Introduction

It’s been over two years since Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien rubber-stamped his name on a concessions-filled contract with UPS that for 78% of members was poorer than the 2018 agreement. For Southwest UPSers, brutal concessions that began in 2013 have left 40,000 members further behind in pension contributions than the rest of the Western Region and its Western Conference of Teamsters (WCT) Pension Trust.

The introduction of automation in the 2023 UPS–Teamsters agreement closed countless facilities around the country and reduced Teamster jobs by approximately 340,000 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. In February 2024, Supply Chain reported cuts of at least 43,000 jobs and the closure of another seventy-four facilities in 2025. The Teamster bureaucracy, known to falsify and inflate their own numbers under the O’Brien administration, claimed a membership of 320,000 UPS Teamsters in early 2025—another likely over-estimated number by the union. Other sources reported the actual number to be as low as 300,000.

Cuts of at least another 20,000 are underway this year, which will result in a shortfall of Health, Welfare and Pension (HW&P) contributions from UPS into union-administered healthcare funds and pension plans. Many of those plans received bailouts under the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, referred to by unions as the Butch Lewis Act. Ironically, the O’Brien-chaired New England Teamsters Pension Fund—the second worst funded after the Teamsters Central States Pension Plan—was the last to be rescued by the outgoing Biden administration, to the tune of $5.7 billion. Donald Trump opposed that bailout under his first administration and every Republican in Congress voted against in 2021.

As the hemorrhaging of Teamster jobs at UPS accelerates thanks to concessions negotiated by O’Brien in 2023, this much-needed study will concentrate on analyzing the catastrophic conditions of 40,000 Southwest UPSers. Furthermore, it will delve into the HW&P concessions of the past three bargaining agreements and the incompetent Southwest bureaucrats responsible for the three consecutive betrayals, a tragic chapter in UPS Teamsters history. This article will conclude by addressing the challenges ahead and prospects for the future.

The 2013 Contract Concessions & the Southwest Pension Fiasco

When the Teamsters opened negotiations in 2013, then-president James P. Hoffa appointed his most ardent old-guard supporter in New England—Sean O’Brien—as assistant to the Teamsters–UPS Package Director Ken Hall and coordinator of supplemental negotiations. Together, they lead an information brownout covering over 240,000 members to negotiate the most concessionary contract in UPS Teamsters history. Hall and O’Brien toured the country and held rallies where they claimed UPS wanted members to pay for healthcare. Their contract campaign slogan became, “Teamsters will not pay for healthcare.” About 45% of all UPSers had been covered under a company-administered Cadillac healthcare plan. The rest were covered under union administered Taft-Hartley plans with inferior coverage. Hall’s and O’Brien’s plan was to shift the members under the company plan into the newly created TeamCare.

When a tentative agreement (TA) was reached over three months before expiration, members quickly realized it was a bad deal. When the details were presented to members, they clearly showed that TeamCare had reduced services, reduced prescriptions, and, worse yet, that coverage was cut from thirty to seven days. The general wage increases (GWI) were below inflation at $3.90 over five years and, in the last two years, split the raises in half—two raises six months apart: August and February. Even more concessionary, the agreement raised progression from three to four years. The stagnant part-time wage was finally raised after sixteen years from $8.50 to $10—but only as a result of minimum wage rising in California and other large metropolitan areas. O’Brien, in charge of getting the supplements ratified, showed up to multiple locals demanding concessions.

Enraged members organized against the sellout and the Vote No movement was born as a result. Mark Timlin, a former TDU activist out of Local 177 in New Jersey, created the Vote No on UPS Contract Facebook page out of anger and frustration, and the page spontaneously gained thousands of members. When the concessions-filled contract was presented at local halls, hofficers and business agents were met with furious and angry members shouting a barrage of obscenities.^[1] For the Southwest Rider covering ten locals in Arizona, New Mexico, Las Vegas, and Southern California, the shift to TeamCare would have eliminated their Program for Enhanced Early Retirement (PEER) 80 covered under the WCT Pension Plan—that is when the combined age of a member and years of service equal 80. TeamCare coverage required members to work till age 55 to qualify for retiree medical benefits. Southwest locals raised their concern over jeopardizing PEER 80, but Hall and O’Brien, who envied the superior supplemental language of the Southwest Rider and flawless pension funding, completely disregarded them. Angry members, who had packed their local halls across the Southwest, united to reject the deal by over 71%. As a matter of fact, eighteen supplements and riders were rejected out of twenty-eight total by members over healthcare concessions crafted by O’Brien himself. Unfortunately, the National Master Agreement (NMA) narrowly passed with 53% approval.

