UPS works council: majority victory for German union

Written by Admin | 29 March 2010

altA German union has won a majority on a UPS works council in elections in the city ofalt Herne, Germany, this week. The success follows similar wins at UPS in Cologne and Stuttgart.

The ITF-affiliated Ver.di union won seven out of 13 seats on the UPS works council in Herne, where more than 900 staff are based. Despite the narrow margin of victory, the vote is significant: it is the first time in four years that a union has won a majority on the council; until now, the council had been run by a non-Ver.di majority with a knock-on effect on workers. The union majority ushers in a new era for worker representation.

ITF global organising coordinator Ingo Marowsky commented: “This is very good news for our work in UPS in Germany and has implications for UPS across the world. We congratulate the union and its activists on achieving this milestone. As in Cologne and Stuttgart, Ver.di has won the trust of the majority of the workers. The ITF will continue to provide Ver.di with support to develop strong worker representation at UPS.”

UPS invests $1 billion in technology to cut costs

Written by Admin | 29 March 2010

altUnited Parcel Service (UPS) will make about US$1 billion in technology investments this year to improve the efficiency of its operations, with the goal of cutting billions more from its costs over the long term, company executives said Tuesday.

One of its main goals is to improve the speed and efficiency of its delivery operations. To achieve that, UPS is equipping its vans with sensors that allow it to collect data about things like fuel consumption, chosen routes and how much time its engines spend idling, said Dave Barnes, chief information officer at UPS, at the company's Green Tech Forum in New York this week.

Reducing fuel consumption will help UPS not only to cut costs but also be more environmentally responsible. A big portion of the company's costs comes from transporting packages by air. In fact, UPS is the world's ninth-largest airline, so it is trying to conserve aircraft fuel as well, by lowering flight speeds and better planning to avoid duplication of routes.

But a lot of fuel is also burned by its trucks, and the sensors and telematics being implemented there could save the company millions of dollars, Barnes said.

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