DALLAS — United Parcel Service Inc. says federal officials have rejected a request by the Teamsters union to begin a 30-day countdown to a potential strike by aircraft mechanics.

UPS spokesman Mike Mangeot said the National Mediation Board told the company of its decision Tuesday. The union’s airline division had asked the board Friday to declare the talks stalemated.

Teamsters officials did not immediately return messages for comment.

The union says it has bargained with UPS for more than four years without reaching a deal.

If the board’s mediators had agreed that the talks were at a stalemate, they could have asked both sides to agree to binding arbitration.

If either side were to reject arbitration, it would start a 30-day countdown until the union could legally strike.

Robert Combine, president of Teamsters Local 2727 in Louisville, Ky., said the company has made large profits since 2006 but hasn’t met union demands for job security against foreign outsourcing and protection of health benefits.

Combine said the aircraft mechanics voted overwhelmingly for a strike if the company failed to make a reasonable contract offer.

“We do not wish to go out on strike, but UPS will leave us no choice if it insists on its unreasonable position,” he said.

Mangeot, the UPS spokesman, called the union’s request to have the talks declared stalemated “a tactic to put pressure on negotiations.”

The union workers earn $43 an hour and don’t contribute to their health benefits, Mangeot said.

UPS shares fell $1.59, or 2.5 percent, to $61.17 on Tuesday.
The Associated Press

    FedEx Spent $21.1 Million In 15 Months To Preserve Its Ability To Prevent Drivers From Unionizing

Currently, House and Senate negotiators are trying to work out the differences between each chamber’s respective bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration. One key difference between the bills is that the House version corrects an inequity in labor law that allows Federal Express to operate under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which poses higher barriers to union organizing than the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). FedEx’s competitors, such as the United Parcel Service, are governed by the NLRA. The Senate bill does not contain the change.

FedEx has been waging an intense campaign in order to preserve its special treatment, led by CEO Fred Smith, who was George W. Bush’s fraternity brother and has said that “I don’t intend to recognize any unions at Federal Express.” And according to Roll Call, in 15 months the company spent $21.1 million lobbying Congress:

Last year, it ranked 14th among all groups and companies in lobbying budgets, spending more than oil giant BP and defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The Memphis-based company also has tapped politically connected assistance, contracting with 14 outside lobbying firms that employ a number of former Senators. Not only is the Breaux Lott Leadership Group working for FedEx, but its founders, former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) and former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), are listed on the lobbying disclosure forms as personally working on the account. FedEx hired the international public relations firm Burson-Marsteller to work specifically on this issue.

FedEx has successfully lobbied multiple times to remain classified as an airline (and thus under the RLA), rather than having its ground operation qualified as such, pulling it under the NLRA. This time around, it has threatened to blunt its own growth and scaremongered about medical supply deliveries being delayed if the change in labor law is made.

Tennessee’s two Republican senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, have also pledged to defeat the change. But there’s simply no reason for this inequity to remain law. FedEx’s pilots have already unionized, without the dire consequences that Smith warned about. And in the meantime, FedEx’s drivers are subject to a law that makes it all but impossible to organize and collectively bargain, as they would have to unionize literally the entire company (across the entire country), instead of being allowed to organize at the local level.

Last week, the National Mediation Board — which oversees labor-management relations under the RLA — did away with one inequitable aspect of the antiquated RLA, ensuring that uncast votes in union elections no longer count as votes against the union. Congress would do well to keep the ball rolling, enacting the change taking away the unjustified competitive advantage that FedEx now enjoys.
The Wonk Rooom

     Ever had a FedEx package delivered to your door by airplane? 
Of course not!
     Check out this video showing the absurdity of the claim by FedEx CEO Fred Smith that FedEx Express is an airline. The video is part of the Teamsters campaign launch in support of leveling the playing field in the package delivery industry.
     For more information, visit FedExDriversArentPilots.com. 

I’ve decided that the only way for us to fight the Right Wing Lie Machine is for us to become better liars ourselves.

So here is my first big lie:

Glenn Beck is a bottom feeding mercenary who will say anything to create controversary (ratings) and any UPS Teamster that believes what he says needs to be kicked hard in the brown shorts.

Oh no, wait, that’s not a lie at all.

And if Beck’s fabrications don’t make you laugh out loud, try this yarn from the drug addled brain of Rush Limbaugh.

“After an Icelandic volcano continued to spew ash into the sky Saturday, halting President Obama’s planned flight to Poland, conservative icon Limbaugh said the surprising strength and timing of the eruption suggests a God displeased with the passage of health care reform.”

