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Hoffa's relationship with UPS Teamsters has not been easy. TDU, which opposes Hoffa at virtually every turn, has called him too cozy with UPS management, and unwilling to fight tooth-and-nail for workers. (Hoffa declined comment for this story.) Perhaps his most controversial decision was accepting UPS' 2007 offer to pay $6.1 billion to exit the union's giant Central States, Southeast, and Southwest pension fund and shift workers and retirees into a company-administered plan. The exit took about 60,000 active UPS employees and a large chunk of the fund's income with it. In return, the union faced no company resistance to successfully organizing about 12,000 workers at its UPS Freight less-than-truckload unit.
Paff of TDU said that by allowing UPS to exit Central States, Hoffa abdicated language contained in the 1997 agreement that kept worker pensions under Teamster control. The decision also delivered a lethal blow to the fund's finances by removing so many active UPS workers from its rolls, Paff said.
In May 2016, the fund's trustees said $11 billion would be needed to meet its obligations and, absent Congressional intervention, it would run out of money in 10 years. According to a published report at the time, the fund pays out $2 billion more in annual retirement benefits than it takes in from employers, and there are more than five retired members for every active and contributing member.
Contract talks with UPS have become progressively more difficult during the Hoffa regime. Negotiations in 2002 went smoothly, perhaps because no one wanted a repeat of 1997. There was some turbulence surrounding the 2007 accord, but an agreement was reached without any dislocation.
The 2013 negotiations were a different story. Three Teamster locals, including Local 89 in Louisville, the largest UPS local, repeatedly rejected their local addendums known as "supplements," meaning the national contract already ratified by the rank-and-file could not be implemented. The dispute dragged on for about nine months until union leadership in April 2014 took the extraordinary step of imposing the national contract on all UPS members, including those in the three locals.
The blowback was felt 31 months later in the Teamster general election. Though Hoffa won re-election for a fifth time, his victory margin was a slim 51.3 percent over Fred Zuckerman, head of Local 89 and a leader whom Paff said is cut from the same firebrand cloth as was Carey. According to Paff, Hoffa did poorly with UPS workers, who comprise less than 20 percent of the union's 1.3 to 1.4 million members.
The current contract expires on Aug. 31, 2018, and both sides are already laying the groundwork for negotiations. How UPS workers will receive Hoffa's entreaties is an open question. Paff, for his part, said Hoffa should prepare to deal with a more militant rank-and-file, particularly in the wake of the close and bitterly fought 2016 election.
What is clear is that there will be a new Teamster official heading contract talks: Ken Hall, who helped lead the 1997 strike, has been replaced by Sean M. O'Brien, who runs the influential Local 25 in Boston. According to Paff, O'Brien may be angling to succeed the 76-year-old Hoffa, and he will look to make a name for himself in the upcoming talks.
Read the full story (a good history lesson) here...
http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20170819-the-legacy-of-15-days-in-august/
Paff of TDU said that by allowing UPS to exit Central States, Hoffa abdicated language contained in the 1997 agreement that kept worker pensions under Teamster control. The decision also delivered a lethal blow to the fund's finances by removing so many active UPS workers from its rolls, Paff said.
In May 2016, the fund's trustees said $11 billion would be needed to meet its obligations and, absent Congressional intervention, it would run out of money in 10 years. According to a published report at the time, the fund pays out $2 billion more in annual retirement benefits than it takes in from employers, and there are more than five retired members for every active and contributing member.
Contract talks with UPS have become progressively more difficult during the Hoffa regime. Negotiations in 2002 went smoothly, perhaps because no one wanted a repeat of 1997. There was some turbulence surrounding the 2007 accord, but an agreement was reached without any dislocation.
The 2013 negotiations were a different story. Three Teamster locals, including Local 89 in Louisville, the largest UPS local, repeatedly rejected their local addendums known as "supplements," meaning the national contract already ratified by the rank-and-file could not be implemented. The dispute dragged on for about nine months until union leadership in April 2014 took the extraordinary step of imposing the national contract on all UPS members, including those in the three locals.
The blowback was felt 31 months later in the Teamster general election. Though Hoffa won re-election for a fifth time, his victory margin was a slim 51.3 percent over Fred Zuckerman, head of Local 89 and a leader whom Paff said is cut from the same firebrand cloth as was Carey. According to Paff, Hoffa did poorly with UPS workers, who comprise less than 20 percent of the union's 1.3 to 1.4 million members.
The current contract expires on Aug. 31, 2018, and both sides are already laying the groundwork for negotiations. How UPS workers will receive Hoffa's entreaties is an open question. Paff, for his part, said Hoffa should prepare to deal with a more militant rank-and-file, particularly in the wake of the close and bitterly fought 2016 election.
What is clear is that there will be a new Teamster official heading contract talks: Ken Hall, who helped lead the 1997 strike, has been replaced by Sean M. O'Brien, who runs the influential Local 25 in Boston. According to Paff, O'Brien may be angling to succeed the 76-year-old Hoffa, and he will look to make a name for himself in the upcoming talks.
Read the full story (a good history lesson) here...
http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20170819-the-legacy-of-15-days-in-august/
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