UPS

UPS Worker Challenged Powerful Union Leaders And Won

January 26, 2020 By Juliana Feliciano Reyes, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Organize! Labor Union, UPS, Workers Rights and Jobs

When the meeting was called to order, some UPS workers who had been with the company for decades could barely believe their eyes. Membership meetings like these are mostly empty. But on this snowy Saturday morning in Bridesburg, a sea of black-and-yellow satin Teamsters Local 623 jackets buzzed around a packed hall. For the first time in more than two decades, there’s a new crew running the shop. And at the top of the elected slate is an African American man — the first to lead the 101-year-old local — and one who’s spent his entire adult life doing the backbreaking work of a package handler at UPS’s massive East Coast facility by the Philadelphia airport. The rise of Richard Hooker Jr., 40, and his slate, dubbed #623livesmatter, marks the culmination of a grassroots effort to revitalize a 4,500-member shop at a major corporation during a time when legacy unions have languished.

UPS Freight, Teamsters To Workers: Vote “Yes” Or Face Lockout And Lose Your Health Care

November 9, 2018 Will Marrow, Wsws.org Resist! Health Care, Unions, UPS

The Teamsters union and UPS Freight are engaged in a conspiracy to blackmail more than 11,000 drivers and warehouse workers to vote “yes” to a sellout contract they have already rejected. The union and company are threatening that if workers vote “no” this week, they will face a lockout and lose their jobs and health care insurance for themselves and their families. Workers will vote under these conditions from tomorrow until Sunday. They already voted on October 5 to reject the contract, which will create a second tier of lower-paid workers, do nothing to address subcontracting, and also includes a real wage cut. On October 26, the union announced that it would force workers to vote again on a virtually unchanged agreement...

As Workers’ Opposition Grows To Teamsters Contract, UPS Freight Prepares For Strike

November 5, 2018 Will Morrow, Wsws.org Resist! Class Struggle, Strikes, Unions, UPS, Workers

With opposition mounting among 11,000 UPS Freight workers to the Teamsters union's efforts to ram through its sellout contract, UPS management released a statement Thursday announcing that it was making preparations to respond to a strike. Workers voted by more than 62 percent to reject the UPS Freight contract on October 5. On October 25, however, the Teamsters announced that it would force workers to vote again on virtually an unchanged agreement. Workers are due to vote November 7-11, with the results to be announced Sunday evening, November 11. Both versions of the contract create a new second tier of lower-paid workers by creating a new top pay scale for current “in-progression” workers, that is, those who have not yet reached the top pay rate.

Hoffa Caught Using Phony Member Profiles To Push Yes Vote At UPS

August 28, 2018 Staff, Tdu.org Resist! Class Struggle, Labor, Unions, UPS

Hoffa’s Package Division and UPSrising have sent members nationwide an email and leaflet that uses photos from the internet to impersonate UPSers and fraudulently promote contract givebacks. Hoffa and Denis Taylor are having such a hard time finding real UPS Teamsters who support their contract givebacks that they have resorted to using fake photos and phony membership testimonials. On Thursday afternoon, Hoffa's Package Division sent out a nationwide blast email of a leaflet supposedly featuring UPSers speaking out in favor of the concessionary contract. We got suspicious when we recognized the unidentified driver in the top-left of the leaflet who praises the two-tier 22.4 driver giveback.

UPS Pays Out $700 Million To Stockholders: An Object Lesson In The Operation Of Capitalism

August 13, 2018 Will Morrow, Wsws.org Educate! Capitalism, Class Struggle, UPS

On Thursday, the US-based logistics and delivery company UPS announced a quarterly dividend payout to shareholders of more than $700 million for the three months to August 2018. The announcement came the very same day as the Teamsters union met in Chicago, Illinois to endorse new contracts for UPS workers that enforce poverty-level wages and introduce major new concessions. UPS’s dividend payout is an object lesson in the basic functioning of capitalism. Where does this $700 million come from? It did not, after all, arise out of thin air. It is extracted from the labor of hundreds of thousands of workers, in the US and internationally. It is part of the surplus value produced by these workers—the difference between the wages they earn by selling their labor power, barely enough to survive, and the value they add in the process of production and distribution.

