November 4th, 2024
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON AMDC WORK AT THE NEW UPS WORLDPORT NORTH HANGAR
As most of our UPS Worldport members are aware, earlier this year the Company opened a new aircraft maintenance hangar known as the North Hangar. In the Fall of 2023, Local 89, Local 2727 and UPS met to discuss the effects of this new hangar on our Aircraft Maintenance Distribution Center (AMDC) members.
For historical context, AMDC was created in 1989 when UPS purchased a vendor company who had been ordering, receiving, warehousing, delivering, and returning aircraft parts to mechanics to make repairs at its south hanger. To my knowledge, Local 2727 had no presence at the Louisville Air Hub at that time, and the new AMDC work was awarded to Teamsters Local 89 in March 1989. Since that date, Local 89 members have worked in AMDC to order, receive, warehouse, deliver and return aircraft parts to Local 2727 aircraft mechanics and utility workers at the South Hangar. With the opening of the new North Hangar, Local 89 requires that same process to occur there as that work has long been performed by our members.
This is the position that Local 89 has taken from the moment the North Hangar was announced. Originally, Local 2727’s Principal Officer, Tim Boyle, did not agree with our position. As President of Local 89, I requested a Joint Council 94 hearing to resolve this jurisdictional dispute, which is the proper way to resolve such an issue under Article 30 of the UPS National Master Agreement. After I made this request to the Joint Council, President Boyle changed his position and signed an agreement with Local 89 to resolve the issue. The agreement simply stated that our Local Unions agreed to maintain the past practice of Local 89 AMDC members ordering, receiving, warehousing, delivering and returning aircraft parts to mechanics and utility workers who were members of Local 2727. The signed agreement was then presented to UPS, which should have settled the dispute.
Unfortunately, President Boyle has since reneged on our agreement, and so I have again called for a Joint Council 94 hearing which is now scheduled for November 18th, 2024. In an effort to avoid the Joint Council’s inevitable jurisdictional decision, President Boyle and UPS conducted a one-sided arbitration.
Since then, President Boyle has sadly made the decision to send several letters to Local 2727’s membership stating that I and Local 89 are attempting to take their work. This is categorically false as the AMDC work at UPS Worldport has always been performed by Local 89 members. In an email, Boyle took the position that two utility jobs in the North Hangar should be bid to Local 89 members, an idea which I rejected outright. In an emailed response, I explained that all Local 89 wanted was to continue performing the AMDC work we have done since 1989 where we deliver, and we would deliver the parts to Local 2727’s utilities as we have always done. In fact, Local 89 wants to protect the work each Local Union has historically done, with our members performing AMDC work and Local 2727’s members performing the maintenance and utility work on the aircraft themselves. Without a doubt, the addition of this new maintenance hangar will create more jobs for both Local 89 AMDC members and Local 2727 mechanics and utility members. Both Local Unions will gain with the construction of the North Hangar, making this jurisdictional dispute an unnecessary distraction from what should be a positive gain for Local 89 and 2727. Local 89 stands by our position that all AMDC work at UPS Worldport should be performed by our members as has been historically practiced, and we are confident that our position will be upheld in the end.
In solidarity,
Avral Thompson
President
Teamsters Local 89
