Teamsters leadership has its tentative deal with UPS. Now they have to win their members’ support.
Leaders of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are making a major push across the country, getting out the vote among UPS members in support of the five-year pact negotiated late last month with the Sandy Springs-based company. The Teamsters have more than 340,000 members at UPS, making it the largest private collective bargaining agreement in North America, and voting on the national agreement and local supplements is expected to conclude Aug. 22.
Like a political campaign, Teamsters local leaders are holding member meetings to tout the deal and its pay increases, and posting video testimonials of yes-voters on social media. The pro-deal blitz is intended to head off skepticism among some more strident members of the union, including an activist group called Teamsters Mobilize, seeking higher pay raises for part-timers to $25 an hour starting pay.
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien campaigned for his position “promising he was going to negotiate a far better contract with UPS” — and that created high expectations, said Paul Clark, professor of labor and employment relations at Pennsylvania State University.
The union’s local leaders voted overwhelmingly to endorse the agreement, which would give current part-time workers raises to at least $21 per hour immediately, according to the Teamsters. Full-time delivery drivers would get wage increases to an average top rate of $49 per hour. Existing full-time and part-time workers would get raises of $2.75 per hour this year, and $7.50 more per hour over the length of the contract, along with other improvements.
Matt Higdon, president of Teamsters Local 728 in Atlanta, was on the negotiating committee for the UPS contract and supports the deal.
“The sensible, right thing to do is to take these historic gains. You can push it too far,” Higdon said.
Some believe there are more gains to be had, if negotiators return to the bargaining table.
Evette Avery, a UPS worker in Atlanta who has been with the company for 17 years, has already voted no. She said she wants to see better pay for part-timers and more protections to limit drivers from having to work overtime.
As a driver whose shift ends only when her truck is empty, which can be late in the evening, Avery said: “You never know when you’re gonna be off. It’s really hard for people with families and kids. You can’t plan for anything.”
The Teamsters in negotiations “did get some good things,” Avery said. “But there are things that I think have to be fixed.”
‘As much as we could get’
It’s yet to be seen how large the opposition is among Teamsters members at UPS.
“You may see pockets of resistance,” Clark said, but “at least right now it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a significant organized and sustained opposition to the contract.”
O’Brien famously led opposition to the last UPS labor deal reached five years ago. Teamsters leadership led at the time by James P. Hoffa pushed the deal through, even though it didn’t get a majority vote in favor, using a provision in the union’s governing principles. O’Brien then led an effort to repeal that provision, meaning he could not similarly push a contract through without a majority vote.
The union’s members voted in June to authorize a strike if necessary, so Teamsters leadership could call a strike if the deal is voted down. O’Brien told members during a briefing before the deal was reached: ”In the event it doesn’t get ratified, then we will put UPS, or UPS will put themselves, on strike.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Also yet to be seen is what would actually happen if the union doesn’t get enough votes in favor of the deal. A spokesperson for UPS declined to comment. Some believe negotiations would re-start while rank-and-file continue working.
Jimi Hadley, a driver at the UPS facility in Roswell and a union shop steward, said the union “made tons of gains” in the contract.
“It seems like a really solid foundation for not only for the next five years, but for future contracts,” Hadley said. A key improvement was contractual language to get rid of a two-tier system for drivers, he said.
For Hadley, who is already a full-time driver, the contract will bring “the general wage increases that, you know, we were expecting after the record profits,” along with “a little bit of extra protection from the excessive overtime.”
At a UPS Teamsters member meeting in Atlanta earlier this month, Hadley said he thinks some came in as no-votes, and left convinced to support the deal. He thinks misinformation about the labor agreement is spreading among members.
Rutgers University assistant professor of labor studies Todd Vachon said amid a resurgence in labor organizing, workers who want $25 an hour starting pay for part-timers are eager to “strike while the iron’s hot. There really is an opportunity for labor and unions to make up for those concessions made in the past.”
“There definitely is some dissent among part-timers, and it depends how passionate they are about it,” Vachon said.
Jess Lister, a part-time pre-loader at the UPS facility in Griffin, thinks the wage increases aren’t enough and wants to see changes to address forced overtime, harassment and retaliation by managers.
People who are voting no “know that it’s not nearly enough,” Lister said. UPS has paid billions to shareholders, she said, “So anytime they say we have nothing left to give, that’s far from the truth. There’s plenty to give, but they’re giving it to people who aren’t doing the work.”
But Kenneth Roberts, a pre-loader at the UPS facility in Rowell, said the pay increase to $21 an hour in the deal is “definitely life-changing for me.” He added that he plans to read more about the deal, while planning to vote yes.
At a recent meeting with workers in Roswell, Higdon, the Atlanta Teamsters leader, reminded his members that he voted against the 2018 UPS labor deal.
“So you guys know that if I thought this contract was not what was right for you, I would be rallying with you to vote no,” he said. “... I’m telling you: This is the best contract we have ever seen.”
In an interview, Higdon said if there were a strike, it could mean serious after-effects including “months and months of layoffs” for part-timers, due to lost UPS customers and lost business.
“Anyone can sit back on any contract and say, ‘Hey, we want more, we want more.’ But the reality of it is, as negotiators, you know, we got as much as we could get,” Higdon said.
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