Teamsters union blackmails
UPS workers: Approve contract or your wages will be cut
By
Will Morrow
23 July 2018
The Teamsters Union is seeking to blackmail UPS workers into
voting for its sellout contract proposal by threatening that a “no” vote will
result in an even worse offer.
A UPS worker provided us with a letter sent out to all New York
state UPS Teamster members by Local 687 president Brian Hammond. The letter,
dated July 16, includes the following threat:
“Health and pension—the company has agreed to pay the full amount
needed to the health and pension fund of $5.28 over the life of the agreement.
They will do this only if we pass our supplement [agreement] the first time. If
not, the extra amount will come from your wage increase like before. Currently
FT [full-time] employees have $1.95 per hour diverted to pension. I do not want
to see that number increase!”
Supplementary agreements are worked out by local Teamsters unions
and apply in addition to the national master contract. Hammond’s letter is a
threat that if workers vote against the agreement, the already low wage
increases that it contains will be lost and diverted to the company’s pension
obligations.
The Teamsters’ statement demonstrates yet again that it functions
not as a representative of the workers against the company, but as an agency of
the company against the workers. If the union were in any way answerable to the
rank-and-file workers, a “no” vote would be taken as an mandate for a national
strike to meet workers’ demands for improved wages and conditions.
But the Teamsters view a “no” vote as an insolent affront and
obstacle to their cooperation with management and participation in the boosting
of UPS’s profits. Hammond’s letter is also aimed at dividing younger workers
from those nearing retirement, by threatening younger workers with paying more
toward current pensions.
The UPS worker who sent the WSWS Hammond’s letter, and wished to
remain anonymous to avoid retribution by the union, told this reporter, “The
union is supposed to represent us, the dues-paying members, but they’re in
collusion with the company and doing the company’s bidding with them. That’s
the belief among the workers at the building I work for. It’s basically a tool
for the company.”
Hammond, whose officially reported income as Local 687 president
is $100,000, is a seasoned expert at cutting workers’ pensions. He sits on the
board of the New York State Teamsters Conference Pension and Retirement Fund as
one of its four “labor” trustees. Last September, the Teamsters conspired to
slash pension pay outs to retired workers by up to 30 percent.
The union sent ballots to all 34,000 workers covered under the
fund, asking whether they supported cuts to pensions. More than 9,700 workers
voted against the cuts, with only 4,081 voting in favor. The Teamsters then
utilized the fact that the more than 20,000 eligible Teamsters members who did
not vote could be counted as a “yes” under federal law to ram the cuts through.
A typical retiree’s monthly pension benefit fell from approximately $5,000 to
$3,000 the following month.
The UPS worker explained, “It was a complete sham. They sent a
vote out to anyone, including those who worked there for three days. They got a
ballot and it was counted as a ‘yes.’”
The worker said his own pension had already been cut several years
earlier, in 2011, when the union set a retirement age of 55. Previously,
workers could retire at any age, so long as they had worked for at least 30
years.
Hammond’s letter is full of lies aimed at strong arming workers
into voting in favor of the agreement. It begins by referring to an unnamed
“group [on Facebook] trying to discourage the membership of [sic] voting in
favor of the new agreement. Mainly because of the new classification of 22.4
drivers. I can tell you that this classification is a necessity for upstate New
York!”
The new 22.4 position is a second-tier driver/warehouse worker
“hybrid” that would be paid less than current drivers. Hammond claims that
accepting the new category would “force the hiring of full-time employees
delivering packages at UPS.”
In fact, the position is aimed at destroying the last remaining
better-paid, full-time position at the company. The contract now states that
existing full-time drivers will be provided with five consecutive days of eight
hours each week, “so long as work is available.”
Hammond’s letter is in line with the union’s manoeuvres throughout
the contract negotiations. At the beginning of June, 93 percent of UPS workers
voted to authorize strike action with the expiration of the current contract on
July 31.
On July 10, the union published an announcement that it was
extending the negotiations beyond the deadline. This is to buy time, wear down
workers’ opposition and prevent a walkout. There has still been no date set for
a vote on the deal.
UPS workers cannot fight to defend their conditions through the
Teamsters union. The unions are not defensive organizations of the working
class. They are labour management syndicates that police the working class on
behalf of the corporations. Workers need new organizations to fight.
Rank-and-file factory committees must be established in every
depot and warehouse to develop opposition to the proposed contract and ensure
it is rejected. Workers must take the struggle out of the Teamsters union, and
unite with other warehouse and distribution workers, including at Amazon, FedEx
and the US Postal Service, in the United States and internationally in a common
struggle against the class war on workers’ jobs, wages and conditions.
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