The Southwest members’ reluctance to accept inferior healthcare pushed their local leaders to “carve-out” their own plan to protect PEER 80. New Jersey’s Local 177 was also invited to participate in the new fund. In November 2013, they succeeded in carving out a new Taft-Hartley plan—the Teamsters Western Region & Local 177 Health Care Plan (WR&L177). Although the plan was not “identical” to the former company-administered plan like the hofficers claimed when it was presented, it was superior to TeamCare. But the new plan also came at an astronomical cost that was alien to the affected UPSers, who had long enjoyed a Cadillac healthcare plan. When details of the new plan arrived at members’ homes via mail, Mike Deszcz—now a retired shop-steward out of Local 952 in Orange County, CA—immediately noticed that pension increases were being diverted to pay for the creation of the plan. Out of the $2.50 in pension increases the members were due to receive under the original TA, Andy Marshall, the then–Western Package Director and chair of the new plan, had agreed to divert $1.25 during the first three years of the agreement to pay for it. More importantly, neither Marshall nor the rest of the bureaucrats covering the ten locals had any intention of informing the members they had agreed to take money from pension to inject into a nascent healthcare fund.

During the first three years of the agreement, Northern California and Pacific Northwest UPSers enjoyed increases of $1.50, while in the Southwest members saw it increase by a mere .25¢. To add insult to the injury of Southwest UPSers, during the last two years of the agreement, Marshall agreed to divert another 39¢ from pension into healthcare due to the rising cost. At the conclusion of the agreement, Southwest members received a humiliating 86¢ out of the $2.50 they were originally owed in pension. Due to the total diversion of $1.64 from pension to healthcare after the 2013 agreement, Southwest Rider UPSers fell well behind the rest of UPSers in the WCT pension plan in hourly contributions. The $50 per month medical cost retirees had enjoyed for many years under the company-administered plan was also given away. The new plan cost future retirees $150 and $300 for those with a spouse.

The combined healthcare and pension fiasco gave the ten locals in the Southwest the ripe opportunity to join the Dump Hoffa movement after the 2013 betrayal. But like spineless cowards, the foolish Southwest hofficers turned their back on their own membership and repledged their allegiance to Hoffa, Hall, and O’Brien. More pathetic, the bureaucratic numbskulls canonized Marshall as their saint. However, the agreement was so unpopular that members united to oust six-term incumbent Bill Elder at Local 186 in Ventura. Worse yet for the bureaucrats, in the 2016 general election, Hoffa lost both the Southwest Rider locals, which had been an old-guard stronghold, and the overall the US vote.

The 2018 Contract & More Southwest Pension Concessions

In early February 2017, Hoffa appointed his most loyal New England lackey and 2016 running mate, Sean O’Brien, as his new UPS Package Director. Aware that the Teamsters reform movement had organized to reject eighteen supplements in 2013, O’Brien knew very well it would be nearly impossible to negotiate a TA for over 250,000 members that would be accepted, considering the unlimited problems that arose with the healthcare concessions he had engineered in the existing agreement. O’Brien dared to reach out to the opposition that had caused so much trouble for Hoffa following the disastrous 2013 TA, so Hoffa fired him as package director and replaced him with Baltimore flunky Denis Taylor seven months later.

It was obvious Hoffa and the new package director were now gearing up towards negotiating a substandard contract with the package giant. The information brownout that was a trademark of the Hoffa regime continued in 2018. But as Taylor negotiated concessions, worried hofficers, who feared rank-and-file rebellions at the local level, began to leak information to the reform camp. When a TA was reached, it raised the starting wage from $10 to $13 with yearly starting increases to $15.50 in the last year. But those stagnant raises were overtaken by market-rate adjustments as UPS struggled to retain workers. The deal also gave seniority employees $4.15 over the life of the contract. During the last two years of the agreement, however, the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) kicked in due to runway inflation and UPSers received another $1.15, moving the total deal up to $5.30.

