IPA Calls on UPS to Make its Last, Best and Final Contract Offer

[mackintosh1970]

IPA Press Release

NMB Puts UPS/IPA in Indefinite Recess
IPA Calls on UPS to Make its Last, Best and Final Contract Offer
IPA Leadership Seeks Final Authorization for Strike, Release

Thursday, June 23, 2005, (Washington, DC) After 32-months in negotiations the Independent Pilots Association calls on UPS to make its last best and final offer on a new pilot contract.

We are going to give UPS until the end of the month to pull together its last, best and final contract offer said Capt. Tom Nicholson, President of the IPA. If UPS cannot, or will not, give us its last, best and final offer for our pilots to vote on the IPA will pull together its highlights of UPSs final offers on the five open articles and send that out to our pilots for a vote.

A year after jointly requesting federal mediation, IPA and UPS have closed none of the five major articles that were open when the request was made. Those contract articles include Scope, Scheduling, Pension, Compensation and Health Benefits.

These talks are in a logjam, we need for our pilots to weigh-in with a vote to let UPS know that what theyre offering wont fly with our crewmembers, said Capt. Nicholson. In addition to voting on UPSs final offer we will also be asking our pilots to give IPA leadership the final authorization to call a strike and request release from federal mediation.

While the IPA cannot go into detail about UPSs final positions on the open articles before they share them with their crewmembers Capt. Nicholson had the following to say about UPSs final position on each of the open major articles.
Scope: The last offer that the company put on the table would allow for outsourcing of American jobs to third-world carriers with questionable safety and customer reliability records.
Scheduling: UPS has pulled the rug out from our negotiators who have diligently worked through otherwise productive scheduling discussions. The company has refused to provide industry standard rest facilities for crewmembers flying some of the most challenging schedules across multiple time zones worldwide at all times of the day and night.
Pension: Its about securing our pension and not allowing what happened to the employees at United Airlines or Enron to happen here. Its also about achieving parity with the pensions with our counterparts at FedEx.
Compensation: UPSs final offer that is minimal at best and a pay cut for a substantial percentage of our members.
Healthcare: UPSs final offer would increase our monthly out-of pocket payments by more than 1,000%.

The vote on UPS current contract offer and final strike authorization is expected in mid-August.
XXX

 

[robonono]

Per Capt. Nicholson:

Compensation: UPSs final offer that is minimal at best and a pay cut for a substantial percentage of our members.

Who really believes that UPS is negotiating a pay cut for it's employees. this must be similar to Democrat speak when a "cut" is in reality an increase that is not as large as one wants.

Healthcare: UPSs final offer would increase our monthly out-of pocket payments by more than 1,000%.

Say WHAT?????

 

[ok2bclever]

robo, you have apparently been retired from UPS too long.

Medical costs are outpacing everything else in our society and are becoming a serious viability issue for all companies.

Management has been taking it in the shorts regarding the medical issues financially for several years and the hourly can expect intense pressure to shoulder more of this burden by the company in the upcoming negotiations, both in the air now and on the ground in 2008.

 

[robonono]

I will have been retired for 12 years on Saturday. But that does not change my opinion. I doubt seriously that UPS's compensation proposal "...is minimal at best and a pay cut for a substantial percentage of our members." as was stated.

While health premiums are indeed going up, again, I doubt seriously that UPS's Healthcare proposal "... would increase our monthly out-of pocket payments by more than 1,000%."

I realize that negotiations are ongoing, and that specific details are not available, but these 2 statements just do not hold water IMO.

 

[ok2bclever]

Time will tell.

I'd love to be wrong about what's gonna happen to our medical, but I won't be.

 

[upsdude]

ok2b............

I agree.

One thing that really bugs me is the number of employees that never look at their doctor/hospital bill for accuracy. Ive found errors and improper charges on several occasions and report them to my insurance provider. Folks figure it isnt costing them anything so they never look at a bill closely. The people that are responsible for creating and sending the bill are no different than us, theyre human.

 

[wkmac]

Count me in also OK2BC. I also believe that one of 2 things will happen in 2008'. We get a raise but then pay some of the medical costs per week or month or we get no raise and continue to pay nothing. I also wouldn't rule out no raise at all and still pay which sadly is the more likely scenario IMO.

If the pilots go on strike I believe it will be their suicide as the IBT doesn't have the power to move a supporting action. The game has changed and strikes are history IMO.

 

[ok2bclever]

wkmac, agreed on all points.

The atmosphere is currently conducive to concessions both politically and financially.

I don't see any trends that appear likely to change that by 2008.

I don't see UPS losing any significant competition between now and then or improving their bottom line to any major degree and as it stands medical costs just seem to be increasing in their rate of rampant inflation.

Nor do I see the Teamsters getting stronger, more indepedent of UPS or in better financial condition.

If the various factors stagnate or get worse we will be facing a contract proposal laced with serious and significant concessions in all facets with little recourse beyond griping about eating it and learning to live with the diminished standard of living that will be the result.

I hate sounding like a pessimist as my predilection is optimism, but every involved factor seems to be going the wrong way.

I also agree that a strike would be suicide to the current pilots with the word "current" being the key point.

UPS has always enjoyed being the Boss and in any situation where they could over the years (such as the east coast strike, etc.) they have pulled the trigger on any group of employees with the nerve to make demands that they couldn't back up.

I truly appreciated the solidarity that the pilots have always shown the ground workforce during contracts, but between pure selfishness, cowardice and envy they won't get reciprocal support from the drivers or the Teamsters.

And without it, the pilots are simply a small group of employees with a large qualified replacement workforce readily available and a political climate that would encourage using it.

 

[tieguy]

"Management has been taking it in the shorts regarding the medical issues financially for several years and the hourly can expect intense pressure to shoulder more of this burden by the company in the upcoming negotiations, both in the air now and on the ground in 2008."

I do pay a small amount towards my health beni's. I would have had to be very creative to come up with a line like "increasing the expense 1000 percent" This type of rhetoric is what is wrong with the contract discussion. Put the actual numbers out there. What were the pilots paying before what would they be paying now. Don't use some rhetorical paint brush like "1000 percent" to make it sound like the doomsday pill. These primadonnas make as much as three drivers and don't work half as hard. Maybe ups should use the same type of rhetoric to describe the pilots compensation.

 

[dannyboy]

Hey Tie, they have to earn that money some how, so spinning the truth is an easy buck. Kinda like the phrase " a part time job is not enough to take care of a full time family."

And we have seen how far that one has gotten the part timers?

1000% SOUNDS like a lot but it is really not. For an out of pocket of fifty bucks, it now becomes five hundred.

I dont see it happening.

d

(Message edited by dannyboy on June 24, 2005)

 

[isdrone]

The pilots provide a valuable service but I am really tired of hearing them whine.

The rest of the airline industry is in the tank and they want the world.

We all want more money - it is human nature. How much is enough?

So far as medical costs.....

I do believe that it will be a major point in 2008. We have been paying a portion of our benefits since 94'. Not happy about it, but that is the way it is.