But if you pay a little closer attention, you probably know better.

But just in case you don’t think reform is needed, maybe you should consider that the per capita cost of health care in the U.S. is about double what it is in other industrialized countries. Or perhaps you should know that 7 out of 10 people who declare bankruptcy due to medical bills already have health insurance. Or maybe (if you need more motivation to support health care reform) I should tell you that the U.S. also lags behind other industrialized nations in terms of life expectancy.

All of these factors affect us, whether we realize it or not. And the rapidly rising cost of health insurance premiums will even affect those of us with good union-negotiated health care benefits — if we don’t do something to stem the tide.

Health care benefits are a huge part of every contract negotiated with companies like UPS, and the more expensive those benefits get, the more desperately management will try to do away with them. The rising cost of health coverage in the U.S. is also a huge part the competitive disadvantage hurting many U.S. companies whose overseas competitors benefit from more cohesive, government-structured health care.

All these facts aside, there are still people buying the propaganda that our health care (health insurance) system is the best in the world. And it probably should be, considering our system is twice as expensive. But the sad fact is most of the extra costs we face end up padding the profit margins of the insurance industry, not improving the quality of our health care.

Something needs to be done to curb the out-of-control health care costs in this country, but too many people are still stuck in the mud of lies from the past:

• Lies that suggest health care reform includes “death panels” to decide who lives and who dies — even though no such plan exists. The provision being distorted in this lie is one that provides optional counseling for those wishing to make advanced directives.
• Lies that suggest a government run program would be second-rate and include “rationing” — even though the best-ranked health care systems in the U.S. are the Veterans Administration and Medicare (which are run by the government) and neither engages in rationing anywhere near as much as the health insurance companies that deny life-saving coverage because of technicalities like “pre-existing conditions.”
• Lies that suggest we don’t need reform because there aren’t really 45 million uninsured in this country — even though the problems with our system affect the insured almost as badly as the uninsured.

The White House has put up a site to debunk some of the myths and misunderstandings, which you can access by clicking the image at the top of this post, or by clicking here.

It’s important to educate ourselves on this vital issue, and then to make our voices heard. I encourage you to do both, before it’s too late.

I’ve written previously about FedEx’s misclassified workers and the pending legislation in Congress to level the playing field. It’s an amendment to the Railway Labor Act in this year’s FAA reauthorization bill. If you’d like a little more background information on the whole issue, please click here.

If there are any other concerns UPS Teamsters have about this issue, please feel free to contact your local union representatives or ask me (either online or in real life). Whatever the case, it’s extremely important that all UPS Teamsters understand what’s at stake.

More importantly, did you know we could fix much of the problem simply by learning how our safety committees are actually meant to work?

Time for a quick summary of some very important facts most UPS employees don’t even know about the safety committee:

1. The union members on the committee represent the safety interests of the union and its members first and foremost, not the interests of the company..
2. Eligibility to serve on the union side of the committee is ultimately decided by the union, not by the company.
3. The union co-chair of the committee is chosen by a vote of the union members on the committee, not by the company.

Far too many employees (and committee members) believe that the safety committee is a company committee. It is not — it is a co-chaired committee with members from the union and management sides, respectively. The basic guidelines are set by Article 18 of our master contract.

But if you read the “safety” boards in our building you will notice that the co-chairs of each committee are labeled as “management” and “non-management.” See what they did there? By mislabeling the union side of the committee, they’ve made it easier to forget who the union side of the committee represents. Whether by design or dumb luck (which is all too often the case at UPS), that’s exactly the effect their selective mislabeling has had.

Union members on the committee aren’t there to spread company propaganda about time limits for injury reporting or to find ways to blame workers for getting injured. Union members on the committee are there to report potentially hazardous conditions and help investigate, present concerns raised by other union members and find ways to solve these problems. Article 18 even states that a safety concern should be presented to the safety committee prior to a filing grievance, making each union safety committee member a quasi-shop steward.

The company does not get to run the committee. The company does not get to steamroll concerns raised by the union side of the committee. The company does not get to tell union employees whether or not they can serve on the committee. The company does not get to choose the union co-chair. The company does not get to do any of these things — unless we let them.

And sadly, we’ve been letting them for far too long. I would like to see that change, and I’m guessing the majority of my co-workers, especially those who’ve been harassed for reporting injuries, would also like to see it change.

If you’re one of those who wants this to change, I hope you’ll be part of the change. If you’re a current committee member, I hope you’ll seek concrete ways to change the atmosphere on the committee from within — maybe you’ll even run for co-chair. If you’re not on the committee, I hope you’ll consider putting yourself forward for membership on the committee — not for the free food, paid time in meetings or time away from your work area during the shift. That last item, joining the committee, is one I’m going to be looking into myself.