But the ultimate concession was the creation of a new tier of drivers, coined as “hybrid” under Article 22.4 introduced by the union. This second tier of drivers would work Tuesday through Saturday and perform the same work as traditional package car drivers but top-out at $35.94 as opposed to the top-rate of $42.33 in Southern California. They would also have no protection against excessive overtime. The union also granted the company the freedom to hire personal vehicle drivers (PVDs) off the street to perform work during the Christmas peak season. For UPS, these concessions were like hitting the jackpot.

Twenty-five supplements across the nation also received the same $5 in HW&P they won in 2013. However, three supplements received more in HW&P under the agreement. For instance, the Southwest Rider received $5.05 as a result of having diverted $1.64 into medical under the 2013 agreement. But due to the insufficient reserves in the young WR&L177 healthcare plan and the desire to maintain the $150/$300 retiree cost, Andy Marshall did not split the $5.05 equally into HW&P. Instead, he allocated $2.95 into medical and $2.05 into pension—setting Southwest members once again further behind in hourly pension contributions from the rest of UPSers in the WCT pension plan. As a result of an “endangered” pension fund, the Metro Philadelphia and Local 623 supplements received $3.75 in pension increases for a total package of $11.55.

When the TA was sent out for ratification to members, the NMA was rejected by 54%. Another ten supplements and riders out of a total of twenty-eight were also rejected. Along with the NMA, however, five of the ten rejected supplements were ratified by Hoffa and Taylor because less than 50% of members voted and/or the No vote did not reach two-thirds of the total tally. Such a vindictive response from Hoffa was retaliation for the headache of the 2013 agreement but also the stress he endured during the 2016 Teamsters general election, where he barely managed to squeak by—his slate lost six vice-presidential positions to reformers. The decision to impose a concessionary contract had not been made by the IBT since Jackie Presser had done so during the 1987 agreement. This imposition also forced a very unpopular and old Hoffa Jr., to announce his retirement at the end of his 2017–2022 term.

78% of UPS Teamsters Betrayed by Sean O’Brien with Pensions Concessions in 2023

After breaking his campaign promise of ending the information brownout in 2023, posturing through “practice pickets” to neverland that only worked to sow confusion among the ranks, and with one week until the expiration of the Teamsters agreement with UPS—Sean O’Brien finally announced he had reached a “historic” TA with the package king. Attempting to fool their members, O’Brien’s team published a press release titled “We’ve Changed the Game.” But when details finally became known of the lopsided deal, anger quickly brewed among the rank-and-file. The concessionary TA was framed as a victory for the Teamsters by a naïve and pro-O’Brien media, ignorant of the economics of the raw deal. The concessionary agreement was not only an insult to those who put their faith in O’Brien and participated in his practice pickets, but it further divided UPS members across the country. Afraid of retaliation from an authoritarian and vindictive O’Brien, timid hofficers privately expressed frustration, more so from the large Western Region that is home to 80,000 UPS Teamsters.

The mediocre-at-best TA of $7.50 in GWI was under 18% over five years following the greatest inflation crisis in forty years—not nearly enough for workers to get ahead in the current volatile economy. Hence, the TA further generated division among the ranks by regions due to O’Brien’s ultimate negotiating blunder and what has become his own personal trademark since assuming control of the IBT in 2022—pensions.

It was quickly learned that only 60,000 members from twenty-two central and southern states covered under the company controlled IBT–UPS Pension Plan and another 15,000 New England members under the failing New England Teamsters Pension fund would be rewarded with below-inflation $5 in HW&P. The rest of the 265,000 UPSers across the nation in non-failing pension funds would be punished with $2.50. Much like in 2013, O’Brien had no intention of informing the affected members of the pension concessions and was hoping to secretly sneak the rotten deal through. In sum, he negotiated a $12.50 package for 22% of UPS members and a $10 package for 78% of the members.

New language on pension contributions was added to the NMA specifying that pension funds not in “rehabilitation” status would not be rewarded with the additional $2.50 in HW&P. The current $10 package for 78% of the membership was less than the total package received during the 2018 agreement. That package was worth nationally $10.30; for the Southwest Rider $10.35 and the Philadelphia Metro and Local 623 supplements $11.55. O’Brien’s claim to have negotiated the “richest” contract in UPS Teamsters history was not only a blatant lie, but an insult to the 78% of members he knowingly sold-out and betrayed.

