New Union Seeks to Dethrone Teamsters at UPS

My question here is,,,if these guys are successful, what right to they have to take control of Teamster pension funds that were contributed on behalf of UPS employees?

Group seeking control of UPS employee pension assets
Pension and Investment Online
February 22, 2007

Association of Parcel Workers of America expects to launch its campaign Friday to replace the Teamsters at United Parcel Service of America Inc. and take control of UPS employees’ share of more than $50 billion in multiemployer pension funds and more than $1 billion in annual contributions.

The dissident labor group plans to ask 238,000 UPS workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to sign individual petition cards requesting that the new organization represent them in collective bargaining, said Van Skillman, a UPS driver from Greensboro, N.C., and the president and co-founder of the organization.

The APWA cited better pension fund management and higher pension benefits as key reasons for seeking to replace the Teamsters.

The group needs at least 30% of the Teamster-represented UPS employees to sign the cards in order to ask the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election to determine which union will serve as the labor representative, Mr. Skillman said.

The $30.2 billion Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust Fund, Seattle; $20.7 billion Central States, Southeast and Southwestern Areas Pension Fund, Rosemont, Ill.; and $3.4 billion New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund, Burlington, Mass., are the three largest of 21 multiemployer Teamster funds covering UPS union members.

UPS contributed $1.289 billion to multiemployer funds in 2005, according to its most recent 10-K report. “The vast, vast majority of it” went to Teamster pension funds, said Norman Black, UPS spokesman; he didn’t have a figure. Mr. Black declined to comment on the APWA effort.

Galen Munroe, Teamster press secretary, said in a statement, “We don't believe that the APWA is a legitimate labor union, they have no filings with the Department of Labor and they have never negotiated any contracts.”

UPS drivers maneuvering to create a new union
By Thomas Gnau
Dayton Daily News
Saturday, May 19, 2007

DAYTON — — A group of United Parcel Service drivers are maneuvering to exit the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and create a new union.

Drivers like Rick Ford, who drives a semi to Chicago each night from West Carrollton, is an organizer for a union branding itself the Association of Parcel Workers of America.
For Ford, 48, the impetus to leave the Teamsters comes down to what he contends is a faulty pension system — the Central States Fund. If he retired tomorrow, Ford says he would receive nothing, though he has been an UPS driver for 29 years.

Ford will have to wait until he is 65 before retiring, said Van Skillman, APWA president and organizer.

With APWA, Ford says, "No. 1, the money you have going toward your pension, you're going to get 100 percent, almost 100 percent, of your money."

But there are other issues at work, APWA organizers say.

It's also about medical insurance, which is less of an issue in Ohio, where UPS provides generous health insurance, said Skillman, 50, a 28-year UPS driver based in Greensboro, N.C.

APWA supporters challenge the quality of Teamsters representation.

Messages were left for a Teamsters spokesman in Washington, D.C. and an officer of Teamsters Local 957, Ford's union.

Ford, an APWA organizer since March 2005, says driver signatures for union organization cards have been collected in 29 states.

Ford declined to say how many signatures he has locally, but he said 75 percent of drivers at the UPS depot in West Carrollton have signed cards, as well 85 percent of Dayton-based drivers. Ninety-five percent of drivers have signed up in both Springfield and Hamilton, he said.

Skillman thinks a National Labor Relations Board-overseen election will be held this fall, perhaps in September or October.

"We didn't really understand the amount of support we had until we started getting these cards signed," Skillman said.

The drive seems to have gotten notice. This week, UPS said it is willing to jointly manage a new pension plan with the Teamsters as a way to leave the Central States Fund, the (Louisville) Courier-Journal reported. UPS has a national sorting hub in Louisville.

"It's pretty obvious that Atlanta (UPS corporate headquarters) has finally done its homework," Skillman said. "The company has nothing to say about this organizing drive or anything about the Teamsters," said Norman Black, a UPS spokesman in Atlanta. "Our employees make their own decisions about union representation."