Take the 804 Members United Survey & Have Your Say

How do you feel about the last contract negotiations? Are you concerned about pension or health and welfare cuts?  What would you like to see Local 804 do differently to enforce the contract?  Is our Executive Board out of touch with the membership? Is it time for change in our local?

Have your say on these and other issues by taking the 804 Members United survey.

Click here to take the survey. When you finish, you’ll get access to the latest results.

The Local 804 Health Fund has lost another $1.9 million in assets, according to documents obtained by 804 Members United.  The Fund has lost nearly $20 million over a five-year period. Its assets have dropped from $32.2 million in 2003 to just $12.5 million on May 31, 2008.

These figures come from the Fund’s own Form 5500 documents filed with the Department of Labor.

The good news is that the Fund’s losses have started to level off. The Fund lost less than $2 million in the 2007 plan year, compared to losses of $4.5 and $6.8 million the previous two years.

Local 804 is supposed to give us an updated report on how much money is in the Fund at the general membership meeting. Hopefully, the Executive Board will announce that after five years of massive deficits, our Health Fund is operating in the black. Read more…

Contract Says UPS Must Create More Full-Time Jobs

Local 804 Members United has joined a campaign to win more full-time jobs at UPS.

UPS is in violation of contract language that requires the company to create more full-time jobs.

As a result, Local 804 members are being denied a shot at full-time jobs. Now members are getting together to do something to do about it.

Click here to download and print the petition and leaflet.

Click here to send us a question-or let us know that you will help with this petition drive. Read more…

Local 804 Executive Board members and business agents raised their pay to the highest levels in our union’s history last year—the same year we got a 35 cent raise.

Our local officers now pay themselves between $143,000 and $156,000 each. These are the highest salaries for UPS business agents in the country.

Click here to download a leaflet with salary information and the full story.

By comparison, Local 177 officers and BAs are paid between $90,000 and $96,000. Local 177 represents around 7,000 UPS Teamsters right across the river in New Jersey.

Local 804 salaries for officers and BAs are tens of thousands of dollars higher than the salaries in Boston Local 25, Chicago Local 705, L.A. Locals 63 & 396, Seattle Local 174 and every other UPS local. Read more…

Members Turn Out for Education Conference

More than 50 Local 804 members turned out for a day-long educational seminar sponsored by 804 Members United. The conference focused on the problems UPSers are facing at work and what members and our union can do about them.

“This is exactly the kind of thing our local should be doing,” said feeder driver Neil O’Brien. “Sharing information, building unity and making plans to build union power. That’s what it’s all about.” Read more…

The drawing was held on Sunday, April 5 for the 804 Members United raffle.

First Prize: 32″ Flat Screen TV won by Darwin Moore, Package Steward, Local 243, Pontiac, Mich.

2nd Prize: Digital Camera won by Freddy Brumm, Package Car Driver, Melville.

3rd Prize: Teamster Jacket won by John Zuraw, Local 705, UPS Cartage Services Inc.

Thanks to everyone who bought and sold tickets.

Register for the 804 Members United Ed. Conference

Sunday, April 5 in Long Island City

UPS management is violating our contract and our rights.

Now members are getting together to do something about it. Join us for the Local 804 Members United Education Conference on Sunday, April 5 at the VFW Long Island City, 31-35 41st St, between Broadway and 31st Ave.

There is no charge for the conference and a free lunch will be served. Read more…

View Clips & Tributes

Video clips from the Celebration of the Life and Work of Ron Carey are now available online. The speeches have been divided into individual clips to make it easier to view them. A DVD of the full two-hour event is in production.

Copies are available from 804 Members United. A donation of $10 is requested to pay for production and distribution costs. Send your check payable to 804 Members United to 804 Members United, PO Box 26, Thornwood, NY 10594 with a note requesting a copy of the DVD.

Click “Read more…” to view the video clips online.

Read more…

To Tim Sylvester, Jim Reynolds, Ken Paff, David Levin and all the sponsors and volunteers. We would like to thank everyone involved in the memorial; those who made heartfelt speeches bringing joy, laughter and tears to our eyes. To the people that traveled far just for the day and to the outpouring of people who came to show their love and respect for Ron.

We know there was much dedication and work put into this event and it showed. The display of pictures and videos were a very special touch. Words cannot express our gratitude.

Throughout the years, Ron spent much time away from us, missing many family events. Through the memorial we were reminded how his absence was due to his dedication and loyalty to his members. How he was busy helping so many lives giving so much of himself and making vital impacts on people in a selfless way, asking for nothing in return. He didn’t want rewards. He felt he was just doing his job!