UPS Chief Financial Officer Brian Newman celebrated his superior financial education and UPS’s victory over O’Brien’s poor fiscal experience on the negotiating table when he gloated to the business community how much the company was saving in HW&P contributions. The battle was obviously won by Newman—a chief financial giant over a UMass flunky—Sean O’Brien. After it was learned that only 75,000 members would receive pension increases, OZholes loyal to O’Brien and on the IBTs payroll in the Western Region quickly spread lies to enraged members by stating that they were not receiving pension increases because their pension was 100% funded.^[2]

In fact, the WCT pension plan was only 98% funded, as per the May 2023 notice mailed out to participants. But even if their lie had been true, the trustees of the pension fund had the ability to raise the accrual rates and/or keep it at the 1.60% rate it was raised to from 2021 to 2023 in order to help keep the fund below the 100% threshold. In fact, in January of 2024, the trustees voted to extend the 1.60% accrual rate for the years 2024 and 2025. Note that the accrual rate had been reduced to 1.20% in 2009 as a result of the Great Recession of 2008 and remained at that low rate until 2019. These were adjustments that many of the Teamsters pension funds that went on to suffer refused to act on—in particular the O’Brien chaired New England fund.

Furthermore, according to WCT chair—Chuck Mack—in conversation with former Northern California chair—Peter Nuñez—not receiving the full $2.50 in pension over the life of the current contract at the 1.20% accrual rate would result in the loss of approximately $750 in retirement per month for all Western Region members. The 1.60% accrual rate scheduled for 2023 and extended for years 2024 and 2025 will result in easily over $1,000 less per month at the end of a Southwest UPSers career.

The 2023 Southwest Pension Fiasco 2.0

The anger generated by 40,000 Southwest Rider members after learning they would not be receiving pension increases over the life of the five-year agreement pushed the ten locals it represented into a corner. After concerns were raised by Locals 63 and 186 to O’Brien over rank-and-file discontent, however, the two locals were able to convince him to add a humiliating 25¢ pension increase on the first year diverted from the 50¢ healthcare contribution. Hence, 25¢ went into healthcare and the other 25¢ went into pension. It was a difficult pill to swallow for the Southwest after having diverted $1.64 during the 2013 agreement for the creation of an inferior Taft-Hartley healthcare plan and only getting $2.05 in 2018, setting them further back in hourly pension contributions from the rest of the Western Region. These concessions were ratified thanks to sellouts jointly engineered by Hoffa Jr., Ken Hall, Sean O’Brien, Denis Taylor, Andy Marshall, and the blessing of the incompetent Southwest hofficers.

Pathetically, in 2023, many who opposed and spoke out against the 2013 and 2018 concessions as rank-and-file members, strongly defended the pension concessions, now as hypocritical ozholes. The obnoxious lush—Eric Jimenez—of Local 952 in Orange County, is a perfect example of this. More ironic and hypocritical, the former red-vesters that strongly supported the previous concessions and were voted out of office as a result,^[3] such as Grant Maertz (former Local 952 President), suddenly, like political chameleons, opposed the latest concessions and cried foul while back on the truck. Wayne Addison, as a shop-steward and current presidential candidate, was one of Maertz’ most influential puppets in helping push the poisonous 2013 and 2018 concessions through. The culture of divided loyalties, conservative brand of pro-business unionism, and bureaucratic zig-zagging entrenched within the Teamster old-guard since inception continues to control the decision-making of the most bureaucratized and corrupt union in North America. The candidacy of the disgruntled sixty-three year-old Addison should be rejected by all Local 952 members.

However, some of the Western Region supplements were able to divert healthcare money into pension due to years of reserves. For instance, the JC 28 Supplement in Washington secured $1.25 in pension increases diverted from healthcare that will move their hourly contributions up to $15.95 by the end of the contract. Others such as Local 70, JC 37 (Oregon), and the Northern California supplements also secured more pension raises diverted from their healthier funds. The 25¢ the Southwest diverted from healthcare into pension in 2023 only moved full-timers up to $13.46 and part-timers to $11.36—the lowest contributions for UPSers in the Western Region.^[4] Although verbally promised 25¢ for the year 2024, Southwest members did not receive an increase in 2024 or 2025 and remain frozen at the 2023 rate, likely due to insufficient reserves in a younger WR&L177 healthcare fund and the price of rising retiree healthcare costs.

