Ship gifts with companies that respect union workers

James P. Hoffa
This week, my wife and I wrapped presents for our grandchildren and shipped them to our son's home in advance of our Christmastime visit. Sure, shipping the gifts is an expense, but it's convenient. More importantly, we shipped our gifts by UPS, enabling us to support hardworking union members and their families.

The package with our grandchildren's gifts is among the tens of millions that hardworking UPS workers will deliver this holiday season, an amazing logistical feat. Another noteworthy achievement is that this unionized workforce is fairly compensated as it powers a company that is thriving on a global scale.

Just last month, 240,000 Teamsters at UPS -- including delivery drivers, sort workers and feeder drivers -- ratified the largest private labor contract in the United States. This agreement secures their strong wages and record employer health, welfare and pension contributions for the next five years. This agreement benefits our local economy -- more than half of the 5,000 UPS workers in Michigan are based here in Metro Detroit.

UPS pact sets standard
Workers will receive annual $1.80-per-hour increases, on average, in benefits and wages for each of the next five years -- bringing the total compensation package to nearly $50 per hour. This contract also establishes a special pension fund for UPS workers, while providing a $6.1 billion payment to solidify the fund they had been in, and which thousands of other Teamsters rely on for their retirement.

"I think this is a very good contract," said Rolly Gerych, a UPS package car driver at the company's Livonia facility.

Often, workers who want to join a union must endure a lengthy, bruising election campaign.

An employer often mounts a vicious anti-union campaign and sometimes unfairly terminates workers often without much concern -- federal labor statutes threaten only small penalties for violating workers' labor rights.

Workers at UPS Freight know the situation well: This subsidiary was the former Overnite Trucking, operated by a notoriously anti-union owner who refused to acknowledge his workers' desire to join the Teamsters.

For more than 50 years, workers at Overnite fought to win a Teamster contract. Yet the owner terminated pro-union employees and failed to negotiate in good faith, according to regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board.

Fight for representation
In October, UPS Freight workers in Indianapolis ratified their first contract with the company. (The drivers and dockworkers endorsed the contract by a 107-1 vote.)

I'm confident that this agreement will convince thousands of workers to become Teamsters.

Along with this new contract, we negotiated an agreement to allow the remaining 15,000 workers at UPS Freight to build their union with the Teamsters simply by signing cards. Anyone familiar with organizing campaigns knows that this is a major victory.

While job security and solid wages are important at any time, at this time of year they can mean even more, especially if we have children. Parents want to provide them with the gift at the top of their list. Many of us remember being 5 or so, pining for a toy.

This holiday season, when shipping gifts for grandchildren and other loved ones, I urge you to use carriers such as UPS and DHL.

Unlike FedEx, all UPS employees and some 12,000 Teamsters work in the DHL system, are union members.

Workers at these carriers receive strong wages and solid benefits for themselves and their families. Make this holiday season better by using these fine carriers.