Recently, with news of the automaker crisis, a lie has been floated about how much UAW members are making at the Big Three U.S. automakers. If you’ve heard or read these claims, you may fall into the belief that our fellow union members at U.S. auto plants receive compensation equaling $70 per hour. Don’t fall for it. Read more…
But UPS is thousands of jobs short of the 20,000 full-time combo jobs required by the contract. And every day management is eliminating more of these jobs.
President Hoffa has bragged that our union has a “Hammer” to stop employers in egregious cases like this: the Right To Strike on deadlocked grievances.
No one needs a strike, especially before the holidays including UPS. What we do need is to send a clear message to every Teamster employer that our union is serious about protecting members’ jobs.
Is it time to remind management that we’ve got the Hammer? (read more)
I remember walking a picket line in the summer of ’97, the year we won contract language guaranteeing the first 10,000 article 22.3 full-time jobs. Though we won that contract language in ’97, we didn’t see the first of those jobs for almost two years, as management dragged their feet on creating those jobs.
I’ve heard grumblings from several contacts across the country that there hasn’t been any evidence the company has filled the last round of 2,500 article 22.3 jobs (slated to be filled by August 1, 2008). There’s supposed to be a master list of these existing jobs available to the union. As of yet, I’ve heard no firm answer on whether we have that list or how to obtain it.
If you’re a Teamster working part-time at UPS wondering when (or if) your full-time job opportunity is going to come, you can make a call or write to your local union. Let them know you want to see the proof that UPS has lived up to its end of the bargain.
If not, maybe this guy might be able to help us out:
*Thanks to Tom for the heads up on the video
**I once quoted a statement from Norman Black (the media relations manager who appears in the above video) to a sort manager with whom I was discussing a grievance. He shrugged off Mr. Black’s statement. I countered that Norman Black was an official spokesperson for the company, so his statement (which favored the member I was representing) should count for something. The sort manager looked at me, smiled and said, “I don’t care what Norman Black says. He’s an idiot.” Interestingly, that’s pretty much how he looks in the video.
