Teamsters Vermont Local 597

06/03/2026

UPS Teamsters from the White River Junction Facility met in the parking lot to discuss and object to poor management, retaliation, unsafe working conditions and excessive dispatch. The recent reduction in the workforce has left the drivers gobsmacked.

Many of the drivers we spoke with described a dispatcher who might as well be the Easter Bunny, is never seen at the facility and totally unreachable. They are sending multiple trucks to the same location and having routes hopscotch each other all day while never seeming to fix any issues. The drivers described a vacuum of leadership, where local supervisors would shrug and tell people that they lacked authority to fix problems, but many of the workers have seen their terminal manager less than five times over the last year. No person at the terminal was able to state affirmatively the last time they had seen their terminal manager in person.

UPS dispatching skill has deteriorated noticeably during the years following the pandemic, and the recent cuts have exposed how bad it has really gotten. Drivers are even making claims that night sort supervisors are hiding sort time as car wash time and not washing trucks, a complaint that seemed pretty legitimate at least from a dirty truck stand point.

Workers are standing up against a policy of retaliation where complaints lead to more retaliation by filing complaints with the state, NLRB and by filing article 37 grievances, and they are saying enough. They are sick of a atmosphere of retaliation where management has no respect for their time or safety. Management cannot even manage to fill in potholes in the walk path, a yearly occurrence at this point.

It is time to get back to basics instead of focusing on how to retaliate against drivers the next day, maybe work on putting together a great dispatch? Maybe pretend there is a supervisor on car on every route, every day? That usually cleans things up. A little less stalking when drivers tell on roads that the dispatch needs fixing, and a little more fixing might just do the trick, if only the dispatcher was ever there to receive the information from the drivers and on roads. The only thing dumber than the dispatch is the reasons given for the 'working terminations' and discipline:

(Not an exhaustive list) Lunch box on the top shelf, Lunch box on the middle shelf, following ORION too closely, asking when grievances will be paid, calling out when their kid is having surgery, refusing to hold a supervisor's hand, beeped the horn, but not loudly enough etc. Absolute waste of time.

UPS used to be managed smarter than this.

06/02/2026

Why is UPS delivering at 10 pm?

More to come on this, but this is a disgrace. Terminals sending out drivers, most of whom have requested to be adjusted under 9.5 hours, with an average plan day of over 12.5 hours. Self-inflicted short staffing.

05/27/2026

Anyone interested in learning how to meaningfully work to amplify worker power in the world can join other workers in Barre at 9 AM on the 30th at the solidarity school. Learn how to amplify your power.

05/26/2026

UPS Teamsters in Williston held a parking lot rally today to protest poor management and unsafe working conditions. The recent reduction in workforce has left the remaining drivers working long days due to a lack of available staff at multiple locations around the state. The short staffing has exposed the massively Incompetent UPS Route Planners across the state who have been relying on a high number of drivers to cover for the absolutely embarrassing dispatch, with many centers seeing multiple drivers per day delivering on the same streets at the same time, frequently even chasing each other from stop to stop.

Meanwhile, package car loaders trip over overflowing volume, and UPS fails to complete mandatory safety inspections on package cars.

While managers spend all of their timé every day trying to fire the few drivers who aren't injured yet (with the exception of that one manager that spends his time billing UPS and running his own business), UPS workers are fed up with the sh*tstorm of management incompetence, the unsafe vehicles, the retaliation and the long days and it is time for UPS to start functioning again.

05/25/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18nheeTrLP/

This Memorial Day, the Teamsters Union honors the memory of all who gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect the freedom we enjoy each and every day.

05/20/2026

FIRST STUDENT TEAMSTERS RATIFY NATIONAL MASTER AGREEMENT

Teamsters at First Student have ratified a five-year contract, securing stronger protections, improved benefits, and safer working conditions impacting over 22,000 school bus workers across the country. The agreement was secured following a credible strike threat across 96 locals that would have impacted school bus routes nationwide.

“First Student Teamsters refused to settle for the status quo and fought for an agreement that delivers real improvements,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “Our members were ready to act and hold this company accountable if they failed to deliver the deal workers more than deserved. This contract strengthens job protections, improves retirement security, and will continue to raise the bar for school bus workers everywhere.”

The new agreement includes improvements such as increased access to health care benefits, new minimum standards for retirement contributions that will provide pension contributions for the first time to more than 10,000 workers, and expanded leave protections. It also creates a standalone article governing video and audio technology on buses, including protections against misuse of data and requirements for future national negotiations over changes to camera systems.

The First Student National Master Agreement impacts over 17,000 Teamsters and 5,000 additional school bus workers nationwide. As First Student Teamsters practice picketed at bus yards across the country, the Teamsters First Student National Negotiating Committee reached a tentative agreement just hours before the contract expired on March 31.

05/18/2026

The union recieved complaints along similar lines during our organizing campaign with the workers at Norwich University. It became clear from conversations with several employees that the University didn't and still doesn't have effective personnel controls in place to keep workers safe from abusive management. If this allegation is true, that means the corruption that workers are perceiving went all the way to the top. It is time for the University to deal with the skeletons in the closet, set up safeguards that are real and not pro forma to protect employees from abusive management, and it is time for them to stop being in denial and bargain a fair first contract with the workers that elected to join the Teamsters.

The case, which is similar to another lawsuit, raises questions about how the school handled employee conduct outside the office.

05/18/2026

Several Local 597 Stewards spent the day at a training, both at the union hall and some joining online. They left the training better prepared to enforce contracts in their shops. It was nice to spend the morning with you all.