OMG

     How secure is your job in today’s new world economy? A lot of us feel that with UPS being the big winner by carrying all the free trade goods between nations, that our future looks pretty bright. But will the US be able to compete in the drastically altered world marketplace and if we can’t, how safe will our jobs be?
     I think we all agree that the recovery we are supposedly experiencing isn’t producing any real jobs here at home. How many drivers are seeing new manufacturing starting up on their routes? Are there any jobs coming back to America that were off-shored in the past 10 years? UPS is doing a great job of streamlining its operation to compete in the scaled down US economy. But the success of our economy in the past decade was fueled by consumer spending and without good jobs, spending can’t go on forever.
     Until American workers can compete in the world market, the captains of industry will continue to overlook us. The problems that Toyota is having has shed some light on just what American workers are up against in this new world competition. Toyota has always kept its operations pretty secret and most of us assumed that Japanese workers were just like us. We always thought it was the low wage Chinese workers that we had to worry about.
     But check this out.
     In an article entitled “Toyota workers raised safety concerns with bosses in 2006 memo“, in the LA Times, the plight of Japanese car workers was exposed. In an effort to kill Detroit carmakers as its main US rivals, Toyota quietly took the hammer to its workforce. “Over the years, even before the recent worldwide recalls, Toyota was warned about declining product quality and worsening working conditions at its Japanese plants.”
      When Japanese Unions reported the abuses, they were ignored at home and abroad. “The report linked Toyota to human trafficking and sweatshop abuse in connection with its importing of foreign guest workers from China and Vietnam to work in its Japanese factories.” “Many are pressured to work overtime without pay, the report claimed, adding that there were signs similar practices were emerging in the United States.” 
     This is the new world economy that US workers are supposed to compete in. Not only are wages and working conditions in the third world countries intolerable by our standards, but even in places like Japan we are competing against practices like free overtime. How many hours of free overtime would you work this month to compete in the free trade world economy? 
     “In 2002, at age 30, the father of two collapsed at his desk of sudden heart failure. It was 4:30 a.m. and Kenichi Uchino had finished his assembly line shift hours earlier. But as a team leader, he was responsible for completing his paperwork on his own time.” “The pattern had long concerned Uchino, who routinely worked 14 hours a day. In his final month, his wife says, he worked 144 hours of unpaid overtime, a common practice known as “service to the company.””
     So this is what we are up against when we talk about competing in the world market and bringing jobs back to America. This is what free trade has brought and our corporate leaders want us to compete for these new jobs. As the US manufacturing base continues to shrivel, how many drivers will UPS need and what will be expected of us?
     How safe is your job?

     Have you seen any supes working lately? Do you know how to file and win a management working grievance? It’s not hard to file a supervisor working grievance and win. But there are some key things you need to know.
     The secret to winning a grievance is documentation. Who, What, When, Where and Why. You can see the who and what, you know when and where, the why part is handled by your steward. A strong grievance is based on good notetaking. Always have paper and pen handy, because you never know when your going to see a violation. Jot down what you see, then go to your steward. The steward will do a little investigating to find out the why part. If you don’t like the answer, if you don’t feel it’s a valid reason for management to violate the contract, then file your grievance. 
     Management will try to talk you out of your grievance, but stand strong. Let the Union handle it. Don’t cave in to management bullying or whining. Why not?

Here is why not…

UPS Part-timer Wins $48,000 In Penalty and Back Pay

Thanks to strong Teamster representation, a UPS part-timer from Local 2785 in San Francisco will receive more than $48,000 in penalty and back pay for supervisors working in violation of the contract.

     I’ve been led by the media to believe that the teabaggers are just common folks like you and me. I thought they were regular joes, blue collar workers who were fed up with big government and big spending. If that’s true, then why wouldn’t they want me to have a pension? Why would they revel in the dream that the Union pensions could go bankrupt in this economy and leave us all without our hard earned retirement funds?
     In a recent article entitled The Coming Union Pension Plan Collapse  on 73Wire, a teabagger website, the author has no sympathy for the struggles of Union members and their pension plans in the current economy. He blames a lazy Union membership for our own sad state of affairs. He even gives a list of pension plan that are in trouble. But don’t get the rope out yet, the list is skewered to make things look a lot worse than they really are. If you are in any of the listed pension funds, do a little research of your own, write them and ask them if the figures given for your plan are correct. 
     It’s interesting that the article doesn’t vilify corporate backed 401(k) retirement accounts (that also tanked in recent years) but only harpoons defined benefit Union plans. And if you check out the 73Wire teabagger site a little bit more, you will see that they attack Unions in every labor article that they write.        
     That’ s a real shame, because the teabaggers, the common folk , could really benefit from the rewards of strong Unions.  If they really want to grab back the power from the elitist class, be it government or corporations, they would rally behind Union involvement as an avenue to grassroots power. 
     But unfortunately, the teabaggers appear to spew the same rhetoric as the right-wing powermongers. They hate Unions, they don’t want any kind of universal healthcare and they want to see the President fail. These are the same people that could most benefit  from collective bargaining , cheaper healthcare and a strong America.  
     It’s sad, isn’t it.

