Reading some of these comments is like being in an alternate universe!It's as if the Teamsters haven't beeen caught repeatedly with their hands in the cookie jar time after time. From illegal loans to organized crime figures in Las Vegas in the fifties, to hundreds of millions of dollars simply disappearing to Democratic candidates, Teamster leader pockets, or with no explanation for the last half century, the dishonesty finally culminated about ten years ago in the government being forced to use the RICO ( Racketeering Influenced Corruption Act, usually used for organized crime) act to completely take over the utterly corrupt Teamsters Union after decades of abuse. Most of the stolen money was from the Teamsters pension plans being used as a "slush fund" at the whim of Teamster presidents. Reading this debate you would think they don't cover history in the schools any more, much less labor union history. If I recall correctly something like seven of the last eight Teamster presidents before Carey went to prison for just such theft, and there have been hundreds of other cases of corruption at the local Teamster level. Ron Carey was somehow able to wiggle out of the charges using good laywers in a sympathetic venue , but was nonetheless banned from the Teamsters for life, of course. His strike resulted in a package with no more compensation total money than had been offered before it, yet cost UPS billions of dollars and reduced the number of Teamsters jobs (from the largest and only small package Teamster employer left in the country) for years afterwards right in the midst of a 25 year decliine in Teamster membership. Now, UPS has offered to take over the Central States fund at a cost in the billions of dollars which would result in not only every penny going solely to UPS people, but would ensure that the pension plan is fully funded just as their non-union plan is. UPS offered the same thing during the last contract as well, but the union sold the less than 1% of members showing up on one particularly well orchestrated weekend meeting that the "evil" UPS wanted to take their money and then asked for a strike vote. It passed because many of the members present thought it was simply a motion to petition UPS from a stronger position, but more importantly took away for the first time the right to vote by the rank and file on what was offered, something the vast majority of workers would never have agreed to. One other thing to note is that UPS uses about 1% of their funds to administer the pension program while the Teamsters take around 3-5% to do the very same thing. friend.Y.I. for all those "doubting Thomas'"; Of the 50 largest trucking firms open in 1979 only five still exist. The multi employer funds are dead meat. Run, don't walk, to vote Yes if UPS can be convinced to buy out the monstrosity that the C.S. pension plan has become where neither the Teamsters nor the Government wants anything to do with it or has a solution to make it solvent. Ironically, If UPS does take it over than federal law now requires all corporations to keep it fully funded, but unions are still exempt from that law due to their succesfull lobbying efforts (for obvious reasons!!) to keep them from meeting the same standard. The very entity who bankrupted it, and has never contributed a dime to it, can continue to amass obligations which it cannot pay EVEN after cutting promised benefit levels. But they still want to control it? Give me a break.
