UPS Freight Ratifies in Indy!

slaveof18wheels

Active Member
From The Teamsters Website"After More Than A Half-Century Struggle, Former Overnite Workers Prevail

October 7, 2007 (Indianapolis) -- Workers at UPS Freight (formerly Overnite Transportation) in Indianapolis overwhelmingly ratified their first contract ever today, by a 107-1 vote. This agreement will improve wages, benefits and working conditions and will serve as a model to organize thousands of other UPS Freight employees nationwide, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa announced.
"For more than 50 years, workers at UPS Freight's predecessor, Overnite, fought to win a Teamster contract," Hoffa said. "Today the union fulfilled its promise that we would not quit until workers achieved economic justice. Now we will help thousands of other UPS Freight employees win the same protections and guarantees on the job that the Indianapolis workers have. After UPS Freight workers join the Teamster family, we will focus our future organizing efforts at FedEx Freight."
The Teamsters and UPS Freight reached a tentative agreement on September 30. The contract, which covers 125 dockworkers and drivers who belong to Teamsters Local 135 in Indianapolis, also provides employees the protections of a grievance procedure to fight unfair management decisions, something workers have fought hard to achieve.
"This is a historic day," said hall, Director of the Teamsters Parcel and Small Package Division who was lead negotiator. "Thousands of Overnite workers fought so hard for this day to happen. We won't stop until all UPS Freight workers have the secure future that they deserve by working under a Teamster contract."
"In Indianapolis, we have been fighting to join the Teamsters since the mid-1990s, and it feels great to finally have the backing of the strongest union in North America," said Jesse Nicholson, a road driver and 20-year employee. "We look forward to our brothers and sisters at other company terminals joining us so that they too will have the same security."
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4-million hardworking men and women in the United States and Canada. "
 

Ironshot

Well-Known Member
Do the math dumbies. You have on average 1.25 cents per mile regular raise plus 7 % 401K match (My case is $3200 per yr free) this is taken from you and you get an extra half cent per mile in your annual raise. A half cent is roughly $500 based on a 100K mile year. Now figure the nine cents over 5 years....1.8 increase. You LOSE!
Next time I'm at Indy I'll have great deals on Las Vegas ocean side property you can invest in. I'd bet you'd take a turd offered up by hall and say it was the best ever. Eskew is laughing all the way to the bank on this round. Maybe I'm missing something here, does everyone get a trip to Disney World too?
 

Buckethead

Well-Known Member
Do the math dumbies. You have on average 1.25 cents per mile regular raise plus 7 % 401K match (My case is $3200 per yr free) this is taken from you and you get an extra half cent per mile in your annual raise. A half cent is roughly $500 based on a 100K mile year. Now figure the nine cents over 5 years....1.8 increase. You LOSE!
Next time I'm at Indy I'll have great deals on Las Vegas ocean side property you can invest in. I'd bet you'd take a turd offered up by hall and say it was the best ever. Eskew is laughing all the way to the bank on this round. Maybe I'm missing something here, does everyone get a trip to Disney World too?

I have not seen the contract yet, but if it has the delay, work time, and will get rid of my $200 a month medical, I am sure it will more than make up for the 7% match that is stock not cash by the way.

I loose at least 4 hours per trip to the help-overnite-stay-alive-and-well-with-give-an-hour-and-$8.50-for each hour given plan. AT LEAST 4 hours, most of the time its more.

Just say it's four hours a trip with two trips a week, thats 32 hours a month.
At 21.50 per hour thats $688 per month x 12 months = $8266

Thats not including work time missed, the cpm gain from the contract we haven't seen yet, and the savings in medical premium minus the Union dues.

Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture, or I'm missing something but explain to me HOW WE LOOSE???
 

slaveof18wheels

Active Member
I heard that the road drivers vacation will no longer be based on 1/52nd of their gross pay but will now be based on 40 hours. They also lost their drop and hook pay, gave up their 401 match. Is this true? If this is the case they really took it in the shorts. Way to go Indy!!!
 

Buckethead

Well-Known Member
I heard that the road drivers vacation will no longer be based on 1/52nd of their gross pay but will now be based on 40 hours. They also lost their drop and hook pay, gave up their 401 match. Is this true? If this is the case they really took it in the shorts. Way to go Indy!!!

I have to say this is one, if not THE, most ridiculous post I've seen on these threads yet. If you have to start a sentence with "I heard" whatever follows you might want to keep to yourself to avoid looking/sounding foolish.

You might as well say that the city men will work 40 hours per week but only get paid for 30.

Don't speculate, wait for the facts.
 
U

UPS FREIGHT WORKER

Guest
Iron shot, first of all you no nothing about the contract! Second, we do not get 100% match on our 401k, it is 50% up to 7%. That equals 3.5%. At $70,000 a year(which most of us do not make) that is $2450 per year pre tax. You will have to pay a lump sum tax on that money one day.
 

bamaboy

Just Killin Time
I have not seen the contract yet, but if it has the delay, work time, and will get rid of my $200 a month medical, I am sure it will more than make up for the 7% match that is stock not cash by the way.

I loose at least 4 hours per trip to the help-overnite-stay-alive-and-well-with-give-an-hour-and-$8.50-for each hour given plan. AT LEAST 4 hours, most of the time its more.

Just say it's four hours a trip with two trips a week, thats 32 hours a month.
At 21.50 per hour thats $688 per month x 12 months = $8266

Thats not including work time missed, the cpm gain from the contract we haven't seen yet, and the savings in medical premium minus the Union dues.

Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture, or I'm missing something but explain to me HOW WE LOOSE???

Get ready to start loading trailors or sweeping floors. You will work like all UPS small package employees work while they are on the clock. It is called "work as instructed". Have Fun...:lol:
 

bamaboy

Just Killin Time
If you get teamster medical, be prepared to pay the $200.00 that you save plus for any physicals or well visits. They may not have told you about that. The cost for a spouse will make you wish you have the $15.00 co-pay back the first time you go to the doctor...And asked a retired UPS package driver under the age of 65 what it cost them per month for health care for them and their spouse. It is not pretty. It use to be, but it is not pretty anymore.
 

Buckethead

Well-Known Member
Get ready to start loading trailors or sweeping floors. You will work like all UPS small package employees work while they are on the clock. It is called "work as instructed". Have Fun...:lol:

I don't mind working as long as I get paid for it. I will work as instructed as long as they pay me every minute at my top rate.
 

Buckethead

Well-Known Member
If you get teamster medical, be prepared to pay the $200.00 that you save plus for any physicals or well visits. They may not have told you about that. The cost for a spouse will make you wish you have the $15.00 co-pay back the first time you go to the doctor...And asked a retired UPS package driver under the age of 65 what it cost them per month for health care for them and their spouse. It is not pretty. It use to be, but it is not pretty anymore.

Like I said before, I will wait to see facts, not speculation.
 

bamaboy

Just Killin Time
I don't mind working as long as I get paid for it. I will work as instructed as long as they pay me every minute at my top rate.

Ask someone from Indy, but I believe you will be paid at the top rate for that job. So whatever the top rate for a dock worker is you will be paid at that rate when loading, if that rate is not higher than the rate you make.
 

RockyRogue

Agent of Change
Ask someone from Indy, but I believe you will be paid at the top rate for that job. So whatever the top rate for a dock worker is you will be paid at that rate when loading, if that rate is not higher than the rate you make.

Let me get this straight: if you're doing work that pays more than your wage, you get paid at the higher rate? This is what I thought the parcel side did but I wasn't sure. -Rocky
 

Buckethead

Well-Known Member
Ask someone from Indy, but I believe you will be paid at the top rate for that job. So whatever the top rate for a dock worker is you will be paid at that rate when loading, if that rate is not higher than the rate you make.

Like I said, at MY top rate. If not, they can find someone else to do the job. Overnite, still alive and well through it's managers and company men.
 

Buckethead

Well-Known Member
Let me get this straight: if you're doing work that pays more than your wage, you get paid at the higher rate? This is what I thought the parcel side did but I wasn't sure. -Rocky

A driver will have to come down to a dockworkers rate when performing dock work.
 

browned_out

Well-Known Member
Just saw this on TDU website, maybe it willshed some light on the subject.
UPS Freight Indianapolis Contract

October 10, 2007: On Oct. 7, UPS Freight workers at the Indianapolis terminal voted 107-1 to approve a new contract that will last six years, until Aug. 1, 2013. The International Union will use it as a model for other UPS Freight terminals around the country.
In a conference call with local unions on Oct. 2, hall and James Hoffa reported that there is a "card check" deal with UPS Freight, which will make it easier to organize the various terminals. If the majority of workers at a terminal sign Teamster cards that are independently verified, the company will recognize and bargain with the Teamsters Union at that barn.
The union agreed to management's demand to make that card check agreement conditional on ratification of the UPS national contract, including the break-out of 44,000 Teamsters from the Central States Fund. That was management's central demand in national bargaining. As reported on the call, signing of cards cannot start until after the whole UPS contract process is done.
Contract Terms
The UPS Freight contract will not be under the National Master Freight Agreement, or a supplement to it, but a white paper contract. Wages go up 65¢ immediately, and then 70-75-80-85-90¢ over the next five years (the wage increases are split in half each year, in January and July). It has company pension, apparently with no improvement, and company health benefits. A Teamster must pay $150 per month to get family health coverage. No change in sick days, personal days or vacations.
The company previously provided matching money for a 401(k), and that was given up in the contract. That and the co-pay for health insurance are two of the issues that a number of UPS Freight drivers have forcefully objected to on the internet forum truckingboards.
But they now get union protection: a grievance procedure (not the freight panels, a company-based procedure) and seniority rights.
Some in the Freight Division have expressed concern that relief given to UPS, the most profitable transport corporation in the world, will weaken our bargaining power with freight carriers which compete with UPS Freight. On the conference call, Hall appealed to them to hold their fire and "trust us."
Organizing Drive
Organizing by locals at UPS Freight terminals could start by the end of the year, if the UPS national contract and the pension fund break-out are approved. The "card check" deal has a three-year duration, so our union has that period to sign up the majority at as many terminals as possible. Many locals are eager to take a crack at bringing some of the 15,000 UPS Freight workers into the Teamster fold.
Attempted Decertification in Reno
A potential sour note in the organizing effort was struck a week earlier at the Reno Nevada UPS Freight terminal. This is one of a few UPS Freight terminals under Teamster contract; it was formerly Motor Cargo, a company bought by Overnite, which later became UPS Freight.
On Sept. 25 a vote was held to decertify the Teamsters and go nonunion. Fortunately the union won 32-31, but there are three challenged ballots to be resolved. Hopefully Local 533 will hold onto that Teamster unit.
 
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