-
TForce National Negotiating Committees, week of May 22, 2023. Far left at facing table is Recording Secretary Mark Garey, Teamsters Local 355.Local & National Union News
Sign up for June 7th webinar for latest updates on national negotiations
June 2, 2023 | All UPS Teamsters are strongly encouraged to join an important Zoom webinar scheduled for Wednesday, June 7, 2023, at 8 pm ET. General President O’Brien, General Secretary-Treasurer Zukerman, and other members of the National Negotiating Committee will provide updates on the status of negotiations, the contract campaign, the current campaign timeline, a summary of the tentative agreements reached to date, and other important news. Registration is required! Click here to sign up.O’Brien: SCOTUS attacks all U.S. workers
June 1, 2023 | “The political hacks at the Supreme Court have again voted in favor of corporations over working people,” said General President Sean M. O’Brien in a statement on today’s Court ruling in Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 174 which opens the door for corporations to sue their own workers. “These corruptible justices should be ashamed of themselves for throwing out a long-standing precedent and legislating from the bench. The ability to strike has been on the books for nearly 100 years, and it’s no coincidence that this ruling is coming at a time when workers across the country are fed up and exercising their rights more and more.” Full statement here. NBC News: Supreme Court rules company can pursue strike damage claimFreightwaves: UPS, Teamsters take a break after SurePost agreement
May 31, 2023 | UPS Inc. and the Teamsters union will resume national bargaining June 5 as both sides spend the week negotiating the final two supplemental agreements covering workers in Louisville, Kentucky, and Northern California. The hiatus comes as both sides reached a tentative agreement to reduce the size of UPS SurePost packages eligible for handoff to the U.S. Postal Service, according to a report in Supply Chain Dive confirmed by a Teamsters spokesperson. In an email to FreightWaves, Kara Deniz said that “we’ve reached (a) tentative agreement … to reduce the overall size of packages eligible for SurePost delivery — so more existing volume is going back onto Teamster trucks rather than coming off.” Read more.In case you missed it: TForce and ABF Freight negotiation updates
May 30, 2023 | The union’s National Negotiating Committees met last week with TForce Freight in Chicago and ABF Freight in Kansas City. ABF Teamsters voted by a secret ballot to strike if needed. Read the ABF update here and TForce update here.Union keeps eye on protecting jobs as UPS reviews tech
May 23, 2023 | The union’s National Negotiating Committee and company heads convened multiple times on Monday, May 22, in Washington. UPS discussed technology and external relationships, particularly with the United States Postal Service. Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien reminded management that attempted implementation of any advanced technology that may harm workers or eliminates jobs will be combatted aggressively by the union. Continue reading the latest update here.
Membership meetings suspended until September
May 22, 2023 | Members in attendance at the May meetings in Baltimore and Salisbury voted to suspend meetings in June, July, and August. Dates for the September meetings will be posted as soon as they are scheduled. Photos from this month's membership meeting in Baltimore can be viewed here.
Elsewhere in the News
Week Ending 6/2/2023
• Honoring Juneteenth
• Teamsters organize Chicago cannabis industry
• Why the 2023 WGA strike matters
• ‘Labor is rising’: Solidarity with WGA at LA rally
• Workers of the music world are uniting - and winning
• UPS is failing women workers. Can a contract change that?
• The young miners dying of ‘an old man’s disease’
• Cannabis union wins signal more labor-management conflicts ahead
• Self-driving trucks need human operators under Calif. bill
• Teamsters condemn plan to raise federal limits on max. truck weights
• Train engineers union reaches first sick-time deal with NS railroad
• Historic NY doctors’ strike hints to growing labor movement
• Companies are taking a harder line on union organizers, workers say
• Teamsters to Chipotle shareholders: Support the right to organize
Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters Supreme Court Decision: ‘This Changes Nothing’
June 2, 2023 | LEGAL | The following is a press release jointly issued today by Teamsters Local 174, MLK Labor and the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO: “[…] At the end of the day, nothing in this decision will stop workers from exercising their federally protected rights to strike when necessary to achieve better wages, benefits, and working conditions. In this particular case, Glacier has found a way to prolong its meritless lawsuit by artfully pleading allegations the Court today found sufficient to get past a motion to dismiss.” … Driver Mark Hislop was among those whose 2017 strike triggered the initial lawsuit that led to this decision. Hislop had this to say about the ruling: “Six years ago, this company forced us out on strike by refusing to bargain in good faith, and they’ve been coming after us in court ever since. As far as I’m concerned, today’s decision changes nothing for us Teamsters, and it will not stop us from fighting as hard as we can for strong contracts.” The Stand
No Captives
May 31, 2023 | ESSAY | State legislators in Minnesota [recently] passed a package of pro-labor measures that instantly makes the state the envy of workers everywhere. The new laws include paid sick days for everyone, banning noncompete agreements, a crackdown on wage theft, and a wage board to set pay in the nursing home industry. All a big deal. But let’s talk briefly about one in particular: A ban on captive audience meetings. As you know if you have ever hung around union people who are in the process of getting extremely mad, “captive audience meetings” are when the boss calls a mandatory meeting for employees, and then proceeds to lie to them about how bad unions are. … If you think about it, it’s pretty wild that these meetings are legal in the first place. What does your employer pay you for? They pay you for your work. They pay you to perform a set of tasks collectively known as “your job.” That’s it. It is highly unlikely that a legitimate part of your job is “being harangued about your boss’s extreme right-wing beliefs.” That’s what anti-union propaganda is, when you get right down to it. How Things Work
From Hollywood Writers to Delivery Drivers, Workers Are Fed Up With the Gradual Devaluation of Their Professions
May 30, 2023 | COMMENTARY | […] You may not think a Hollywood writer and a UPS driver or package handler have much in common, but the struggles they are currently facing highlight how the fight for labor rights is one that we must all engage in – regardless of what we do. … These workers aren’t just fighting for better pay and benefits for themselves. They are also fighting to protect the future of their professions so that newer and younger workers get the same opportunities they got. Throughout the revived labor movement, there is tremendous solidarity within and across unions. A recognition that their lots are tied together. In short, workers are united in ways unseen for decades. Unfortunately, Washington is letting workers down when they need support the most. Fortune
Unions Can Organize High-Turnover Workplaces
May 25, 2023 | ORGANIZING | When the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) first submitted union authorization cards, “we had to withdraw and file again,” recalled organizing committee member Justine Medina, “because Amazon challenged over one thousand of our signatures, saying they no longer worked there.” The sky-high turnover at the eight-thousand-worker fulfillment center on New York’s Staten Island made collecting cards “a race against Amazon firing everyone,” she said. Amazon has an annual turnover of 150 percent. […] Despite the churn, at Amazon, in charter schools, in restaurants, and among student workers, unions are developing strategies to organize high-turnover workplaces. Jacobin
|
