UPS Freight, Teamsters to workers: Vote “yes” or face lockout and lose your health care
By
Will Morrow
7 November 2018
The Teamsters union and UPS Freight are engaged in a conspiracy to blackmail more than 11,000 drivers and warehouse workers to vote “yes” to a sellout contract they have already rejected. The union and company are threatening that if workers vote “no” this week, they will face a lockout and lose their jobs and health care insurance for themselves and their families.
Workers will vote under these conditions from tomorrow until Sunday. They already voted on October 5 to reject the contract, which will create a second tier of lower-paid workers, do nothing to address subcontracting, and also includes a real wage cut. On October 26, the union announced that it would force workers to vote again on a virtually unchanged agreement, claiming that from the multi-billion-dollar corporation, which is making record profits, there is “no more money to be had.”
The company has issued orders to all hubs to remove all freight from their system. Workers reported yesterday that many warehouses have been entirely emptied and trailers moved away.
At a number of hubs, workers have been forced to leave early or not been offered work yesterday, and up to half the drivers at some hubs are not being offered work tomorrow. Drivers have been instructed to drop off freight to customers, even if it has not been paid for, and when they cannot drop it off, to return the freight.
The purpose of this operation is to blackmail workers with the threat of a lockout and the loss of their jobs if they reject the contract.
Jane, an experienced driver of 20 years in Georgia, reported to the WSWS UPS Workers Newsletter on the threats being issued against workers by the…