UPS is set to begin negotiating a new contract. What do its union members want?

It was supposed to be today.

Monday, April 17th, was the date set for the beginning of national contract talks between United Parcel Service and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The current five-year contract expires July 31st.

But it already appears that things will not be proceeding according to that mutually-agreed-upon timetable.

First, a bit of background. This contract includes a national master agreement and several dozen supplements, addendums, and riders ‘specific to the regions in which UPS Teamsters work. These contracts define provisions not covered under the national agreement like paid time off, discipline language, seniority, overtime, and work hours.’

Since January, each of these agreements have been negotiated separately by local teams representing UPS Teamsters from the respective regions, but with very little progress. Up until last week, only ten of 40 supplemental agreements had been completed.

Then last Wednesday, UPS released a statement announcing that it’s ready to come to the table and bargain in good faith on the national master agreement. That same day the Teamsters leadership released its own statement indicating that the union would not enter national negotiations until all the supplements are finalized.

We have clearly stated our intentions to UPS from the beginning that there would be no national negotiations until these regional contracts are completed. This is not a game. But you wouldn’t know that based on UPS’s behavior. The livelihoods of our members are at stake. UPS delays, disappears, drags its feet, and refuses to talk about the real issues that workers need addressed. The Teamsters aren’t going to stand for it.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien

Earlier today both sides met in Washington, DC, to deliver these same messages to each other – and to the wider public – in person.

The Teamster ultimatum has led to tentative agreement on two additional supplements. Meanwhile, renewed talks on many – but not all – of the remaining 28 supplements are scheduled to move this week to the nation’s capital.

If UPS wants to show workers that they are true partners and they care about the workforce, then they need to get off their asses and start making movement on our issues now.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien

So, what are ‘our issues,’ precisely? If you’ve been following along with this blog you’ll already be familiar with several of them. For the past two-plus years as a ‘22.4 driver’ I’ve dealt with long hours and six-day workweeks, all while being paid less than my ‘Regular Package Car Driver’ (RPCD) counterparts.

But the contract covers more than just full-time drivers like me. This Teamster-produced video features actual UPSers in a variety of roles articulating the changes they’re seeking in the upcoming contract.

According to this video, the number-one issue is higher wages. The current wage scale was implemented in 2018 – before Covid, before all this inflation. All UPSers need and deserve a raise for their work producing record profits for the company, but part-timers especially, as their wage scale is considerably lower.

For the past forty years or more, United Parcel Service has increased its profitability by expanding the ranks of lower-paid, part-time positions. Part-timers now outnumber full-timers at UPS. In contract after contract, Teamsters have pushed back on this trend by insisting that the company create more full-time opportunities for its members who want them.

Coupled with this demand is the demand to stop using personal vehicle drivers (PVDs) to make deliveries and subcontractors to haul trailers between UPS warehouses. These non-union jobs don’t have any benefits or protections, and they take opportunities away from union members.

But even as part-time UPSers desire more hours (in the form of a full-time job), the full-timers desire (somewhat) fewer hours. My own journey reflects this unnecessary dilemma. I couldn’t support a family on the pay and hours of a part-time warehouse position, so I bid to become a full-time driver. Now I have to deal with excessive, mandatory overtime, which keeps me away from my family longer than a standard 40-hour workweek.

As a 22.4 driver I don’t have any right in the current contract to file a grievance when I work more than nine-and-a-half hours in a shift. Nor can I submit a request for my shift to be limited to eight hours. And I can be subject to disciplinary action for not showing up when forced in on my day off.

The 22.4 classification of drivers was implemented over the opposition of a majority of UPS Teamsters in 2018. Now the union wants this classification eliminated. What would become of these drivers – would they be converted to RPCDs, or would they return to working in the warehouse on a full-time basis – isn’t clear. But a two-tier system of delivery drivers appears to be a deal-breaker for the union.

I’ve written about all the ways UPS monitors its drivers. The current contract already includes language stating that employees cannot be subjected to disciplinary action based on technological surveillance alone. Now Teamsters want the upcoming contract to include explicit language preventing the most intrusive forms of surveillance – driver-facing cameras in particular.

Another contract issue the Teamster video puts forth that I’ve dealt with directly is excessive heat in the package cars. I don’t know what the solution would be, but it’s a serious health and safety issue that’s only going to get worse – and more costly – if the company doesn’t address it.

The final major issue the video presents is the fact that UPS doesn’t yet recognize Martin Luther King, Jr., Day and Juneteenth as paid holidays. Both are paid federal holidays. Both honor the struggles and sacrifices of African Americans for freedom and civil rights.

These are just the major issues this contract campaign. There are others besides. A document I came across online articulates many more – all? – of the changes to the current contract put forward by a grassroots organization of rank-and-file union members called Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU).

I have no idea how many of these issues – major or minor – will end up as actual proposals at the bargaining table, let alone how many will end up in the new contract. A lot of these proposed changes would certainly, directly, immediately, and significantly affect the company’s balance sheet.

Other proposed changes would not cost the company any (or much) money but would nevertheless affect the balance of power between management and labor. And we know that the employment relation is as much about power as it is about money – if not more so.

That struggle for power is precisely why we’ve arrived at April 17th with a bit of a standoff between a $100 billion corporation and its 340,000 unionized employees.