The 804 Members United Slate has launched a campaign website. Get the latest election news. Read about the candidates and about the slate’s plans for building a stronger Local 804.
Click here to visit the new website at www.804membersunitedslate.org
The Local 804 election this fall is our chance to rebuild our union’s power. Local 804 used to stand up to UPS management, bargain strong contracts and protect our benefits. We can be that kind of union again.
In the last two years, Local 804 members have been hit with pension cuts, healthcare hikes and a concessionary contract-all while UPS was making record profits.
During the last contract negotiations, members proved that Local 804 has more power than our Executive Board realizes. We voted down their weak contract and restored our pensions without giving up 25 & Out.
It’s time to put that kind of Local 804 power to work full-time for the members.
In the coming months, the 804 Members United Slate will make our case for how Local 804 can be more effective at negotiating good contracts, protecting our benefits and enforcing members’ rights.
We will run on the issues. Then you can decide for yourself: a new direction for Local 804 or more of the same?
Click here to download a campaign leaflet.
Click here to send a message to the 804 Members United Slate.
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…
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.
Local 804 Officials’ Salaries |
||
| 804 Officer | 2007 Salary | 2008 Salary |
| Howard Redmond | $141,332 | $147,918 |
| Tony Magrene | $142,847 | $151,133 |
| Bill Buhlert | $137,859 | $146,542 |
| Tony Donato | $146,792 | $156,387 |
| Pat DeFelice | $138,674 | $143,098 |
| Bill Leary | $138,857 | $143,293 |
| Angelo Guarella | $138,137 | $142,790 |
| Tom Connolly | $137,112 | $143,442 |
| Frank Laquidara | $138,868 | $143,098 |
| John Nemeth | $137,978 | $143,908 |
| Steve Medina | $137,719 | $143,023 |
| 1 These figures come from Local 804’s LM-2 financial reports filed with the Dept. of Labor. | ||
| 2 In 2008, Redmond’s salary was $167,296 including a 2nd salary from the International. | ||
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…
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.
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…
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.
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…
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.
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….
—————————————————–
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…
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…
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.
