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[traveler]

To conform with IRS guidelines you would use an actuarial table to determine how long you would be expected to live from the time you start IRA withdrawals. This applies to those over 55 but under 59 1/2. You would need to use that table to take equal (annual or monthly) payments for your expected life. The IRS would be able to supply more detailed info should one decide to do that. Keep in mind that these laws change constantly and may be different in a year or two from now.

 

[gman]

Just a thought. Can we pull out of the Teamsters and organize a UPS only Union??? 260,000 strong would still be one of the largest unions in the world.

 

[dan]

I have 30 years in and I'm retiring on Dec 24th so maybe I can answer some of your questions. Yes you can draw out monthly payments from your 401K if you are at least 55 and retired, you pay no penalty only taxes.
I had enough time to retire in Oct but thought I would stay until Christmas to receive my 7 weeks vacation pay. What a mistake!! I had informed our local business agent in Oct of my plans and actually sent him my retirement application for his review. If I had retired before Nov 18 my insurance for my wife and I would have been $200 but now it is $1.020. I believe our union knew what was in the works and should have tipped me off about retiring before the Nov meeting. Any way I'm pretty much screwed, I have purchased an outside insurance policy for $400 per month, twice the premium with half the benefits. I've always been pro UPS and Teamsters, not anymore, they both screwed me ROYALLY!!!!!

 

[badhab1]

Mind explaining how the company screwed you?

 

[wkmac]

UPS gave the money to the Teamsters in the first place?

Happy Holidays Badhab!
And Best Wishes to your family too.

(Message edited by wkmac on December 11, 2003)

 

[doug]

General question to the hard working drivers/ loaders/ unloaders/ etc that make UPS tick.

As a 10 year employee in IS (3 as an A/T last 7 as a sup) I always wondered why you folks have stayed with the Teamsters rather then forming your own union. As was mentioned.. with 260,000 members it would be a VERY formidable and there would be no issues with having to prop up other union pension funds.

Thanks for any insight.... Doug

 

[dan]

Message to badhab1- there are six people on the board of trustees for central states, three are union and three are employers. Since UPS contributes more money then anyone else you can bet that they have the loudest voice. Either the union or the company(UPS) could have spoke up and stopped these cuts when they were presented to the judge and neither did then both must take the blame, this is how I figure both screwed me and every other employee covered by central states. Thanks for your time.

 

[wkmac]

Doug,
In order to remove the Teamsters and install a UPS employee union, 2 things would have to happen. The first would be the employees would have to de-certify the Teamsters which IMO would be a huge task if not impossible and the other is once you de-certify getting UPS to recognize the new union. After the problems UPS has had over the years with a union to be free of one after the de-certification process they won't be so quick to jump back into the fray with another one.

The bottomline is it's easy to speak of a UPS Employee Union but it's a whole other world to actually get one. The union in place now in not beyond repair although it's bad broke for sure but it's just many of us UPSers have sat on the sidelines with our lives and other endeavors and let others dictate direction and policy. I'm speaking of myself too here but going forward we need to get active and push this union in a more forward direction rather than letting it live in the past and move in the direction of a narrow minded minority. JMO.

 

[upsdude]

Dan..............


Of the three employer trustees, how many of them work for UPS? If so what are their names and UPS position. Im not aware of any UPS management persons serving as Teamster pension representatives.

 

[wkmac]

Dan,
Union Trustees are as follows:
Fred Gegare, Jerry Younger, George J. Westley, Charles A. Whobrey, Philip E. Young

Company Trustees:
Howard McDougall,Arthur H. Bunte Jr., Tom J. Ventura, Daniel J. Brutto, Gary friend. Caldwell

Thomas C. Nyhan is the Executive Director

To the best of my knowledge not one of the company trustees is a UPS management person nor affliated with UPS. Every quarter, if covered by Central States, you should get a copy of the Teamwork magazine and it lists the trustees on the inside front cover. Also in the Summer 03' issue is an article about the trustee board and how the selection process works. We can't effect the company selections but we sure can the union trustees and I think we need to start holding that part accountable as in the past I think we've all just taken this element for granted.

HOLY BATSCHITT BATMAN! Teamsters employing accountibility! OK you management types, sit down and take a deep breath before you pass out from shock.

Also Dan, thanks for the 401k info and I also completely understand your being upset.

(Message edited by wkmac on December 12, 2003)

 

[johnny_b]

What if we just went on strike at the locals? No work stoppage of course, since we don't work for them. But what if we just put out a tent and sat there with signs? Wouldn't it be funny to see our presidents cross lines and stuff? It would make the news for sure.

 

[sendagain6160]

Anybody out there planning on any meetings after the first of the year??

