By Frank Loder
[To read the full and original version of the June 2025 Edition of New Day at UPS, please click here.]
UPS management in WORMA has recently undertaken a provocateurist attack on the full-time inside employees. This attack is being carried out in the form of a mass discipline campaign, which threatens the full-timers with loss of wages (in case of suspension) and potentially our jobs if the company continues to escalate. In response, New Dayers flyered among the full-timers in order to ensure there is a united response to management’s escalatory actions.
The flyer read:
Recently, management handed out verbal warnings, and evidently intends to hand out discipline, to full-timers who do not punch out for lunch. The New England supplemental agreement, which the company agreed to in 2023, specifically states in article 52: “A daily time record shall be maintained by the Employer for all of their employees. Each employee shall “punch in” their own time card or badge or device at the start of the day, and “punch out” their own time card or badge or device at the completion of the day’s work at the Employer’s place of business.” IT IS UPS’ RESPONSIBILITY TO
PROVIDE US WITH A PUNCH SYSTEM THAT CONFORMS TO THE STANDARDS LAID OUT IN THE CONTRACT, IT IS NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO VIOLATE THE NEW ENGLAND SUPPLEMENT BY CLOCKING OURSELVES OUT BEFORE THE COMPLETION OF THE DAY’S WORK.
Verbally disciplining us for not breaking our collective bargaining agreement is itself a violation of the collective bargaining agreement, specifically article 37 section 1 of the National Master agreement, which states, ‘The Employer shall not in any way intimidate, harass, coerce or overly supervise any employee in the performance of their duties. The Employer shall not retaliate against employees for exercising rights under this Agreement.’ Many of these full timers made huge sacrifices for UPS in the recent past, being paid less than unemployment during the COVID crisis and less than part timers during the MRA pay bump after COVID.
UPS IS TRYING TO WEASEL OUT OF ITS OBLIGATION TO THESE HONEST AND HARDWORKING FULL TIMERS BY INVENTING EXCUSES TO DISCIPLINE THEM.
Keep in mind these verbal warnings are from a management team that breaks the contract DAILY. This is taking place in the context of the “Network of the Future” initiative, which is UPS systematically consolidating operations, reducing headcount, and speeding up employees in order to maximize profit.
UPS IS TRYING TO SEE WHAT THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH, DO NOT GIVE THEM ANYTHING FOR FREE!
Come in on time, punch in, work as directed following the methods, take your breaks, punch out. If UPS has a problem with this then it’s on them to negotiate an addendum to the contract with us, not unilaterally rewrite it.
[End of flyer text.]
In short, this is a bad faith use of the discipline system to mass discipline hourlies that management considers a problem or just not giving the company enough. This is proven by the fact that warnings were staggered among the hourlies, with known critics of management receiving warnings before management-favored employees. The reason this is suddenly a major issue for the company is because the people who are taking lunches are obviously full-timers, and many of these full timers in WORMA are full timers who recently or will soon complete pay progression— thus making finding a justification for getting rid of them important for increasing profits. This campaign is further significant in that it has allowed management to differentiate between the hourlies prepared to defend existing concessions in the contract (which includes the New Dayers) and those who will roll over without question. UPS is trying to weasel out of its obligation to provide us with a punch system that accurately reflects our work hours and conforms to the limitations set out in the national and supplemental contracts, and instead are trying to intimidate us into shaving minutes off our lunch. The IBT is incorrectly relying on panel to save us. This is wrong because the arbitration bodies are made up of half UPS representatives with an “independent” (read: independent from the UPSers and dependent on UPS) arbitrator as the tie-breaker.
Minor note, but what is the point of the Teamsters collecting six figure salaries and spending millions of dollars on random crap if they can’t even manage to write and distribute a simple flyer in the building? The representational and organizational functions of the IBT are literally nonexistent. (Weirdly, though, the disbursal of union funds and even straight up embezzlement in some locals continues!) The IBT created this redundancy between the national and New England supplemental contracts in the first place which the company is now exploiting to harass full-timers. Did ALL the Teamsters lawyers and ALL UPS lawyers as well as the entire bargaining committee miss this obvious conflict between the national and NE regional contracts? People in WORMA need to start thinking NOW about what they are willing to do in the likely event the panel rules against the WORMA full-timers. If UPS escalates further to the point of suspensions, the suspended employees would be fully justified in setting up a picket line and diverting feeders to other buildings in the state. There is no basis whatsoever for believing the IBT or the grievance committees will handle this on our behalf. In fact, the managers doing this already have an extensive record of contract violations that have gone totally unpunished.
