Who delivered most of these profits? Working Teamsters, that’s who. UPS’s domestic revenue was up 6.1 percent. UPS’s International operations grew at a slow pace, just 2.3 percent, disappointing analysts.

Volume is up, but instead of meaning more Teamster driving jobs, it has meant excessive loads and production harassment.

E-commerce packages are increasingly being subcontracted to the post office—another drain on full-time job creation.

UPS made $4.2 billion in profits after taxes in 2011 Profits could top $5 billion this year.

“I hope they make $10 billion,” Ken Hall, the International Union’s chief negotiator at UPS, told delegates at the Teamster Convention. “Because the more they make, the more we take when it comes to negotiations.”

Theoretically, that should be true. But UPS was making record profits in 2008 when the International Union gave away record concessions, then failed to enforce the contract since then.

UPS Teamsters are getting together to Make UPS Deliver a fair contract—with no givebacks. Click here to find out more about the Make UPS Deliver campaign.

UPS Teamsters are also preparing early to make sure that any early deal makes UPS deliver the contract we deserve.

The Make UPS Deliver Campaign is bringing together Teamsters to win a contract that:

• Protects Our Benefits and Wins Better Pensions
• Wins Higher Wages Especially for Part-Timers
• Protects Drivers from UPS Abusing GPS & Telematics Technology
• Ends Trumped Up Discipline for “Dishonesty”
• Stops Production Harassment & Excessive Loads
• Creates More Full-Time Jobs So Part-Timers Can Go Full-Time and Drivers Can Get Relief from Excessive Loads
• Stops Subcontracting Feeder Work and Packages to the Post Office

Click here to send Make UPS Deliver a message about what you think the priority issues are for the next contract.

Click here to download a Make UPS Deliver bulletin.

Click here to sign up for email updates.

Click here to send Make UPS Deliver a message about what you think the priority issues are for the next contract.

Click here if you are willing to help distribute information about contract negotiations to UPS Teamsters in your building.

The result was contract concessions and language loopholes that have allowed management to pound us with production harassment, unfair discipline, excessive overtime, full-time job elimination and other violations.

Make UPS Deliver is the only nationwide campaign and information network that gives members reliable bargaining updates and brings UPS Teamsters together to win the wages, benefits and contract protections we deserve.

The Make UPS Deliver campaign is sponsored by Teamsters for a Democratic Union and funded by memberships and donations from UPS Teamsters.

How much is a good contract worth to you?

Click here to Join TDU today. Membership is just $40 for the year, $25 for part-timers.

Click here to find out more about TDU.

Davis made $10.73 million in 2010 bringing the hike in his total compensation to $2.3 million.

Davis was paid a base salary of $1.02 million, $9.45 million in shares, stock options worth $450,807, and a $566,996 bonus. Davis also got $1.51 million via an increase in the value of his pension and deferred compensation.

Higher pay, increased pensions? We need to make UPS deliver the same for working Teamsters at contract time.

The cost of living is going up. But pensions for UPS Teamsters in the Philadelphia Fund are going down every year.

UPS Teamsters who retire this year with 30 years still get a good pension: around $3,900/month.

But ten years from now, a UPSer who retires with 30 years will get less than $3,200/month. That’s a pension cut of more than $700/month.

All UPSers work under the same national contract and get about the same money contributed toward our pension.

But the Philadelphia Pension Fund has imposed some of the most restrictive rules in the country.

As a result, our pensions will keep shrinking every year—unless we take action to get improvements in our Fund.

Low Pension Accrual; Big Early Retirement Penalties

UPSers in Philadelphia will accrue just $119 toward our pension this year—one of the lowest rates in the country.

By comparison, Teamsters in the IBT-UPS plan will accrue $170/year as of January 2013; UPSers in the West will accrue over $200 this year.

The Philly Fund has also adopted the worst penalties in the country if you retire before age 65.

Teamsters who retire at age 57 lose more than half their monthly pension. This is worse than any other Teamster pension plan including Central States.

UPS Teamsters who retire in the next few years are partially protected from this “early retirement penalty.”

But what about UPSers who are looking to retire eight or ten years from now? Not many UPSers can work to age 65.

Our Contract, Our Future

Negotiations for a new UPS contract may start this year.

The time to save our retirement is now.

We need to make sure a hike in our pension accrual and a reduction in early retirement penalties is a part of any early contract deal.

UPSers are joining together to win a better contract and to reverse the slide in our pensions.

Get More Information

Find out more about how the pension works and why Philly pensions are falling behind at www.makeUPSdeliver.org/PhillyPension.

Click here to download the UPS Pension Update: Shrinking Pensions for Philly Teamsters.

Click here to download the report: Why Philadelphia Pensions are Falling Behind

Click here to send your question or message to Make UPS Deliver and get involved in the campaign to save our pensions.

Our pension benefits will be cut every year—unless we take action to win changes in our plan. What’s behind the Philadelphia Pension slide and what can we do about it?

Click here to download a pdf version of this report.

Understanding the Pension Slide

The downward slide in our pensions is the result of two key changes the Fund Trustees made in how our pensions are calculated.

First, the Trustees changed the formula for our “pension accrual” so that we earn less money toward our monthly pension each year than other Teamster Plans.

Second, the Fund adopted punishing penalties for retiring before age 65—the worst “early retirement penalties” of any Teamster Pension Fund.