He was a gift from above and he had a special gift of giving and we are honored and privileged to have shared our husband, dad, grandfather and our hero with all of you who loved and appreciated him. Let’s never forget the job he started.

Our Heartfelt Thanks,
The Carey Family

by Jon Blau, Chronicle Contributor
03/05/2009

Tim Sylvester, a shop steward with the Local 804 union, surveyed the ballroom packed to remember Ron Carey. While he did so, Sylvester focused on one of the few empty chairs among a couple hundred at Saturday’s memorial, a reminder of the late union leader, who died in December.

The first democratically elected president of the oft-corrupt Teamsters, Carey’s profile remains familiar to organized laborers. News clips replayed the Queens native’s guidance in a successful strike against United Parcel Service in 1997, while Carey’s grandson, who wasn’t alive at the time, expressed pride that his grandfather said “no” to President Bill Clinton when asked to halt the 15-day walkout.

“I like to think of Ron as sitting right there, listening to hear us speak about everything he did for us,” Sylvester said, pointing to a lone vacant seat in the front row at the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel. Read more…

View Video Clips Online

More than 300 Teamsters and retirees turned out to a packed ballroom to Celebrate the Life and Work of Ron Carey, a Local 804 hero and the first democratically elected General President of the Teamsters Union.

Two hundred Local 804 members and retirees descended on the Sheraton Hotel in Flushing to pay their respects and celebrate the achievements of the Local 804 leader who won the first 25 and-out pensions in our local’s history and led the victorious 1997 UPS strike.

More Teamsters came to pay tribute from across the country, including 50 people who served with Carey at the International Union and in the Teamster reform movement—many traveling thousands of miles to be there.

The program featured speakers from Local 804 Members United, former International Union officers and staff, journalist Ken Crowe and members of the Carey family. Click here to read the program.

The event also featured video clips of Ron appearing at 60 Minutes, CNN, ABC News and more. These clips are now available online.

Click here to watch ABC News honor Ron Carey as Person of the Week.

Click here to watch the 60 Minutes Episode featuring Ron Carey on the 1991 Teamster Election.

Click here to watch a clip from a CNN special on the Carey’s corruption clean-up and the 1996 Teamster Election.

Click here to watch Ron Carey speak out on the campaign finance scandal and corrupt corruption in Washington, D.C.

Celebrating the Life & Work of Ron Carey

It was a day to remember that touched every emotion.

There was laughter: Ron’s Campaign manager Eddie Burke told the crowd about how when he first shook hands with Ron, he felt for a pinkie ring. “Don’t wear them,” Ron said. “Me, neither,” Burke replied.

There was anger. Ron’s son Dan told how betrayed his father felt by the Local 804 Executive Board “for going along with Hoffa and with UPS management—and for forgetting that it’s the members they’re supposed to serve.”

And of course, there were tears. Ron’s wife, brother, children and grandchildren all attended the event and were represented on stage by son Dan Carey, grandson Daniel Marchese, and daughter Sandra. There was not a dry eye in the room when Ron’s family members finished speaking.

But above all there was pride—and a focus on the future. Read more…

At the Celebration of the Life & Work of Ron Carey, Retired Newsday Reporter Ken Crowe praised  Carey as a “great labor leader” and shredded the fabrications against him that brought an end to Ron’s career as the most visionary president in the history of our International Union and of Local 804.

A video of Crowe’s speech will be available soon. Local 804 Members United brings you the text here….

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We come here today to celebrate Ron Carey, a remarkable union leader, whose climb to greatness was ambushed in 1997 by the failure or the unwillingness of FBI investigators, federal prosecutors, the election officers and the members of the Independent Review Board to see through the bold-faced lies of Jere Nash. Read more…

Celebrate the life and work of Ron Carey, former president of Local 804, labor leader and union reformer who changed the course of the Teamsters Union and the U.S. labor movement—and led the victorious 1997 UPS strike.

Speakers will include family members, friends, Teamsters who served with Ron, labor leaders, journalists, and Local 804 members: the Teamsters who knew Ron best.

Save the Date:
Saturday, February 28
1 PM
Sheraton LaGuardia East
135-20 39th Avenue
Flushing, New York

Stay for a reception with food and cash bar immediately following the event.

Click here to download a leaflet with more information about the event, including directions and a list of event sponsors. Read more…

Why Do They Hide?