Maybe you’ll join me, in whatever way you can. It’s going to take a concerted group effort to turn the tide.

In the next installment of Why Safety Is a Joke, we’ll discuss a few of the lies that are sometimes spread with the unwitting assistance of union members on the safety committee.

NEVER refuse to represent a member, whether you think they have a case or not. If they ask you, do it!

NEVER let a management person tell you how to be a steward. You may be unsure, or flying by the seat of your pants, but remember the words spoken here- “Do something, even if it is wrong”. You will be right more often than you may think.

NEVER let management tell you that you cannot file a grievance over an issue. If they try to tell you that you cannot file a grievance assume it is the grievance of the century. If they think they can coerce you into backing off, they will do it every time.

NEVER fail to follow up your grievances with the business agent. Be sure that he has received them, (you did mail them didn’t you?), and give him a call so that he can understand the issues. It isn’t always obvious to him what you may be looking for. Some grievances take on a life of their own, and everyone involved needs to understand the goal of a filed grievance.

NEVER let a member convince you that you are doing a poor job as a steward. You had the guts to take on the job in the first place, while they sit back on their Lazy Arss and let you take the heat. It’s easy to criticize when you aren’t the guy in the line of fire. You have to deal with a number of different issues on a daily basis. They only have to figure which hand to use to wipe that Lazy Arss.

NEVER forget that you are a part of a bigger cause. You are a part of the success of the Teamsters Union. You are a part of the reason we are the highest paid people in the small package industry. You are the reason this Union can command the respect it does. You are the front line soldier that ultimately dictates the strength of this great Union. Take pride in what you do, because without you this Union would not stand.

-Bob Newhouse

Click here to check out some of the other great info on Denverbrown’s Union page.

So we learned over the past couple days that Senator Arlen Specter is no friend to the working man, as evidenced by his flip-flop on Employee Free Choice (a bill he once co-sponsored, but now won’t even let come to a vote).

In his speech from the floor of the Senate, Mr. Specter announced he would oppose even allowing the measure to be voted on by his Senate colleagues. By denying his vote for cloture (a measure to end debate in the Senate), Arlen Specter is saying he believes a minority has a right deny the majority their right to vote on a bill. This from a man who doesn’t believe the majority of workers in a workplace should have the right to choose for themselves how they want to join a union. In its own strange way, it makes perfect sense I suppose.

In a post yesterday, I strongly suggested that PA workers let Senator Specter know they don’t appreciate him standing in the way of a vote on Employee Free Choice. Today, I point out a convenient way for all of us to send our message to Senator Specter’s office. Courtesy of Keystone Progress, there’s a simple way to send a message telling Mr. Specter to at least let the EFCA come to a vote. Even if he doesn’t support it, he should allow his fellow senators to cast their votes.

Click here to send that message to Arlen Specter.

What changed — the EFCA provisions? No, they’re still the same. Maybe normal working people no longer need any help leveling the playing field? Nope, that’s not it either. So how is this year’s version of the bill different from last year’s?

Oh, that’s right. This year, the measure has a chance of passing, since we no longer have an anti-worker administration in the White House. And Specter is expected to face an ultra-conservative challenger in next year’s Republican primary, so he has to show he’s not a friend of labor unions. Even though he likes to say he is a friend of the labor movement.

I guess actions speak louder than words. Which is why I strongly encourage every Pennsylvania voter to contact Senator Specter’s office to let him know that his loyalty to working people is not measured by empty campaign promises or a yes vote on a measure he knows will never become law (especially when he votes against the same measure when it has a chance of being passed).

If you are a Pennsylvania voter, please let Senator Specter know what you think of his lack of principle on this issue. If you are any kind of voter at all, even if it’s not in Pennsylvania, please make sure your Senators know the EFCA is important to you as well. Make sure your representatives represent you!

Click here to find out how to contact your representatives. Make yourselves heard!

Watch part two here.
Watch part three here.

(via Denver Brown Blog)

For now, the rumors have subsided, at least in part, as the company is backing off some of its more egregious propositions regarding the Article 22.3 employees. No doubt the volume of calls to the Local Union from concerned members played a part in that shift — one reason why now is no time to stop with the pressure.

We have seen and heard threats to our jobs and talk about guarantees being shredded by a company making billions in profit. One thing most UPSers don’t seem to be thinking about is the violation of our contract that has been happening for months now. I’m talking about the 20,000 jobs UPS is required to maintain under Article 22, Section 3 of the UPS Master Agreement, as well as the documentation they are required to provide:

The number of full-time jobs created under Article 22, Section 3 of the 1997-2002 and the 2002-2008 Agreements shall not be reduced. Within sixty (60) days of the ratification of this Agreement the
Employer shall provide the International Teamsters Union a report detailing and identifying the full-time jobs which will need to be maintained pursuant to this paragraph.

