UPS Contract 2008

    
   The IBT has announced that the UPS national contract has been officially ratified as Teamsters in New York and Pennsylvania have voted to approve their supplements after they were renegotiated.   MakeUPSDeliver.org continues its coverage.

     TDU is reporting that NY Local 804's rejection of its supplement has paid off for members who are preparing to vote on a better offer from UPS that restores 30 & Out benefits to $3,600 a month-without key givebacks that were included in the first offer.  Also, ballots have been mailed to UPS Teamsters in the Central Pennsylvania and Western Pennsylvania supplements to vote on slightly better contract offers.  This is from MakeUPSDeliver.org.

     Additionally, the the Local 926 Carwash Supplement and the Hawaii Rider have also been defeated in balloting.  Initial vote totals below have now been updated

     UPS Teamsters rejected their supplemental agreements in Central Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania and Local 804, putting the ratification of the UPS national contract on hold even as it is apparently being approved by 65%.
     The Upstate NY supplement was approved by an unofficial ballot count of 1270 for and 810 against with the master agreement also garnering more yes votes at 1223 to 862.  Local 294 members approved the supplement 333 to 156 and the master 335-153.  MakeUPSDeliver continues its topnotch contract coverage along with providing local by local vote counts.

     With 82,000 ballots having been collected on 11/16/07, the vote count has been completed in the Western and Southern regions where members have voted in favor of the proposed national agreements and the supplements by comfortable margins.  TDU has the  vote breakdown by Local thus far

     Ballots for the tentative National Master Agreement and various supplements have begun to be counted with results expected on or before Monday, 11/19/07.  Votes will be tabulated by Local.

     Teamster members in several locals, including Local 294, report that they never received a contract ratification ballot—even though they followed the International Union’s instructions and requested a replacement ballot from their local union before the Nov. 9 deadline.  MakeUPSDeliver files a report and provides a contact form for members this may have happened to.

     The Central Sates Pension Fund has released a bulletin that dispels certain rumors in regard to the state of CSPF.  Specifically, it debunks the rumor that participants who fail to retire by January 1, 2008 will have their pension benefit  automatically reduced or subject to offset by any Social Security benefit they receive, as well as the additional rumor that the Fund is being taken over by the PBGC after January 1, 2008.  This information in no way applies to participants of the NYS Teamsters Pension Fund which members of Local 294 and most of the other locals in Upstate NY belong to.

     MakeUPSDeliver.org has posted the following YouTube video of strong comments made by former Teamster president Ron Carey concerning the UPS tentative agreement.

     
MakeUPSDeliver.org has now posted the Upstate NY supplement on its web site.

     A UPS contract update meeting for all UPS members in the jurisdiction of Local 294  is scheduled for Sunday, October 28 at 10:00 am at the Union Hall.

     Teamster.org has an online video of Ken Hall explaining the UPS/IBT Full-Time Pension Plan contained in Article 34L of the tentative Master Agreement for UPS members currently in the Central States Fund, along with a bullet-point briefing of the presentation.

     The IBT has issued a summary of the tentative UPS contract agreement on Teamster.org in pdf format.  The International states in this document that members are "urged to vote yes".
       MakeUPSDeliver.org also has a summary bulletin. click to view side 1 and side 2.

      Several supplemental agreements have now been posted by MakeUPSDeliver.org.  The Upstate NY supplement has not been uploaded as yet but we will link to it as soon as it is.

      MakeUpsDeliver.org is reporting that the International Union now says that the UPS contract ballots will be mailed "by October 26", instead of November 5. They will be counted on November 16 as opposed to the original date of November 26.

     The IBT, for the first time, has also posted the details of the tentative master agreement on Teamster.org.  This pdf file can be word searched.

     MakeUPSDeliver.org has posted the entire tentative national master agreement online.  Meanwhile the IBT is reporting that the local union representatives at the "2 person" contract meeting in San Diego have "unanimously" endorsed the tentative agreement.

     In light of rumors that the contract must be ratified by January 1, 2008 because of impending pension legislation, MakeUPSDeliver.org has posted a pension fact sheet that addresses this issue.

     MakeUPSDeliver.org is continuing to release details of the tentative agreement with information concerning part-timers:

• The starting pay rate for part-timers would remain at $8.50 then increase to $10.50 after 90 days on the job.  (Edit - the $10.50 amount  would be for sorters and preloaders.  All others would increase to $9.50/hr.  Sorters and preloaders would also start at $9.50/hr.)

