UPS Freight campaign: Biggest successful freight organizing drive in 40 years

Joint Council 7, Local 70, and the IBT have teamed up to get the employees at UPS Freight to sign cards saying they want to be Teamsters. In just four days, more than 150 out of the over 200 employees at the UPS Freight San Leandro facility have signed union cards.

This effort is part of an IBT campaign to get all 12,600 UPS Freight employees to join the Teamster family. In addition to the workers in San Leandro, a majority of UPS Freight workers in Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Southern California, Seattle, New England, Memphis and Detroit have submitted cards to become Teamsters.

UPS, the Teamsters' largest employer, had bought Overnite Transportation in 2007 and renamed the operation UPS Freight. The company agreed to recognize the union if a majority of employees at a facility signed union cards (known as "card check neutrality"'). This means that the union does not have to go through the NLRB election process, which is too often riddled with employee harassment and intimidation.

"We went through more than three years of strikes and union actions to try to organize this company when it was Motor Cargo and Overnite, starting back in 1999," says Joint Council 7 President Chuck Mack. "It was grueling for our organizers and for our rank-and-file members who supported the strike. But it was even worse for the drivers who couldn't get the union recognition that they wanted."

Mack says that this is the biggest successful freight organizing drive in more than 40 years.

"Everybody played a key role. Our Joint Council 7 organizer Pilar Barton came together with Local 70 Business Agent Bob Aiello, International Organizer Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and several volunteer organizers to make sure that we got cards signed from employees who work all three shifts. They did the job in just six days. It's a campaign to be proud of!" Mack added.

Local 70 looks forward to participating in bargaining to make sure these drivers get a good contract and solid Teamster representation.