Workers Seek Improved Compensation After Company Reports Record Profits

 More than 180 Teamsters at Aramark Uniform Services are preparing to strike in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and South Dakota.

The drivers and plant workers made record-setting profits for Aramark the past three years. They are seeking a market adjustment that will raise their wages and improve working conditions.

Teamsters Local 238 Business Agent and Aramark Bargaining Unit Chair Dave Miller said that the company isn’t taking bargaining seriously and that the workers feel disrespected.

“The behavior and reactions of the company’s negotiating committee toward our membership is unfortunate and arrogant,” Miller said. “It won’t be tolerated any longer. The level of disrespect is going to result in a strike, because the workers have had enough and are united. We are one.”

The company is facing multiple charges of unfair labor practices related to violating members’ concerted activity rights. Miller said this and recent conditions faced by the workers are a driving force at the bargaining table.

“The union’s proposals are reflective of our membership’s work over the past three years, which included a global pandemic and record inflation,” Miller said. “We take these proposals very seriously and expect the company to as well.”

Aramark, one of the largest uniform service providers in the Midwest, posted fourth-quarter profits last year that were 111 percent of pre-COVID levels in 2019. It also generated $790 million in new business in 2022, which is 50 percent more than the prior fiscal year, and an all-time high for the company.

The workers, who are represented by Teamsters Locals 90, 120, 238, and 554, could go on strike as soon as January 27.

HONORING DR. KING AND THE FIGHT FOR LABOR DIGNITY

King dedicated his life to the fight for racial and economic justice and was a steadfast supporter of the labor movement. He spoke at union conventions and walked picket lines with workers. Union members and leaders marched with King in the “March for Jobs and Freedom” and the Teamsters donated in support of King’s civil rights work.

In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life while standing alongside sanitation workers on strike in Memphis, Tennessee. The day before the civil rights leader was assassinated, King delivered his renowned “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech in which he uplifted the struggle of the 1,300 Black sanitation workers in Memphis who toiled in harsh conditions for long hours and low wages.

“The principles that Dr. King fought and died for are the principles that guide our union and the entire labor movement today,” said General President Sean M. O’Brien. “Dr. King led the fight for equal pay for equal work — he was a union man at his core. We know Dr. King would be standing with Teamsters and all workers today as we confront Corporate America to win a better life for the working class.”

Todd Robertson from Local 171 is Chairman of the UPS National Safety and Health Committee. He is attending the proposal meeting for the UPS Contract to discuss the 11,000 proposals from across the country.

This morning, General President Sean M. O’Brien and General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman opened a meeting of the UPS National Screening Committee in Washington, DC, where representatives from dozens of UPS locals are gathered to review proposals for National Master Agreement negotiations.

“We’re going into these negotiations with a clear message to UPS that we’re not going past August 1,” O’Brien said in his remarks to the committee. “We have to deal with 22.4s, PVDs, subcontracting, part-time wages and other issues that we’re taking a hard line on with the company.”

“Sean is going to pick a fight with this company, and that fight is to get the very best contract we can get for our members,” Zuckerman added. “This contract is going to be unlike the contracts of the past 25 years where UPS comes in and says they want a cost-neutral contract. It’s not going to be a cost-neutral contract. We’re going to take from them what our members deserve.”

Members of the committee are reviewing more than 4,000 pages of national proposals submitted by locals to the Package Division. In total, the Division received more than 11,000 Master Agreement proposals, which were sorted and compiled for today’s meeting.

Five screening subcommittees are meeting as well to review proposals on safety and health, 9.5/Article 37, Premium Services, Air, and technology. The screening of proposals will determine what will ultimately be put forth to the company when National Master Agreement negotiations begin.

The committee is meeting all day today and tomorrow. Supplemental committees will review supplemental proposals separately in preparation for supplemental negotiations which begin in February.

Attention UPS Package Drivers: You have until January 5th to sign up on the 9.5 list and protect yourself from excessive overtime. The 9.5 list gives drivers the right to file grievances over pay when they are worked more than 9.5 hours more than twice a week. When UPS violates 9.5 rights, Article 37 of the National Master Agreement calls for the company to reduce the driver’s workload and pay triple time – instead of time and a half – for time worked in excess of 9.5 hours in a day. Drivers should talk to their shop stewards to get signed up on the list.

ABF – Jeff Booth

ARAMARK – (Plant): Misty McCombs, Nick Pugh, (Drivers): Mike Surrell

BGDC – David Beckner, Marty Bolden, Alan Dean

RUAN – (Drivers): Jerry Davis, Scott Douglas, (Garage): Brandon Witcher

SCHWERMAN TRUCKING – Clay Mitchell, Terry Gordon

UPS DUBLIN – (Part-time): Charles Kyle, (Full-time): Walter Akers, Josh Morgan, David Turpin

UPS LYNCHBURG – (Delivery): Mark Anstey, Davidson, (Feeders): Le Moore, (Preload): Andrew Howald

UPS ROANOKE – (Day Sort): Scott Price, (Twilight): Steve Ward, (Midnight): Jeremy Novell, (Feeders): Lester Chisom, Joshua Hicks, Darren Robinson, (Blue Ridge): James Kessler, Michael Massey, Brett McCormack, (Roanoke South): Joshua Dodd, Noah Nester, Brandon Shepard, (Article 22): Chris Waugh

US FOODS- Jonathan Arnold, Jason Corbett, Jeff Calhoun, Josh Cox, Chris Dickerson

TFORCE FREIGHT – Scott Ward

If you have not downloaded the UPS Teamsters app, please do so and encourage all of your co-workers to do the same. Once you have it downloaded, go to Resources then to the Safety and Health tab and take the UPS Heat Related Injury/illness Survey. We need as many members to participate as possible.

IT PAYS TO BE A TEAMSTER! This morning, Local 171 members unanimously ratified the first Teamster contract at US Foods in Salem Virginia by a vote of 73-0.

In April, Warehouse Division locals on the East Coast came together and charted a coordinated strategy for bargaining… THAT PLAN IS WORKING!

With support from Teamster locals on the East Coast and across the country, Local 171 President Todd Robertson and the bargaining committee delivered a monster contract that includes:

– An “Incredible” Union Healthcare Plan

– Discipline Protections

– Seniority Rights

– Daily Minimum Pay

– Hourly Minimum Pay

– Improved Component Pay Structure

– Roughly 30% Salary Increase on Average

#TeamstersVsUSFoods#EssentialWorkerUprising#Horsepower