Teamsters Union Blackmails UPS Workers: Approve Contract Or Your Wages Will Be Cut

July 24, 2018 Will Morrow, Wsws.org Resist! Class Struggle, Labor Unions, UPS, Workers Rights and Jobs

The Teamsters Union is seeking to blackmail UPS workers into voting for its sellout contract proposal by threatening that a “no” vote will result in an even worse offer. A UPS worker provided the World Socialist Web Site with a letter sent out to all New York state UPS Teamster members by Local 687 president Brian Hammond. The letter, dated July 16, includes the following threat: “Health and pension—the company has agreed to pay the full amount needed to the health and pension fund of $5.28 over the life of the agreement. They will do this only if we pass our supplement [agreement] the first time. If not, the extra amount will come from your wage increase like before. Currently FT [full-time] employees have $1.95 per hour diverted to pension. I do not want to see that number increase!”

UPS And Teamsters In Collusion Against The Workers

July 23, 2018 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG Radio. Podcast Labor, UPS, Workers Rights and Jobs

UPS workers are in a critical struggle with both their employer and their union, the Teamsters, which are pushing a poor contract on them. Like many workers in the United States, UPS workers are facing low wages and cuts to health care and other benefits. Although UPS workers nationwide voted by over 90% to go on strike, they are being told that the new five-year contract is a “done deal.” Rank and file workers are doing all they can to reach workers and let them know that this is not the case. They can still reject the contract and keep fighting for a better one.

UPS Workers Claim Holiday Disaster Looms As They Threaten To Strike

November 25, 2017 Hayley Peterson, businessinsider.com Resist! Strikes, UPS, Workers

By Hayley Peterson for Business Insider - UPS aircraft mechanics and related employees who maintain the company's air cargo fleet are taking out ads in USA Today and the Seattle Times that state: "What every American should know before they ship with UPS during the holidays: UPS wants to make deep cuts to its aircraft mechanics’ health care benefits. That’s why the 1,300 aircraft mechanics who keep UPS planes running during the holiday season are ready to strike." The workers, represented by the Teamsters Local 2727 union, say UPS wants to make massive cuts to their health care benefits. "The holiday shipping season is UPS’ busiest and most critical time, and before our customers ship with UPS, we want them to know about the instability in our already distressed workforce," Tim Boyle, president of Teamsters Local 2727, said in a statement. "The aircraft maintenance workforce is united and won’t let UPS executives gamble with our families’ health care." UPS and the union have been in mediated contract negotiations over the changes. The union, which has voted to authorize a strike, recently filed a request with the Federal National Mediation Board asking to be released from the negotiations. The request was denied. The workers cannot go on strike unless the board releases them from negotiations.

Minneapolis UPS Workers Protest Shipments To Missouri Police

August 27, 2014 Labor Notes, www.labornotes.org Resist! Ferguson, Labor, UPS

A dozen part-time UPS workers took protest action after discovering ties between Missouri law enforcement and a company whose shipments they handle each day. Some of us removed the company’s packages from trucks that would deliver them to law enforcement. Others, in solidarity, refused to ferry these packages to their intended trailers. Others posed with a sign reading “#handsupdontship.” The phrase “hands up, don’t shoot” has come to symbolize protest over the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed, black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri. We decided we could not be silent while our work was contributing to the militarized violence that police are directing at Ferguson residents in the aftermath of Brown’s death. ‘Urban Street Violence’ Law Enforcement Targets is based in Blaine, Minnesota. The company produces cardboard, steel, and plastic shooting-range targets. Some feature photos of people for police to practice shooting at.

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