In that spirit, I hope we’ll all taking the opportunity to show solidarity with the victims and survivors of this tragedy. If you haven’t found a way to contribute yet, I encourage you to donate to one of the following organizations that are doing vital work to help the Haitian people come out of this catastrophic time.

American Red Cross
United Way Worldwide Disaster Fund
Doctors without Borders

Every little bit helps. Even if you don’t have much time to surf the net making donations, or if you’re timid about using your credit card info online or over the phone, you have other options. In most cases, you can even donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts via your cell phone — just text the word “HAITI” to 90999 and reply to a confirmation text.

I am more than me,
not the one you had foreseen,
but just like you I had a dream –
a delicate contingency –
depending on a “we.”

*
The poem above was written over a year ago, during the last few months of the 2008 Presidential campaign. When I scribbled the first few lines, I was thinking about all the people in the country who were talking about “change” and “hope.” And I was thinking about then-candidate Obama, who had given a voice to the dreamy-eyed idealism of millions of Americans.

But one thing that disturbed me even then was how some people imagined President Obama would right all the wrongs done by our federal government, especially those done over the past 8 years. Sadly, there were far fewer people who seemed to understand that any substantive change in our political system was going to rely not only on the people at the very top, but also on those at every other level.

Some thought voting was all they had to do. Others went a step further, working tirelessly on the campaign. But far too many seemed to think that once the election was over, there was nothing more to do.

By the time the poem was finished, I realized there are folks who think this way not just about national politics, but also about local politics — and even union politics.

**
As a shop steward for most of the past nine years, I’ve been approached by many who want solutions, who want things changed for the better. Many of them are willing to step up and be a part of their own solution, but some believe that their part ends once they share their problems with someone like me.

Some people believe that shop stewards and business agents can work magic all by themselves. And yes, every once in a while, we may seem to get magical results. We may even get you exactly what you want without you having to lift a finger. But more often than not, you need to be involved if you want real solutions.

Sometimes I remind those who come to me for help that I might need their help to get them what they want. This is how it is for us as union members — we have to stand up for our rights. If not, we have no one else to blame when those rights continue to get trampled. When we make the mistake of thinking our leaders will do everything for us, we set ourselves up for frustration.

***
So when you come to me with a problem, don’t be surprised if I ask what you’re willing to do to help solve it.

If your rights are being disregarded in the workplace, but you aren’t willing to file a grievance, your problem probably won’t go away any time soon.

If you’re unhappy with the way you’re being represented, but you’re unwilling to make your voice heard, you’ll probably remain unhappy for a long while to come.

If you see problems, but you aren’t willing to work toward fixing them and supporting others who do, you probably shouldn’t expect too many solutions.

Any time we fall into the trap of thinking of our union as something “they” run, we surrender control of our union. The union isn’t just the elected officers, business agents or shop stewards. It’s every single member — we are the union.

And if we want something, we can get it, as long as we’re willing to work for it.

Many of us think of buying union when we make the big ticket purchases, but we can also make a difference in our week-to-week food shopping. In talking with my co-workers, I’ve noticed many who shop at non-union grocery stores. This isn’t meant to shame them — I’ve done it myself. Very few of us are perfect in supporting union jobs. But we should all try to be.

The grocery industry is rife with non-union stores, but there are also many union stores available to anyone wishing to support decent wages and benefits across the board. In the Philadelphia area, we have fine options like ACME, Pathmark and Shoprite. The UFCW has a sample list of union employers in the retail food industry, if you’re curious. You can also identify a unionized store by union markings at or near its entrance.

My local Pathmark employs members of UFCW Local 1776, and they’re some of the most friendly and helpful supermarket workers I’ve ever encountered. Their store is consistently clean and well-stocked (not to mention I get an actual cashier to ring up my order, even late at night). And, contrary to stereotype, my grocery bill is not that much more than it would be at non-union stores like Giant, Redner’s, Wegman’s, or the WalMart Supercenter around the corner from work. In some cases, my unionized Pathmark is actually cheaper.

Even though shopping union sometimes seems more expensive, by supporting unionized labor, we increase the bargaining power of union members across the board. Yes, that includes Teamsters working at UPS. Because when we support more sustainable, better-paying jobs, we help our economy, especially locally. The more people are able to afford goods and services, the more likely they are to give their business to sellers and service providers (like, say, UPS).

On the other hand, when we support non-union stores with their lower-paying jobs (what many refer to as the “WalMart-ization” of America), we increase the downward momentum that’s been decreasing wages for years. It’s the same momentum that’s been fooling too Americans (union members included) into thinking unions no longer matter. And to people who think unions don’t matter, shopping union doesn’t matter, either.

Speaking of which, if you’re a fellow UPS Teamster who believes unions don’t matter, imagine a future without industry-best wages, medical benefits, and a pension. If those are things you’d rather not have, then maybe you can say with a straight face that unions don’t matter.

But if you’re like me, and you appreciate a job with good wages and benefits, you should know full well how much unions matter. And if you know that much, you should understand the importance of supporting union workers whenever possible. By helping them, we help ourselves.

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.

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.

Ron Weller, a longtime UPS feeder driver out of the West Chester facility, was driving a personal vehicle when he was struck by an oncoming truck that had crossed into his traffic lane.

My prayers and sympathy go to his wife and son, as well as any other family, friends and co-workers who will miss him.

In watching President Obama’s announcement yesterday concerning the U.S. auto industry, I was disappointed to hear him suggest that UAW employees may be in line for even more forced concessions if the industry is to be saved. I hope that isn’t so. Especially not after hearing members of the administration defend the validity of AIG bonuses under the guise of honoring contracts.

If a contract is a contract, then it should be that way whether you’re an overpaid executive or an assembly line worker struggling to keep his family afloat. I hope President Obama understands that as well.

Watch the President’s address:

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.

A former UPS package car driver, Carey would become the first democratically elected head of the IBT. He went on to lead the union in a successful strike against UPS in 1997, because of which he is credited with opening the door to thousands of new full-time Teamster jobs.

People have differing opinions of Ron Carey (as they tend to have of all leaders), but many of the accomplishments he had in his time leading our union cannot be dismissed, no matter your opinion of Mr. Carey. As we hear news of his passing, all union men and women should hold him in a place of respect for the things he did for our cause.

To read more now on Ron Carey, check out TDU.org