Jul 27, 2018 -
After reviewing the proposed changes, the Teamsters Local 89 E-Board has unanimously voted to recommend a no vote on the UPS National Master Agreement (NMA) and the UPS Central Region Supplement (CRS).
Of primary concern in the UPS NMA is the new 22.4 Combination Driver classification, and the new wage system.
The new 22.4 classification will effectively create a 2-tier wage structure that has never before been in place. We have no doubts that the Company will use this second tier in future negotiations to weaken and downsize our traditional package car jobs in favor of these lower-paid 22.4 positions. It is also clear that the Company’s intent with these jobs is not to simply lessen the overtime burden on our package car drivers but remove it altogether in order to shift it onto 22.4 drivers who will make significantly less money, therefore providing UPS with tremendous savings.
On wages, we took the position early on that the starting pay rate should be increased to $15, with an additional bump in pay for all existing part-time workers to separate them from this new starting pay and reward them for their years of service to the Company. While the proposed changes will phase the starting pay up to 15.50 by the final year of the agreement, there is no reason that UPS cannot do so immediately. Further, the proposed changes fails to give any sort of bump whatsoever to existing part-time workers aside from bringing those who are below $13 up to that rate, which is what new hires will be making retroactively to August 1st of 2018.
Concerning the Central Region Supplement, our members and those across the Region have long sought changes to Article 17, in particular 17i, which gives UPS broad authority to terminate our members for often unclear violations. This language needs to be either tightly defined or removed altogether. The changes made to 17i in this proposed agreement does little and perhaps nothing to clear up the vagueness that plagues this particular language.
Although these are only a few examples, and there are many more, they alone are cause for rejection of the NMA and CSR.
The IBT has scheduled a “2-person meeting” on August 9th to which every Local Union with UPS members will send 2 representatives, hence the name. At this meeting the IBT will review the tentative agreements with Local Union leaders and call for an endorsement vote. At that meeting, Teamsters Local 89 will vote against endorsing the National Master Agreement and the Central Region Supplement.
We expect that voting material, a packet including your electronic pin key and copies of the changes to each agreement, will be mailed out 1-2 weeks following the 2-person meeting on August 9th. There will then be a 2-3 week period for members to vote or request a replacement packet if they did not receive one. We believe the actual vote tally will take place sometime in late August or early September, but we do not have specific dates from the IBT at this time.
Package Division Director Denis Taylor has agreed to an extension of the existing contract with UPS to allow for the extra time it will take to vote all agreements.
Following the August 9th 2-person meeting, Teamsters Local 89 will release a more thorough review of the changes in the NMA and CSR, hold meetings with our UPS Stewards to receive their recommendation, and hold meetings with rank-and-file members to review the changes as well.
Please continue to check our website, Facebook, and Twitter pages for updates as this process continues.