The upcoming UPS contract negotiations are our chance to reverse these changes and stop the Philly Pension Slide before it’s too late.

The Cut in Your Pension Accrual

The amount you earn toward your pension each year you work is called the “pension accrual.”

Our pension accrual has been cut to one of the lowest in the country. This year, UPS Teamsters in the Philadelphia Fund will earn just $119 toward our monthly pension.

By comparison, Teamsters in the IBT-UPS plan will earn $170 toward their pension as of August 2013. UPSers in the West will earn more than $200.

How Pension Accrual Works & How the Fund Trustees Slashed Our Pension Accrual

Your pension accrual is determined by multiplying the amount per year that UPS contributes towards your pension times a multiplier.

The Fund has taken two steps that have drastically cut our pension accrual rate (the amount we earn toward our pension each year).

First, they have cut the multiplier, not once but twice! The multiplier was slashed from 2.25% to 1.35% in 2005.  Then last year, they cut the multiplier again to just 1%.

Second, the Fund has frozen the figure that they use to calculate our accrual rate at the 2004 level of UPS pension contributions.

In 2004, UPS paid approximately $11,900 per year into the fund for a full-timer.  Today, UPS is paying closer to $17,000 a year for a full-timer.

That means Philly UPSers should earn around $170 this year toward our pension ($17,000 x 1%). But instead we are only earning $119 ($11,900 x 1%).

In 2004, Philly UPsers earned about $268 towards our pension. ($11,900 x 2.25%). It’s not realistic to expect the accrual rate to be that high—given stock market losses and economic changes that have hurt our Fund.

But we need to win improvements as part of the new contract to increase our pension accrual.

Early Retirement Penalties

The second big problem with our Philadelphia Teamster Pension is that we have the stiffest penalties in the country for retiring before age 65.

Under the Fund’s early retirement penalties, Philly Teamsters who retire at age 57 lose more than half their monthly pension!

By comparison, UPS Teamsters in the New England Fund can retire with a full pension at age 57.  In many Pension Plans, UPS Teamsters can retire with 30 years at any age—including New York, New Jersey, and even the new UPS-IBT plan.

In fact, the early retirement penalties in the Philadelphia Fund are worse than any Teamster pension plan, including Central States!

UPSers who retire in the next few years are partially protected from the worst of the early retirement penalties. Under a special rule, you can collect whatever pension you accrued by 2010 without any early retirement penalty. But you get zero credit for any work or contributions since 2010.

This rule protects Teamsters who already have 25 years or more of pension credit.  But if we don’t win improvements in our Pension Plan, the majority of UPSers in the Philadelphia Fund are looking at reduced pensions down the road.

• A UPSer with 20 full-time years now is looking at a 30-year pension of around $3,200/month.
• A UPSer with 15 full-time years now is looking at a 30-year pension of around $2,800/month.

The cost of living is going up, but our pensions will go down every year unless we win changes in our pension formula.

The Next Contract

UPS Teamsters in the Philadelphia Fund still have a good pension, but it’s going downhill.  If we don’t do something now, we’re going to be retiring on peanuts in the future.

The UPS contract negotiations are our chance to stop future cuts in our pension and save our retirement.

At the bargaining table, our Union needs to win increases in UPS’s contribution to our pensions.

And our Union Trustees on the Pension Fund need to negotiate changes to end the cuts in our future pension benefits.  These changes include:

• Increasing our pension accrual by raising the multiplier and/or changing the pension accrual formula so it is fixed to UPS’s actual hourly contributions-not the contribution level from 2004!
• Reducing penalties for early retirement so UPSers can retire at a reasonable age without massive reductions in our pensions.

The Power in Our Hands

Our contract doesn’t expire until August 2013.  But the International Union is talking about starting early negotiations with UPS.

UPS is making billions in profits. The company has the money to stop the pension cuts and improve our benefits for the future.

No early contract can be settled until it is approved by the members. Our Right to Vote on the contract puts the power in our hands to save our pensions.

We need to be ready to Vote No on any contract offer that doesn’t end pension cuts in the Philadelphia Fund and improve our benefits for the future.

Get Informed. Get Involved.

UPSers are joining together to win a better contract and to reverse the slide in our pensions.

Click here to sign up for email updates.

Click here to send your question or message to Make UPS Deliver and get involved in the campaign to save our pensions.

UPS gets the bulk of its revenue and profits in the U.S. where our Teamsters Union represents 240,000 UPS workers.

But the purchase of TNT shifts the equation. UPS currently gets 74% of its revenue from the U.S. market. That will dip to 64% after TNT, the fourth-largest express carrier in the world, is integrated into the UPS network.

What this change will mean for UPS Teamsters depends, in part, on how effectively the IBT coordinates with other unions.

Fortunately, TNT, which is based in Europe, has a unionized workforce that is used to international solidarity.

The Teamsters Union can lead the way, and build a powerful global network of solidarity for the future.

We will have more leverage to win the contract we deserve if we’re coordinating bargaining strategy, rallies and job actions with UPS and TNT workers in Europe and around the world.

The UPS National Grievance Committee settles national disputes and grievances that have been deadlocked at both the local and regional levels.

Click here to download the March National Grievance Panel decisions.

Click here to download the March Joint Air Committee decisions.

In its fiscal third quarter, the world’s second-largest package delivery company earned $521 million or $1.65 per share, compared with $231 million, or 73 cents per share, a year earlier.

Click here to read more at The Wall Street Journal.