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UPS Drivers Voted Down Their Union Contract, But The Teamsters Are Ratifying It Anyway
The tentative agreement also does nothing substantial to address drivers’ other big concerns: excessive forced overtime, technological surveillance, and harassment by supervisors.
We should all be rooting for high profits and bull markets, since those are the conditions that lead to the invisible hand delivering better conditions for workers. Yet for some reason, that hand is nowhere to be found at United Parcel Service (UPS)
Teamsters for a Democratic Union lists “10 reasons to vote no” on the proposed contract on its web site. It says UPS’s offer contains “major concessions,” including two-tier “22.4 Hybrid Drivers” who will deliver ground freight for a lower pay rate.
Across Long Island and throughout the city, some 120,000 Teamsters are getting prepped to become a “sanctuary union.” In 27 shops, business agents, supervisors and front-line workers are getting schooled on their rights under U.S. law — and when and how to challenge federal immigration agents who show up to search their work sites. In fundamental labor terms, it follows one simple rule: Union solidarity first, immigration status second.
The Indonesian union OPPUK (Organisasi Penguatan dan Pengembangan Usaha-Usaha Kerakyatan) representing palm oil workers indirectly employed by PepsiCo and the Teamsters in the United States representing about 200,000 PepsiCo workers in North America reaffirmed their solidarity in a shared fight for global labor and human rights.
The majority of the ballots were already in by October 31, the day the union's federally mandated Independent Investigations Officer recommended charges against Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall, who until recently seemed to be 75-year-old Hoffa's heir apparent. Hall was charged with obstructing a corruption investigation by destroying thousands of documents and emails.
The movement won a first-step victory on May 6, when Special Master Kenneth Feinberg recommended that the Treasury Department deny the Central States Pension Fund’s bid to slash 207,000 Teamsters' benefits by up to 70 percent.“I must congratulate the retirees for reaching out to us and making sure that their voices were heard,” Feinberg told reporters. “I can tell you that listening to the retirees and what they had to say, of course that influenced.”
“Teamster pensions are in trouble because of greed, incompetence and corruption,” Rita Lewis told In These Times. Excessive pay to plan administrators and outlandish fees to financial advisors have drained the fund, she says, echoing Warren’s emphasis on Wall Street malfeasance, and a first step should be to clean house at the offices of Central States Pension Fund, the organization that collects and distributes pension monies for some 400,000 union members and retirees.
The Seattle City Council voted 8-0 Monday afternoon to enact an ordinance giving taxi, for-hire and Uber drivers the ability to unionize. The backdrop for the council’s vote is a nationwide conversation about what role governments should play in the country’s growing app-powered gig economy.
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