 

[wkmac]

Dan Rausch,
A further word on the issue of trustees and a UPS rep. on the CS board. According to a NY Times article on a relate issue there is one UPS representative on the CS board. The article give no name but does make the claim with the following quote from the article:

"U.P.S. says that it has almost no control over the level of benefits the plan pays, because benefits are set by each plan's board of trustees. The boards are evenly divided between Teamster officials and representatives of the various companies, but on the Central States board, U.P.S. has only one trustee out of 10."

 

[dan]

wkmac-thanks for your article. I appreciate the opportunity to express my views and respect yours also. These are scarey times for retirees and those getting close to retiring. God willing all things will work out for the best, but sometimes it's hard to imagine how!

 

[wkmac]

Well said Dan. I attended our Local union meeting Saturday and sat there listening to a retiree from one of the freight companies tell how he had to retiree because of medical reasons with only 22 years and now after everything is said and done with the recent cuts he'll have about $600 per month before paying taxes. Your heart can't help but go out for people like that.

It's a tough situation and my Div. manager and I discussed the NY Times article yesterday. The options are numerous and trying to decide what is the right course is not always easy. As my div. manager put it, if we were one of those freight guys our solution might take on a different light even though from where we sit the solution looks obvious.

I'm for setting up individual accounts where the money is paid in and UPS nor the union no longer has any contact or control over it. Something like a 401k or some kind of IRA account or to that effect. The individual employee controls the money, controls where it is invested and control it's dispersion. Employee is also able to add money from his/her own pay in order to further build that account. Leave UPS after say 10 years? Money goes with you and when you die what money is left over goes to your heirs.

That's the basics of my solution and I hear more and more UPSers saying the same thing so before the current crisis I was resolved someone else besides me would control this part of my future but there's always a silver lining to a dark cloud and folks are starting to wake up that this is a real option. I just hope in the many options to be discussed in the coming months that this doesn't get lost in the typical of "how to have a pension" debate. The pension system in America is a dinosaur and is dying whether we believe it or not and it's high time we see this a move towards what IMO is a much better system anyway. JMO.

 

[gman]

That sounds like a decent solution for the future but how do you get credit for money already in the teamsters pension fund.

This all really irks me. I've seen it coming for years. There is a retired Teamster on my route who every time he sees me he laughs about how hard I'm woking and how I'm supporting him in his "golden years" He can't be more than 56. His company went belly up. I told him if anything ever happens to UPS, he would be living in a cardboard box because we support the entire system. Back 25 years ago, so many guys, both teamster and others were always joking about how hard UPSers worked. I hated it, but thought in the long run we would be stronger for it. Well, the company is, but we who are close to retirement are getting the shaft. All those companies go under and the ones who worked the hardest are now paying the jokers who loafed into retirement. Parden my whining but this is a bunch of crap!

 

[wkmac]

gman,
That is the tough part. My solution would be a one time lump sum payment into the employee's 401k or other retirement vehicle but first, would the law allow that? Secondly, would the Teamsters and that's a big no so were back at square one. Partitioning like the article spoke of seems to have some merit in that at least it protects us from other companies who have fallen by the wayside. We're just gonna have to sit back, learn all we can and keep our eyes wide open going forward. We need to think for ourselves and what is in the best interest of UPSers and not anyone else. Those days IMO are over. It's all about us now.

 

[gman]

The information I got from the Teamsters said my current years are locked and will not be affected. Can that money remain in central states and start a second plan through UPS with a dual pension payout? Of course, if we don't take the money up front, with out UPS paying in anymore, there won't be a teamster pension fund in 10 years. Social Security, the sequel!

Tom Browkaws "Greatest Generation" is just that. They will get the Greatest pensions, the highest Social Security and the best medical care in the history of mankind for pennies(and still complain). The next generation and Generation X get to pay for it and will be left in the ashes of its demise. Bummer! Should have saved the $150,000 I spent on college for my kids and kept it for retirement. God knows, I'm gonna need it.

 

[oldupsman]

I'm with you on that gman. I've got an old freight guy on my route who has laughed at me for years for working so hard. Well now he's going to find out why I worked so hard all these years. You're right mac, time to look out for ourselves.
The day of reckoning is here. We've all been with UPS long enough to know when this company wants to change something it gets done.
When I was little youngupsman growing up I had a division manager who took a liking to me because I wasn't afraid to question his center managers when their was a legimate concern I had. He told me something I never forgot. "Son, always remeber this company is thinking 10 years ahead."
The company has been planning a move like this since 97. They knew they had support for the pension plan then and they know the support is even greater now.And if they put out a fair and honest plan with support from Congrss what is Hoffa going to do? Tell us to go on srrike? I'm going to walk so that freight guy can sit there and laugh at me?
And my plan is in decent shape, or so I'm told. I would still sign off on a UPS plan. In my 20 plus years with the UPS health plan I've never had a problem.
Oh boy 2004 for is shaping up to be a year of big change. Sounds like fun.

 

[stevoups]

Where do I sign???? I'm ready for a soley UPS administered retirement plan and so are the employees in my center! We know UPS doesn't want any 60 year old drivers draining their profits.