UPS CEO Carole Tomé’s Better, Not Bigger strategy is about cutting volume and Teamster jobs. South Carolina Local 509 has fought back and won new driver positions. Shop Stewards John Gacsey and Russell Sires share how the fight played out in their building in Palmetto.

In 2023, our contract campaign made UPS end two-tier 22.4. It was a huge win. 

When the 22.4s in our center became regular package car drivers, we had 91 package car drivers. Over time, drivers left and eventually our center dropped down to 75.

When we asked management to fill vacant jobs, they said we had adequate staffing.

We filed grievances. They were denied because we had not proved we needed more staffing. So we set out to prove it. 

We filed grievances on air drivers delivering ground packages, violations under Article 40 of the National UPS Contract. We filed grievances on Article 63, Section 2 of the Atlantic Area supplement on Regular Temporary Drivers (RTDs) working out of season. 

We filed seniority grievances on management sending regular temporary drivers from other buildings to do work at our building.

Divide and Conquer

Management did everything they could to divide and conquer. In PCMs they blamed us for air drivers getting fewer hours, and told RPCDs it was our fault they weren’t “getting help.” 

The company would clean up their act temporarily and try to blame problems on us. For a while, it almost worked – members did blame us! 

But after a few days or a week, things would go back to normal, and drivers would be dealing with the same problems. We started having conversations with RTDs and qualified air drivers, explaining that the real solution is more permanent, full-time jobs. 

Even when some drivers were mad at us, we would continue to share timely information and to talk with them one on one about how the company is trying to cheat us out of our time and our work. 

We made sure that air drivers got paid ground rate when we found out they had touched ground packages. 

When an air driver filed his own grievance for the first time, we knew we had reached a tipping point. Members started to see what was happening — the long-term erosion of good union jobs.  

By then there were a dozen members documenting air and RTD violations. Members would tell us when they saw new faces at the building and we’d document the seniority violation. 

A shop steward from a nearby building we met at a TDU workshop would tell us when management sent RTDs from his building to come work out of our building.

For a year, we documented these violations every single day, building our case that we needed more RPCD jobs. We built a team of members by showing members instead of telling them: “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

Tipping Point & Grievance Victory

Then, before peak vacation season, the buyouts were approved. We lost a number of drivers. Drivers who had never been on the 9.5 list got on the list and started filing. We maxed out our 8-hour requests every week. 

In our group chat each week, we would thank and congratulate every member who had enforced their 9.5 rights.

Management was paying out grievances every couple weeks for thousands of dollars in penalty pay. Drivers who had never filed before were saying “I can’t believe it took me this long to start filing grievances!”

Enough members were enforcing the contract that management couldn’t single anybody out.

By the time our grievance on RTDs working out of season was heading to the panel, we had our first batch of drivers eligible for elevated meetings.

UPS tried to get us to settle for three jobs. Our local had our back and we told management "no way." The company folded and agreed to create a dozen full time driver jobs in Palmetto and 21 jobs in our local. 

This fight was long. We built our army up along the way. Members got involved and now it’s our job to keep them union active. United, we win!

Russell Sires and John Gascey are TDU members and RPCD Shop Stewards in the Palmetto building in South Carolina Local 509.