With the closure of the Grande Vista Hub in Los Angeles, which was home to over 1,000 members, and the layoffs of another 565 members out of Portland’s Swan Island Hub, the WR&L177 healthcare fund is looking at a huge shortfall of contributions from UPS. More elimination of shifts and building closures in Northern California have been underway and more are to follow with hundreds of more lost jobs. Worse yet, in July, UPS announced it was offering buyouts to veteran drivers as it seeks to further cut its workforce. O’Brien fumed over the announcement and falsely deemed it illegal. The instant buyout or layoff of 20,000 UPS Teamsters would be chaotic for the vast majority of Teamster pension and healthcare funds. Like mentioned above, a shortfall in new contributions hindered the ability of the Southwest to divert any money from healthcare to pension for a second consecutive year. Surprisingly, this year, such a shortfall in contributions has not triggered the chairs to raise the cost of retiree healthcare, yet!

This colossal and catastrophic pension blunder by O’Brien was rubber stamped by Western Package Chair Mark Davison, the uncultured and financial illiterate Southwest Chair Victor Mineros,^[5] and his co-chair Eric Jimenez. Together, the three O’Brien acolytes are a breed of unprincipled opportunists who were either too incompetent to understand, due to their apparent fiscal illiteracy, or suckered into accepting, along with countless other spineless old-guard hofficers-turned-ozholes, in exchange for another bureaucratic title, salary, and pension contribution. Clearly, Davison collaborated with O’Brien in betraying 80,000 Western Region UPSers; and Mineros and Jimenez did the same when they agreed to squander the future of 40,000 Southwest UPSers. Jimenez, of course, hypocritically forgot he had opposed the brutal 2013 and 2018 concessions as a rank-and-filer.

Judgement Day and the Prospects for the Future

For the 1,800 UPSers at Local 952, judgement day will arrive during the September–October voting window. They will have the opportunity to vote their livelihoods against Sean O’Brien’s personal and cancerous stooge in Orange County, responsible for turning his back on his members in exchange for a $24,247 stipend from the IBT. Combined with his home local’s salary, Eric Jimenez raked in $200,625 in 2023—the year of the sellout. More disturbing, he joined a list of 160 total officers that topped T-Union Link’s $200K Club report. In 2024, his combined total compensation climbed above $210,000. For Local 952 UPSers, the time to support the Dignity & Pride Slate 2025 in this year’s local election and send one of the architects of the 2023 Southwest betrayal back to the truck has arrived.

And next year, all Teamsters will also get the chance to dump the authoritarian, thuggish, and neofascist administration of Sean O’Brien, who has failed to develop a strategy to cope with the impact of a volatile economy, artificial intelligence (IA), and corporate America’s new war against workers. Members will have the choice to vote for the Richard Hooker Jr.–led Fearless 2026 Slate.

1. Hofficer(s) was a term coined by Local 986 rank-and-file reformer Larry Parker to describe the most ardent old-guard officers blindly loyal to Hoffa.

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2. OZhole(s) is a term coined after the O’Brien–Zuckerman (OZ) administration to describe old-guard officers blindly loyal to them ushering a new era and degree of intolerance and thuggery against any constructive criticism and opposition that has superseded that of the Hoffa Jr. administration.

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3. Red-Vester is a term to describe delegates at the Teamsters Conventions for their blind loyalty to Hoffa by wearing red vests.

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4. Full-time UPSers represented at Teamsters Local 396 covering the Los Angeles area earn $13.56 per hour pension contribution (see page 296) and part-time members $11.31 (see page 379).

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5. Within Teamster circles it is believed Victor Mineros blackmailed former Local 396 leader Ron Herrera into resigning from the local’s leadership following a 2022 racial scandal. Ironically Mineros had been groomed by Herrera as one of his most trusted personal goons and gofers, but during the 2021 Teamster general election had been working as a double agent to betray and stab his mentor in the back. A very common practice among the Teamsters old-guard. The strife to force Herrera out of the large Los Angeles local was done so as a favor to an authoritarian and vindictive Sean O’Brien who Herrera mocked during a 2021 Teamsters election debate as his “little brother from Boston.” A major offense to O’Brien who suffers from Napoleon syndrome disorder.

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