“The IBT needs to respect the will of the members and go back to the bargaining table.”

Jacksonville, FL – Just hours after UPS Teamsters voted down their tentative agreement in record numbers, union chief negotiator Denis Taylor announced he would ratify the contract anyway.

Teamsters rank and file claim victory against concessions

Washington DC – The results are in. The UPS National Master Agreement, which covers approximately 250,000 workers across the country and is the largest private-sector union contract in the United States, has been rejected in a 45.74% to 54.26% vote.

Approximately 1700 hotel workers in Boston walked off the job on Wednesday, October 3. The strike includes seven hotels across the city: the Sheraton Boston, Westin Copley Square, Westin Waterfront, Aloft Seaport, Element Seaport, W Hotel, and the Ritz-Carlton. All the hotels involved are operated by Marriott International, which is both the largest hotel employer in Boston and the largest hotel chain in the world.

Washington DC – Fred Zuckerman, Principal Officer of Teamsters Local 89 and previous reform candidate to head the IBT sent an open letter blasting the Hoffa administration’s threats to ignore the UPS Teamsters contract vote. At the UPS National Grievance Panel, on Oct. 3, Denis Taylor, lead negotiator for Teamsters, stated the negotiating committee’s might ratify the UPS contract in the event it was voted down by the membership.

Pittsburgh, PA – Steelworkers represented by United Steelworkers (USW) are making preparations to strike against ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company. The union is currently discussing plans for an orderly shutdown with the company in the event a strike occurs. Picket duty surveys, which workers fill out with their times available to picket, have also been distributed to the membership.

Chicago, IL – Nearly 500 teachers, students, parents and allies gathered at the Chicago Board of Education, Sept. 26, to call for equal pay for equal work for charter school educators. “We fought for and won a large increase in state funding for education in Chicago, but in our schools most of that money was pocketed by charter operators and not put into their classrooms,” said Chicago Teachers Union Charter Division Chairperson Chris Baehrend.

Tampa, FL – With the vote count a little less than two weeks out, west Florida UPSers will be voting ‘no’ on the tentative agreement. Despite retaliation from the company, rank-and-file militants have been informing the membership of Local 79 throughout the contract negotiation process. Now that balloting information has been mailed out and the vote is underway they are making sure UPS Teamsters have received their ballots and voted.

Jacksonville, FL – A critical vote is underway on the largest private-sector union contract in the United States. Beginning on Sept. 11, hundreds of thousands of