• No health coverage for part-timers for the first year of employment, and no family coverage for the first 18 months. (Edit - this language applies to members in the UPS controlled benefits plan and would not apply to members in the Teamster administered Upstate NY plan.)

• Part-timers would receive the same raises as full-timers but half would be paid Aug. 1 and the other half on Feb. 1 of the following year.

• The tentative agreement would not create 10,000 new full-time jobs as those in 2002 and 1997 had.

• The penalty for supervisors working would be raised from time and a half to double time.

       MakeUPSDeliver.org has obtained economic details of the tentative agreement.  The deal reportedly  contains wage increases of $4 an hour over the life of the contract with annual wage increases of 70¢-75¢-75¢-85¢-95¢.  A portion of each wage increase would be delayed six months, until February of the following year. UPS would contribute $1 an hour more each year toward  benefits that would be split between pension and health & welfare.  There are also concessions that would lengthen the wage progression to 36 months

     The IBT has confirmed a tentative agreement has been reached with UPS. The deal allows the company to withdraw from the Central States Pension Fund for a payment of $6.1 billion while creating a Teamsters-UPS jointly administered fund that will be fully funded by UPS.

     Quoting a union spokesman, Bloomberg is reporting that UPS and the Teamsters have agreed on a tentative contract. Details weren't immediately released.  ``We have a contract,'' Bret Caldwell, a union spokesman, said in an interview.

    UPS is saying that it may reach an agreement with the Teamsters Union as early as Monday, October 1.  "The Teamsters have set a goal of completing the talks and getting a tentative agreement by Monday," said Norman Black, UPS spokesman. "We do believe it's possible that we will be done by then.  Reuters carries the announcement.

    With contract negotiations having resumed on September 5, TDU is reporting that Traffic World  has broken a story in an article called, “Union Trading Parcels?" that UPS is pushing for work rule changes that would allow them to move packages from its parcel to freight divisions. The union apparently refused to comment for the story.

     The IBT has released a UPS contract negotiations bulletin entitled "October 1 or We're Done".  Make UPS Deliver offers up a response.    

     TDU members have gone to court to force the Central States Pension Fund to reveal their latest Financial and Analytical Information report.  With the report disclosing that Central States assets are up and on the rise, TDU reports that industry experts say that the union’s power will be down if UPS is allowed to break out of the Fund.

     A new bulletin from the IBT advises that UPS has reached an agreement in principle with the Central States Pension Fund establishing conditions for a potential UPS withdrawal from Central States.  TDU has posted a response to this development. 

     The IBT has announced that negotiations with UPS have been suspended due to the company being "unable to present a comprehensive response to the Union’s economic demands because of differences between the company and several benefit funds over the amount of new company money that is necessary to maintain and improve existing benefits."

      On the UPS Freight front, MakeUPSDeliver.org reports that in a June 28 letter to all UPS Freight employees, Senior Vice President Jack Holmes lashes out at a “campaign of deception” by some Teamster locals.

    The Logistics Management web site offers its take on the Teamsters-UPS contract negotiations.

    MakeUPSDeliver.org has posted a Q & A page on the Central States Pension proposal.

    TDU weighs in with their take on the Central  States Pension proposal.

    In the first contract update discussing a substantive issue, Ken Hall has disclosed that UPS's opening financial offer includes a plan to create a new, joint Teamsters-Company pension plan to cover full-time UPS employees who currently obtain their pension benefits from the Central States Fund.
     On, the UPS Freight front, TDU is reporting that the Hoffa administration regards as “impractical” imposing the terms of the National Master Freight Agreement on UPS’s recently acquired freight division and on DHL. 

     According to TDU, the Teamster bargaining team and UPS have only swapped initial economic proposals but Ken Hall is already telling Teamster leaders that negotiations will be over “soon.”  Hall's statement at the Unity Conference is linked here from the IBT.  MakeUPSDeliver.org brings out two main issues needing resolution at the bargaining table.

     Monday March 20 will mark six months since the National Negotiating Committee kicked off bargaining with UPS.  During the nearly three months of intensive negotiations with the company, the IBT has issued just two bulletins which basically informed the members when the next bargaining dates are.  As MakeUPSDeliver.org says "It’s time for the International Union to tell us what’s happening with our contract".