March 8, 2013 – IBT Negotiations Update From Ken Hall, General Secretary-Treasurer and Package Division Director

Thank you to everyone who participated in the rallies and the National Day of Action at UPS and UPS Freight during the past several weeks. The response was overwhelming. I had the opportunity to meet with more than 10,000 Teamsters in two weekends, and the message from our members was clear – we will not settle for anything less than a fair contract.

Yesterday, the National Negotiating Committee and I presented the Company with more than 55,000 signatures on petitions demanding a fair contract now at UPS and UPS Freight.

We have held bargaining sessions for the past two weeks with UPS. The Committee has reiterated that without movement by the Company on articles of the contract pertaining to harassment, we will not be able to move forward at this time. The Company also gave us a presentation on healthcare costs to support their proposal on health insurance. In response, the Committee is working hard to come up with creative solutions to the problem, in order to make sure that Teamsters at UPS don’t pay a cent towards their health insurance and Teamsters at UPS Freight do not pay a cent more towards theirs. We hope to be in a position to present an offer soon.

Before we broke for the weekend, we submitted our first comprehensive economic proposal. The proposal includes wage increases for all Teamsters, including a healthy increase in the starting wage rates for part-timers. We expect a response from the Company next week.

UPS Freight held bargaining sessions the last week of February. When we reconvene on Monday, we will begin to seriously discuss the issue of subcontracting and our economic proposals.

Most of the Supplemental negotiations are nearing completion. The International has offered assistance to the few Supplements that are not making as much progress, and some of them will be meeting in conjunction with National Negotiations in an effort to bring them to a successful conclusion. This has already proven successful with one supplement. The Company was refusing to address some supplemental issues, but with help from the National Committee, the Company finally addressed the issues and a tentative agreement was reached and unanimously recommended by the Supplemental negotiating committee.

Negotiations for both UPS and UPS Freight resume on Monday the 11th of March.

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