CHICAGO, IL | Teamsters Local 710 participated in an injunction hearing earlier today regarding the implementation of the “Driver Voluntary Separation Program” (DVSP) at UPS. The court ruled in favor of the Company, lifting the temporary restraining order, and allowing UPS to proceed with the DVSP buyouts within Local 710’s jurisdiction.

During the discovery for this injunction, it finally came to light that less than one percent of the bargaining unit had opted to participate in the DVSP at this time. Thus, the court ruled that that was not enough to justify the injunction, as irreparable harm to the Union could not be proven with such a low number of participants.

This ruling does not prevent the Union from pursuing all of its arguments in arbitration. In fact, UPS acknowledged in court that an arbitrator would have full authority to rule on the grievance and to impose a complete remedy.

“We still believe that this program violates Article 27 of our CBA, and we will continue to fight to protect our members – but that wasn’t the issue at hand today,” said Local 710 President Del Schaefer. “This ruling does not speak to the merits of the DVSP that the Union took issue with in the first place. We are standing firm on the fact that this company needs to be transparent with the Union as it implements these buyouts so we can protect our members from being sold a bill of goods.”

Local 710 continues to carefully monitor this situation as it progresses.

“We fully recognize that this program will benefit some members – and it is not our intention to take something like this away from them,” said Local 710 Secretary-Treasurer Mike Cales. “We still, however, need to carefully monitor the situation to ensure that not only are our members not just stuck with ‘UPS’s word,’ but that our Pension Fund and our participants are also protected.”