Local 162 Business Agent Mike Mayo has been conducting ongoing educational meetings with Swire Coca Cola merchandisers.  These meetings are intended to build Teamster unity among a group of employees that are spread out across a major portion of Oregon and S.W. Washington.  Merchandisers rarely get an opportunity to come together and Mayo has made it a priority to reach out to them.

Local 162 is holding UPS accountable with Class Action grievances on understaffing.  Growth in Portland, both in population and e-commerce, is leading to continued and unprecedented growth of driving jobs at UPS.  In the Local 162 represented feeder department UPS has a stated a target of at least 47 new feeder driving jobs.

Teamsters Local 162 members George Meadows and Ken Lopez both honorably served lengthy tours of duty in the Army including service in Iraq while employed at UPS. They returned from active duty in 2009 and both received promotions to full-time package driving jobs and are now full-time feeder drivers at the UPS facility in Portland, Oregon.

Teamsters Local 162 members at DHL Express in Portland, and Teamsters working at DHL Express throughout the United States, overwhelminigly ratified a new national contract.   In a major show of unity for the strong contracts that were negotiated, Local 162 members voted 100% to ratify all DHL contracts, including the National, Regional and Local Riders.

John Ramsey, chief shop steward and truck driver at the Coca Cola distribution center in Wilsonville, Oregon, is retiring.  John is a 42 year member of Teamsters Local 162 and also served as the Local 162 Conductor at the monthly general membership meetings.

Local 162 is opposed to the unilaterally implemented “70 hours in 8 days” workweek that UPS has imposed on package car drivers.  This was done without consulting with the Union and without our approval - two steps required under the law and your Union contract.

Contracts often contain language that gives the Union the right to use important leverage to compel an Employer to pay health and welfare contributions in a proper and timely manner. In this case, full-time UPS Teamsters in Local 162 and throughout Joint Council 37, are covered by the Oregon Teamster Employers Trust for their health care benefits.

Teamsters Local 162 Secretary-Treasurer Bob Sleight and President Mark Davison conducted a shop steward education workshop on September 23 at our Union hall in Portland.  The workshop was led by well known attorney Michael J. Tedesco of the Tedesco Law Group in Portland.

The updated and improved Local 162 / UPS Package Driver Daily Log Book and Survival Guide are available for download. The log book is an excellent tool for documenting your work day at UPS.  We recommend you use this log book each and every day and not just on OJS days. The survival guide provides a good outline on our area work rules for package drivers.