The deadline for the last wave of those 20,000 jobs was last August, but there has been no indication that this language has been satisfied. So how exactly is the company able to eliminate jobs when they have yet to prove they’ve met this obligation?

And why isn’t the International Union proactively engaged in distributing the above mentioned list to locals for a nationwide audit process to see exactly how far away the company is from its obligation? Without complete information, there is no way to verify the extent of these violations. The company can dissolve a position from one location then claim it has gone elsewhere, but without verification, we have no way of knowing whether those claims are true. It is the essence of a shell game — an ages old con.

Are you a current Article 22.3 full-timer who has been afraid your job might disappear? Are you a part-timer who hopes one day to have a full-time job? If so, UPS’ disregard for contractual obligations directly affects you. But again, it affects all of us who call ourselves Teamsters. We all need to care about this rampant violation of our rights, because taking away the rights of even a few of us diminishes the rights of all of us.

In the coming days and weeks, I hope to be doing even more to get my fellow members involved in ongoing efforts to stop the shell game. Hopefully, some of you will join me.

“In Germany, they came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
and then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
and then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
and then… they came for me… and by that time
there was no one left to speak up.”
- attributed to Martin Niemoller

This past week in the Willow Grove UPS hub, some disturbing things have been happening. While we’ve known for a while about layoffs, the new developments revolve around the company reportedly trying to redefine some key terms in our contract.

The company announced, on rather short notice, plans to layoff certain inside workers. While any layoffs are disturbing in their own right, these layoffs are structured quite differently than past staffing reductions. In particular, these layoffs have targeted higher seniority, Article 22.3 employees, who have been kept from their guaranteed work hours while lower seniority employees have been permitted to keep working in the same operation.

On Friday, February 6, 2009, several Article 22.3 workers were kept out of work in this fashion. Inquiries made to the Local Union were met with claims that the Union had no involvement in the layoff selection process, which is in itself a serious violation of contractual rights. Furthermore, Union officials maintained that they were “completely against” what was happening.

How did the company get away with laying off full-time workers while junior employees were allowed to work in the same operation? Good question. Maybe it’s because they attempted to redefine seniority by insisting that Article 22.3 employees are in a totally separate classification from any part-time employees (even when full and part-time employees are both doing the same exact work).

While that may seem like a gross violation of the terms or our contract, it gets worse when you find out the company also claims the displaced employees have no right to bump. And how do they get away with that? Apparently, they do it by claiming that each day laid off is its own separate layoff. You see, in our supplement, most laid off workers with seniority have the right to bump after a specified number of layoff days. If the company is only laying off for a day each week, they will claim the count of days laid off is reset every week, even if their intent is to maintain a reduced work schedule for several weeks at a time.

Perhaps the company feels this is ample justification to deprive Union employees of some of their most basic rights, but it’s pretty clear the spirit of the contract doesn’t mean what they want it to mean.

The question now is, what are we going to do about it?

I say “we” because, aside from concepts we’ve already discussed in this post like seniority and bumping rights, there is an equally important concept we all need to embrace for our Union to be as effective as it needs to be:

SOLIDARITY

Solidarity is the one word answer to any misguided Union member who feels that violations committed against other Union members don’t affect them. It’s the one word retort to anyone who sees a Union brother or sister being violated and responds by saying, “It’s not my problem.” And it’s the only effective way to answer injustice that will otherwise spread to effect all of us.

And it will spread. What you mistakenly believe is someone else’s problem today will someday become your problem, too. And that day may come sooner than you expect. The only way to be ready for it is to stand by your fellow Union members.

Otherwise, it may turn out the way it did for people like Martin Niemoller (quoted at the top of this post), who mistakenly believed it wasn’t their problem when the Nazis went after other groups of people.

As I type these words, I know there are people in our Union who believe that what’s happening to others isn’t their problem. Because they don’t see themselves in the line of fire right now, they keep quiet — maybe because they don’t think the company’s sights will ever be turned on them, or maybe because they’re afraid that by standing up for others, the company will target them next. Whatever the case, if we don’t stand by our fellow Union members, who exactly do we expect will stand by us when it is our turn to be targeted?

Management depends on this kind of foolish indifference and apathy. They hope we’ll selfishly let them pick off our brothers and sisters so it will be even easier to target the rest of us in the future.

Think about it — before it’s too late.