For far too long, panel decisions have been treated like state secrets, but disclosure of these decisions are vital to our understanding of how effectively our union is being represented overall.

Make UPS Deliver has been providing this information for the past couple National Grievance Panel meetings, and I applaud their actions in the interests of rank-and-file UPS Teamsters. Click here to download the decisions in PDF format.

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.

You see, for years FedEx has been pretending to be an airline. This masquerade has made it easy for them to avoid unionization of the majority of their workforce who have nothing to do with the airline operations.

On the propaganda website they’ve set up to spread their lies and distortions (brownbailout.com), they do a lot of clever things: they persistently refer to themselves as an “airline” and to UPS as a “trucking company.” Both characterizations are less than genuine.

The fact is FedEx and UPS engage in the same basic core business. Both operate substantial airlines to facilitate their core business, which is package delivery. But FedEx wants the world — or at least Congress — to believe that what they do is significantly different from what UPS does. They cry that if the changes to the Railway Act go through, they will no longer be able to offer competitive services.

In other words, FedEx is openly admitting that they’re incapable of doing what UPS has done for years: make a profit with a unionized workforce. They apparently don’t believe their management teams can cope with the same situation UPS has managed for years. I don’t normally hold up UPS management as beacons of unparalleled genius, but apparently the folks at FedEx see them that way.

FedEx claims it can’t run a profitable, efficient business if it has to operate on the same level as other delivery companies. FedEx is claiming that for them to lose that crutch amounts to a bailout for UPS, but what they’re hoping you won’t notice is that their fake status has been bailing them out for years.

Essentially, with their bogus “airline” classification under the Railway Labor Act, FedEx has been riding with training wheels since birth. Asking them to take off the training wheels isn’t a “bailout” to UPS; it’s just common sense — at some point the execs at FedEx need to prove they’re capable of running their business without artificial advantages.

If you want to help FedEx take off the training wheels, use the “Write to Congress” page to let your governmental representatives know the Railway Labor Act revisions need to pass, and that FedEx has to be put on a level playing field with other delivery companies at long last.

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.

The memo bears the title “March Cost Cutting Initiatives.” It even talks about laying off Article 22.3 Teamsters. Click here to read more about it.

Click here to download the memo.

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.

One is UPS Advice, a new forum from UPS Teamsters. It’s not an official union website, but rather a rank and file effort. If you’d like to contribute something useful, or learn some new tricks, check it out.

The other resource is Denver Brown Blog, a new reworking of an old favorite. Yes, the longtime resource for UPS Teamsters is back in blog format. Even in retirement, George Kieffer graces us with more insights from his 30-plus years in brown. You should definitely check this out.

No other details or reasoning were given, and employees were told that corrections would be made in the following week’s pay — despite contract language requiring shortages of this size be paid within two business days following the company’s awareness of such shortages.

One cannot help but wonder how such a “mistake” could have been made, especially considering rumblings earlier in December of alleged management intent at UPS Freight to deprive employees of holiday pay due to a layoff day. That plan was reportedly averted, though with a similar layoff day imposed on workers at UPS, the possibility of company payroll misinterpreting the company’s obligations and voiding holiday pay does exist.

Though no express contract language provides for an automatic penalty for such a widespread shortage, an investigation into the company’s failure to meet payroll obligations may be in order.

UPDATE: Most Christmas payroll shortages were corrected a week after the shortage, though some employees (mostly Article 22 full-time workers) had to wait an additional week for their money. A small number of employees (those who filed grievances for late payment penalties) should be getting penalty payments the week ending January 31.