         The last living member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters died today. Obviously it hasn’t been a Brotherhood for some time since Neil Downe was the only surviving Teamster for the last 6 years. In my estimation it takes at least 2 people to make a Brotherhood.
        The Teamsters were too successful at what they did, they created a group of people so independent, that the members didn’t feel they needed to support the Teamster cause. The Teamsters led their people to believe they were so powerful that no one could take them out. What the Teamster members didn’t see was the anti-union under current running within their government. The cheap goods created by the free trade/free market mentality wooed the Teamster members into believing that they were better off by voting the free trade/free market politics, and they voted themselves into oblivion.
        The powerbrokers in Washington used outside, secondary issues to suck the Teamsters into voting for them. Issues such as gun rights, and abortion, and welfare, and social security became the lure to Teamster members. These issues became the platform for the anti-union group to draw the union voters away from voting for their livelihood. The major corporations grew to astronomical size, while the Teamsters ranks diminished.
         Once the Teamsters became too small to be of any importance, their function and effectiveness ceased. The corporations that had been Teamster companies laughed all the way to the bank. They reduced wages down to barely livable wages and dropped any hint of benefits. It should be noted here that Mr. Downe was also the last surviving member of the once healthy middle class.
         It must be noted that the Teamsters were so successful in the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s at building membership, and giving their members quality contracts, that the members of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, began to believe that they, and their children, would always have good union jobs. They were wrong.
        Wal-Mart has offered to place a plaque honoring Neil Downe in all their stores. A side note to the passing of Mr. Downe is Wal-Mart’s announcement that they will be creating company towns surrounding their stores. They will pay their employees with vouchers for goods and services available at their stores only. Additionally these vouchers will be good for company owned housing only available to Wal-Mart employees. All overtime will be compensated with time off at the company’s discretion. Former Teamsters need not apply, as Wal-Mart will not hire people Un-American enough to have belonged to a union.
         All Teamster and UPS retirees have lost their pensions. There is no longer anyone to pay into the pension plan, so there are no funds to be paid out. The Corporatists said that was OK, since the pension plans were just a form of welfare anyway.
        Neil Downe was often heard to say, “I always voted as a Teamster, I always voted for labor. I always voted for my job first, then I could take on the secondary issues with my Congressmen. Without a job, the secondary issues were moot. Union members who didn’t bother to vote were what killed us. By not voting at all or voting the secondary issues, they let the wealthy make the rules.”
Bob Newhouse

The AFL-CIO recently released a survey of the attitudes of American workers, entitled “Workers’ Rights in America: What Workers Think About Their Jobs and Employers.”
        Some of the findings are not surprising. For example, 98% of American workers agree that it is either essential or very important to protect employees’ rights to a safe and healthy workplace. What is more surprising–and what may lend some insight into why labor unions have been so ineffective in organizing new workers over the last thirty years–is how many U.S. workers think they have rights that simply do not exist.
        For example, 80% of workers believe they have a right to be free from retaliation from their employers for expressing their political views. After all, isn’t that what the right to free speech is all about?
        Fully two-thirds of Americans believe that their employers are legally prohibited from listening in on their phone calls. Doesn’t the Constitution protect the right to privacy?
        Sixty percent of Americans believe their employers are legally required to provide them with paid sick leave.
        As those of us in the business of defending workers’ rights know, of course, most of us do not have these rights. While the rights of free speech and privacy are supposed to protect us from governmental intrusion, they do not protect us from our private-sector employers. Anti-eavesdropping laws generally do not protect us from intrusions by our employers on work premises. Finally, employers are generally not required to provide paid leave of any sort, let alone sick leave. The survey also reveals that more than 90% of U.S. workers believe they should have these rights.
        Surprised? To get more information, go to the AFL-CIO Steward Activist page and get involved. Your future and the future you make for your children depends on what you do today.