By Tim Sylvester and Jim Reynolds

Obscene, anonymous leaflets have appeared in the Maspeth and Nassau buildings attacking feeder driver Pete Mastrandrea.

Brother Mastrandrea’s crime? Standing up to the Executive Board, opposing the concessionary contract they negotiated, and holding them accountable at union meetings for the losses in our pension and health funds.

Instead of taking these issues head on, Pete’s detractors get personal and throw mud. The reason is obvious.

When you can’t defend yourself on the issues, you resort to personal attacks. And when you don’t have the guts to face your fellow Teamsters and tell them what you believe, you hide behind anonymous flyers.

Click here to download a leaflet. Read more…

Chicago Local 705 and UPS retirees have filed a class action lawsuit in federal court to try to stop UPS from raising the cost of retiree health care. UPS management recently raised retirees’ monthly payment for their health and welfare from $50 to $157.58 for a single retiree and $315.17 for a retiree and spouse.

The Local 705 contract with UPS states that “if required, additional contributions would not be implemented until after the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement.” The contract runs until 2013.

Local 705 secretary treasurer Steve Pocztowski sent a letter to retirees denouncing management as “heartless bastards.” Local 705 is backing up their tough talk with action.  They are going to court to fight to reverse the hike in retiree healthcare costs.

You can read the letter from Local 705 and the lawsuit that’s been filed at www.makeUPSdeliver.org. Click here to read more on this story.

The assets of our Local 804 Pension Fund continued to fall in the Third Quarter. The Fund lost more than $105 million in assets in the first three quarters of 2008, including more than $46 million in the Third Quarter alone.

Our Pension Fund recently sent every member an Annual Funding Notice, but that notice painted a misleading picture. The notice stated that the fund’s assets were $704.4 million. But this is the figure as of January 1, 2007. That’s two years ago!

By the time the Fund trustees issued the Funding Notice, the fund’s assets were $631.5 million-and falling. That’s compared to $736.9 million in assets at the beginning of 2008. Read more…

Prizes include 32″ Flat Screen TV and More!

We’ve launched a raffle to raise funds for Local 804 Members United.

First prize is a 32 inch LCD Flat Screen TV. Second prize is a Canon Powershot A470 Digital Camera. Third prize is a Teamster jacket.

A book of six raffle tickets is available for a suggested donation of $5. The drawing will be held on Sunday, April 5.

Click here and send us a message, if you would like to buy some tickets or help sell some.

The family of Ron Carey wish to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation to all those who honored and paid their respects to Ron. Our loss is overwhelming as well as yours. Your kind words and thoughts of Ron on the 804 Members United and TDU websites touched all our hearts, as well as the kind and loving thoughts from those who attended his services. Life without him will be unimaginable. He will forever be in all our hearts.

We are sure Ron was looking down at all the TRUE TEAMSTERS and friends that had the courage and loyalty to pay their respects from across the country. But especially the brothers and sisters from the local that always was number one in his thoughts, fights and heart–LOCAL 804– and telling you all to never forget what can be achieved by standing united and standing up for your rights. And reminding all of you that your union officials should always be “PUTTTING THE MEMBERS FIRST”.

We especially like to thank Tim Sylvester and Jim Reynolds for all they have done through our time of sorrow and for all they done in the past, as well as the other members of 804 Members United who are too many to mention, for keeping Ron’s name and beliefs alive and not giving in to the “OLD GUARD”. May God bless you and your families through this New Year.

Former Local 804 President and Teamsters General President Ron Carey was laid to rest on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 after a funeral service at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.

Ron’s sons remembered their father as a fighter who went out strong.

Near the end of the service, Ron’s ten year-old grandson, Danny, rose to speak.  Danny said: “I wasn’t born yet when my grandfather was President of the Teamsters Union. From watching videos, I can see what an inspiration he was. In 1997, Bill Clinton told my grandfather to stop the UPS strike. My grandfather said “No” to the President of the United States, because he had to do what was right for his people. I think the reason my grandfather wasn’t President of the Teamsters longer is because a man as honest and courageous as him could not be allowed to be President of the Union.”

You could hear a pin drop. And then Teamsters and family members alike exploded in applause that went on and on as tears welled up in the eyes of many of the Local 804 members in attendance.

The Carey family extended its thanks to the Teamster brothers and sisters who came from across the country to honor Ron over the last few days, including the many Local 804 members and retirees who paid their respects.

In his eulogy, Father Bob called Ron Carey a true American Hero and said our job is to carry on his legacy in our own lives.

Amen.

Click here to download this article in leaflet form.