DC Velocity - February 2014

20 DC VELOCITY FEBRUARY 2014 www.dcvelocity.com newsworthy

Six months after decisive
rejection, UPS Freight workers
ratify five-year pact

Unionized workers at UPS Freight, the less-than-truckload (LTL) division of UPS Inc., have overwhelmingly ratified a five-year collective-bargaining agreement a bit more than six months after they rejected an earlier version by an equally decisive margin.

The roughly 13,000 UPS Freight workers, which are represented by the Teamsters union, approved the contract on Jan. 6 by a margin of 5,222 to 2,107. In late June, workers rejected the company’s initial proposal by a margin of 4,244 to 1,987. About 69 percent of eligible voters cast ballots for the current contract, while 58 percent cast ballots in the first go-round.

Under the contract, workers will get $2.50 an hour in wage increases over the life of the contract; the Teamsters said that will make UPS Freight workers the highest paid in the LTL industry. The contract improves pensions and health benefits, according to the Teamsters. It reduces the number of subcontracted drivers by an unspecified amount, the union said; according to union estimates, UPS Freight subcontracts about half its driving work.

The contract creates a separate “ line-haul driver” division designed to reduce the frequency of subcontracting. When the rank and file rejected the initial proposal in June, they cited dissatisfaction with the structure of the new division, arguing, among other things, that it would encourage continued subcontracting and pay the new unit’s drivers less per mile than others at the company.

The Teamsters said the contract contains language making it easier to convert line-haul driver runs to higher-paid “road driver” runs. The contract gives the union the right to reject any line-haul driver run, the Teamsters said. Laid-off road drivers would be recalled to full-time work within 90 days of contract ratification at all terminals that utilize subcontractors, according to the union. The contract also adds pension protections to workers at the top end of the wage scale.

ALLEGATIONS OF SCARE TACTICS

The ratification vote came less than a week after leaders
of Teamster locals representing the rank and file voted to
approve the contract proposal and send it on to the mem-
bers. The rank and file’s change of course and the wide
margins of both outcomes led a high-profile Teamster to
criticize union leaders and the company for putting undue
pressure on members to ratify the contract.

Sandy Pope, head of New York-based Teamster Local 805 and who ran unsuccessfully for Teamster president in 2011, said members had heard little about the status of negotiations for seven months only to then be given just five days to vote on the contract. The voting was also conducted at union halls and terminals rather than through the mail, which would have required a longer turnaround and given workers a better chance to study the language, she said. This proved a hardship for drivers who are on the road and often miles away from a union hall or terminal, Pope said.

The first contract vote was conducted by mail ballot.

Pope also criticized the union for calling the second balloting tantamount to a “strike vote,” meaning that workers should be ready to walk off their jobs as early as Jan. 13 if the contract were rejected. Pope said Teamster leadership knew there had been no preparation for a possible strike.

Pope had harsh words for UPS, which she said called in
workers individually or in pairs to warn them the union
would call a strike if the contract were turned down. Pope
said UPS was aware that many members were holdovers
from the old Overnite Transportation Co., a nonunion
company bought by UPS for $1.25 billion in 2005, and had
relatively scant exposure to the often rough-and-tumble
world of labor contract talks. UPS took advantage of this
lack of seasoning by “wearing people down, discouraging
them, and then scaring them.”
In a statement, the Teamsters called allegations of collu-
sion between UPS and the union “pathetic and laughable.”
The short turnaround between the local leaders’ approval
and the rank-and-file vote was required because the con-
tract had to be ratified by Jan. 15 for the pension improve-
ments to take effect, according to the union statement.

The Teamsters said that most contract votes are conducted in a union hall and not by mail ballot. The union noted that the 69-percent turnout for the second vote was higher than the 58 percent of members who voted by mail the first time around.

—M.S.
go figure …

66%

The percentage of global airline cargo heads surveyed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) who say traffic will increase in 2014. That is the highest percentage since 2010.