Sean O'Brien slams Hoffa, Taylor on UPS contract

Washington, D.C. – On Oct. 7, Principal Officer of Teamsters Joint Council 10 Sean O’Brien sent an open letter to the Hoffa administration requesting negotiations continue with UPS as well as an emergency General Executive Board meeting to discuss the issues.

Within the letter O’Brien makes reference to an Oct. 7 conference call with Denis Taylor. During the call Taylor stated there was no other options available except to ratify the Master agreement and negotiate any supplements which had failed. O’Brien then asked Taylor if this had been the same case 2013 to which Taylor responded he “hadn’t researched the issue.”

As O’Brien points out in his letter, “in 2013 the National Negotiating Committee did not follow the requirements of Article XII Section 1(b) as incorporated by Article XII, Section 2 with respect to the Supplements.”

O’Brien’s letter also said, “Critically, more than 54% of the 91,000 members voted not to accept the UPS National Master agreement offer. That’s why the position taken by the Director in declaring the UPS offer was ‘ratified’ is not only confusing to our members but also, according to various press reports, is bewildering to UPS management.” He added, “Certainly, the IBT members working for UPS deserve and expect greater respect to their negative vote rather than having the UPS offer ‘shoved down their throats’ by an over-literal reading of a vague, obscure and ambiguous provision in the Constitution.”

O’Brien and Teamsters Joint Council 10 then requested at the end of the letter that the following actions be taken:

1. An immediate halt to any declaration that the UPS National Master agreement offer has been “ratified” or accepted by the members
2. No further action be taken by the Director of the Package Division or the National Negotiating Committee to implement any of the terms of the UPS offer
3. Inform UPS that its National Master Agreement offer is not acceptable and demand negotiations to improve the offer
4. Call for an immediate General Executive Board meeting to further discuss and advise the Director of the Package Division and the National Negotiating Committee as the proper course of action to be followed