Growing resistance to UPS contract proposal

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SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2013 9 A groundswell of resistance has de­ veloped among rank-and-file workers to a proposed concessionary contract at shipping giant United Parcel Service.

Details of the five-year tentative agree­ ment, which covers 240,000 work­ ers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, were re­ vealed in early May at a meeting of lo­ cal union officers. The UPS contract is the largest collective bargaining agree­ ment in the United States.

When negotiations began, IBT Gen­ eral Secretary Ken Hall declared that the talks were going to be about gains for the members and concessions were off the table. Hall declared he would hold the line on pensions and health care and negotiate significant wage in­ creases for low-paid part-timers, new full-time jobs, protection from manage­ ment harassment, and reduce manda­ tory overtime for drivers, among other contract improvements.

Unlike most union bargaining these days, the IBT stated it would go on the offensive—looking for improve­ ments instead of simply attempting to stop the bleeding of concessions. Many rank-and-file Teamsters applauded the move, considering UPS’s $4.5 billion in after-tax profits and its dominance in the parcel market.

Despite being a massive bargaining unit at a highly profitable employer, UPS Teamsters have a laundry list of grievances. The majority of union workers at Big Brown are part-time warehouse workers, who are paid pov­ erty-level wages. The company seeks to make these jobs so unattractive in or­ der to encourage turnover, so workers don’t stay around to enjoy increased pay and benefits. Those who do stay are harassed so management can re­ place them with cheaper new hires.

Full-time opportunities take years to get, and if a part-timer doesn’t or can’t go driving it could take decades to get a full-time warehouse job. Full-time drivers, on the other hand, are paid well—yet they endure insane produc­ tion standards, forced overtime, and management pressures.

For UPS drivers, 11 and 12-hour days are the norm, as the company prefers to make them work long hours instead of hiring more drivers and thus incur­ ring the health-care and pension ben­ efit costs. Drivers are constantly ha­ rassed about their production; they are time-studied and given a daily report about their performance. Injuries are common. Drivers are forced away from their families and personal lives, and deal with constant harassment from management.

However, the focus of bargaining shifted quickly after UPS proposed that members covered by UPS’s company health-care plan pay $90 a week in pre­ miums, up from the current $0 premi­ ... Apple & taxes (continued from page 3: “The rich don’t pay taxes! U.S. Senate praises Apple tax scandal”) at the expense of each other and all hu­ manity.

The McCain tiger’s public attacks on Apple quickly gave way to great praise, with the right-wing senator ending his examination by asking CEO Cook why his antiquated cell phone was ever in need of changed apps. The Senate com­ mittee ended up praising Apple for its “incredible legacy,” and according to The New York Times, “gushed over its products,” calling Apple a “great com­ pany” that had managed to “change the world.” Arch-libertarian free-marketer Rand Paul insisted that corporate at­ torneys who failed to take advantage of existing tax loopholes might be guilty of criminal negligence.

What we have said about Apple ap­ plies equally to the concomitant de­ um. Hall declared to members that this was unacceptable and that UPS Team­ sters “won’t pay $90, $9, or 9 cents.”

The IBT organized rallies across the country in UPS parking lots and union halls to defend heath-care benefits. The calls for contract improvements took a backseat to “defend our health care.”

When the contract language was revealed, UPS Teamsters were disap­ pointed to find few gains. Wage in­ creases in the new contract are less than under the current contract. There are no additional raises for part-timers, and starting pay will be a measly $10 per hour for the life of the contract.

Only 2350 new full-time warehouse jobs will be created, as compared to the 20,000 created in two previous con­ tracts; in many buildings part-timers need 15-20 or more years of seniority to bid a full time warehouse job.

Wage progression to top scale for full-time jobs is increased from three years to four. The anti-harassment lan­ guage is weak, and many UPS drivers fear it won’t be enforced. Harassment is a critical issue especially for drivers, as UPS has installed GPS and sensors that monitor everything drivers do throughout their work day. Manage­ ment uses the slightest infractions as a pretext to discipline and terminate drivers. Drivers were also looking for improved language to stop forced over­ time; the contract again came up short.

However, what has really enraged UPS Teamsters is a new health-care plan that will cover 140,000 members.

Members in the Central, Western, and struction of the environment, with all rational solutions to the rapidly advanc­ ing fossil-fuel-induced climate change set aside as in conflict with the deadly struggle for profits.

Capitalism’s boom days, won at the cost of as many as 80 million dead in World War II, and hundreds of mil­ lions more killed in the wars since that global conflagration, are over. Either working people organize to challenge the system, including the construction of mass working-class and revolution­ ary socialist parties deeply implanted in all the inevitable struggles ahead, or humanity’s future is bleak indeed.

