UPS Feeder Drivers Keep Work
May 3, 2001
In a case involving Local 749 (Sioux Falls, South Dakota) and Local 554 (Omaha, Nebraska), an arbitrator has found that United Parcel Service (UPS) violated Article 43 of the national master agreement by using sleeper team drivers instead of existing feeder network drivers to perform non-premium service work.
In her decision, arbitrator Patricia Bittel noted that with respect to non-premium services, "the contract is careful to protect the rights of feeder-network drivers and endeavors to draw a bright line between the runs assigned to sleeper teams and those assigned to feeder network drivers." She said one purpose of the contract is "to create sleeper teams without negatively impacting the work otherwise available to feeder network drivers."
The arbitrator awarded compensation to each feeder network driver who would have otherwise delivered loads that had arrived by rail into Omaha and were delivered by sleeper team drivers to Gateway's Sioux Falls facility. The amount of compensation has yet to be determined.
