievances were put on “committee hold.” None were heard.

Click here to download the minutes of the March national grievance panel.

Click here to read more TDU coverage of full-time combo job elimination.

UPDATED March 10, 2010. The results are back from the March UPS Freight national grievance panel, but they aren’t pretty. Out of 27 grievances heard, the union won only five cases.

The union referred back five more grievances for the local to resolve with the company. The panel postponed or put on hold 36 more grievances.

After three days in Ft. Lauderdale, the union has little to show for its time except for a few small monetary victories. The largest victory by far was in a case where the company will pay nine days of back pay.

The panel deadlocked an important Article 44 grievance from Dallas that challenges the use of rail. Now the union can choose to take that grievance to arbitration.

Click here to download the minutes of the UPS Freight panel.

Subcontracting

Over 40 subcontracting grievances were on the docket for this panel, but the union only took action in three cases involving rail, not cases of subcontracting involving nonunion carriers.

Fourteen subcontracting grievances were withdrawn, five were postponed, and 12 were put on committee hold. Three subcontracting grievances were scheduled on the docket “in error.”

At the end of the panel, the union announced that it will take a “lead case” on subcontracting from Dallas Local 745 to arbitration.

In a press release, Ken Hall, the International Vice President in charge of contract enforcement at UPS Freight, said the national grievance committee is doing “an outstanding job” on the issue and the lack of progress on reducing subcontracting is “absolutely not their fault.”

Hall is encouraging members to document cases of subcontracting and file grievances under Article 44.

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

Click here to download the minutes of the UPS Freight panel.

February 26, 2010: UPS is fighting a grievance all the way to the national panel over a supervisor who urinated in the back of a package car during a driver’s OJS.

Is this sup not up to speed on UPS methods? Or does anything go if it helps hike up a driver’s SPORH? You be the judge.

The first national grievance panel of the year is March 1 to 5 in Ft. Lauderdale.

TDU makes the docket and minutes of national grievance panels available. Click here to see them.

February 24, 2010: The first National Grievance Panel of 2010 runs March 1-5 in Ft Lauderdale.

Click here to read the docket of cases that will be heard.

The UPS National Grievance Committee settles national disputes and other grievances that have been deadlocked at both the local and regional levels.

January 18, 2010: The first UPS national panel will be in Ft. Lauderdale, March 1-3, at the Westin Beach Resort. The other panels are scheduled for June 7-9 and Oct. 11-13, locations to be announced.

TDU will make the docket and decisions available online for members.

December 28, 2009: The International Union has set the dates for the national grievance panels for UPS and UPS Freight in 2010.

The panels will meet three times the coming year.

The first UPS national panel will be in Ft. Lauderdale, March 1-3, at the Westin Beach Resort. The other panels are scheduled for June 7-9 and Oct. 11-13, locations to be announced.

The first UPS Freight Panels are scheduled to immediately follow the UPS panels and will be held March 3-5, June 9-11, and Oct. 13-15.

The deadline for getting on the docket is February 8. TDU will make the docket and decisions available to Teamster members.

Now is the time for UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters to make our voices heard and make sure that critical issues will be addressed.

Click here to sign up for email updates from TDU.org.

December 23, 2009: The International Union has set the dates for the national grievance panels for UPS and UPS Freight in 2010.

The panels will meet three times the coming year.

The first UPS national panel will be in Ft. Lauderdale, March 1-3, at the Westin Beach Resort. The other panels are scheduled for June 7-9 and Oct. 11-13, locations to be announced.

The first UPS Freight Panels are scheduled to immediately follow the UPS panels and will be held March 3-5, June 9-11, and Oct. 13-15.

The deadline for getting on the docket is February 8. TDU will make the docket and decisions available to Teamster members.

Now is the time for UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters to make our voices heard and make sure that critical issues will be addressed.

Click here to sign up for email updates from MakeUPSDeliver.org.

December 7, 2009: Sixty-five 9.5 violation cases were brought to the last national grievance panel. Outside of Oakland Local 70, the panel ruled in favor of working Teamsters on a 9.5 issue in just one case.

In 16 cases coming out of Local 70—the company was ordered to comply with 9.5 language. These cases involved instances where UPS was settling 9.5 violations but never fixing the underlying problem of the affected drivers’ load.

October 30, 2009: The decisions from the October meeting of the National Grievance panel in San Diego are now available online.

This was the final national panel for 2009 and the results for UPS Teamsters on the critical issues of excessive overtime and full-time combo job elimination were grim.

Seventeen locals brought cases to the panel charging UPS with eliminating full-time combo jobs and refusing to put those jobs up for bid in violation of Article 22.3 of the contract. Every single one of the cases was postponed.

Sixty-five 9.5 violation cases were brought to the panel— totaling 25 percent of the 36 page docket. Outside of Oakland Local 70, the panel ruled in favor of working Teamsters on a 9.5 issue in just one case.

In 16 cases coming out of Local 70— the company was ordered to comply with 9.5 language. These cases involved instances where UPS was settling 9.5 violations but never fixing the underlying problem of the affected drivers’ load.

Click here to download the decisions from the national grievance panel.

October 1, 2009: The next UPS National Grievance Panel will be held October 12-15 in San Diego. TDU is making the complete list of the cases to be heard at the panel available to concerned Teamster members.

Excessive overtime (9.5 violations), the elimination of full-time combo jobs and subcontracting top the list of most common grievances.

Click here to download the docket of cases to be heard by the UPS National Grievance Committee.

9.5 Violations

Sixty-five cases appear on the docket for 9.5 violations, totaling 25 percent of the 36 page docket—in a clear sign that something is seriously wrong with the enforcement system of this basic contractual right.

Full-Time Combo Job Elimination

Make UPS Deliver and Teamsters for a Democratic Union first documented the nationwide elimination of the full-time jobs won by Teamster members in the 1997 UPS strike. Click here to read about it.

Now, seventeen locals have cases on the docket charging UPS with eliminating full-time combo jobs and refusing to put those jobs up for bid in violation of Article 22.3 of the contract.

The grievances document full-time job elimination in major hubs like Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, New Jersey, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Francisco—as well as smaller areas including Binghamton, Buffalo, Burlington, Hagerstown, Md., Lancaster, Pensacola, and Rochester.

Will the International Union finally deliver results on this issue?

Download the Docket

Click here to download the docket of cases to be heard by the UPS National Grievance Committee.

The UPS National Grievance Committee settles national disputes and other grievances that have been deadlocked at both the local and regional levels.