History demonstrates again and again that the vast majority has the power to build the world on new foundations and bring into being the socialist future that thrives on the collective satisfac­ tion of the needs of the overwhelming majority as opposed to those of the ra­ pacious few. n Southern states would be moved from the current UPS-run health-care plan to a union-run plan with inferior ben­ efits. Under the new plan members would pay higher deductibles, get a worse dental plan, pay more for pre­ scriptions, and have higher co-pays. While the new benefits would still be better than what most working people have, most working people don’t work for the largest and most profitable transportation company in the world.

UPS rank-and-file workers are asking why their union is taking concessions at a company that is making record profits. UPS reported they made over a billion dollars in profit in the first quar­ ter of this year on the very same day news broke of the tentative agreement. Many part-timers have stuck with the company despite the low wages and lack of hours exactly because of UPS’s good health care. Every co-pay and de­ ductible could be a serious hardship for many part-timers.

Additionally, health-care premiums for both current and future retirees will be raised from $50 a month to $300 by the end of the contract.

It is important to note that the driving force for UPS’s demand for health-care concessions is Obamacare. The Cadillac tax, which penalizes employers who of­ fer health-care plans deemed too gen­ erous, is giving companies the green light to slash benefits.

As details emerge from the Obamacare regulations, it has been revealed that union-run health plans will be disadvantaged in terms of access to ... Monsanto (continued from page 12: “Millions join world protests against Monsanto and GMOs”) chase Monsanto products year after year.

GMO seeds are not meant to help poor societies feed themselves. On the contrary, the promotion of these seeds dovetails with the take-over of agricul­ tural land by vast chemical-dependent, oil-dependent, and water-wasteful cor­ porate farms.

These farms are geared toward pro­ ducing mono-crops like soybeans or corn for the processed food industry— while spewing pollution into the water­ ways and air, and poisoning our bodies.

Monsanto and GMOs are an especially flagrant example of how the drive for capitalist profits operates to destroy (Left) Teamsters’ UPS strike in 1997. The ranks were invited to participate in the contract campaign — unlike today.

state-run exchanges, and low-wage workers in these plans will be ineligible for subsidies like workers in company plans or those who buy insurance. This has led to fears that UPS workers’ benefits will further erode in the future when costs and penalties increase.

UPS rank and filers have not taken these attacks lying down. A “vote no” campaign has spread like wildfire throughout the coun­ try. Self-made “vote no” t-shirts and signs have been distributed among members. Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a nation­ wide reform caucus, is distribut­ ing leaflets with information on the contract at hubs across the country. A “Vote No” Facebook page has attracted thousands of members. Louisville Local 89’s ex­ ecutive board has recommended a “no” vote on the national contract. Rank-and-file activists are op­ timistic that the pushback to this concessionary contract may produce results. A “no” vote on the national con­ tract is not out of the question. In addi­ tion to the national contract, members vote on regional supplements; if any supplement is voted down the national contract cannot be implemented. In the areas where the “vote no” campaign is strongest, a “no” vote on supplements is highly likely.

Local 705 in Chicago, which has a separate contract representing 9500 workers, is still in negotiations. Local 705 has a militant tradition and usually holds out longer than the IBT and gets more. In the last UPS contract 705 bar­ gained down to the date of expiration and extracted major concessions.

Regardless of the outcome, the “no” vote campaign that has developed is evidence of the potential for rank-and-file mobilization to affect bargaining. When former president Ron Carey lead the Teamsters, the power of the ranks was unleashed to fight the bosses, culminating in the historic 1997 UPS strike that shut down the company and won major gains for the workers. In­ stead of being pushed to the sidelines and forced to run “vote no” campaigns, the ranks were invited to participate in contract campaigns, and when the union went on strike, to lead mass picket lines.

A return to this type of leadership in the Teamsters, and every union, is the only way to stop the bleeding that is slowly killing the trade-union move­ ment. n what is best for health and the environ­ ment. It is unjust and immoral to har­ ness scientific discovery to the produc­ tion of environmental Frankensteins like GMO seeds; instead, science should be utilized in an emergency program to clean up pollution, halt global warming, replenish the natural environment— and really end world hunger.

Monsanto and its friends in govern­ ment must be stopped. Big agribusi­ ness and the biotech labs should be na­ tionalized under the control of workers and family farmers, and realigned to produce food and other items that can nurture people and the natural envi­ ronment.

Ultimately, we need to build a move­ ment that can end the profit-hungry capitalist system entirely, and bring about a worldwide socialist society. n