Pay, Health Benefits, Reimbursement For Expenses Covered
Bicyclists, drivers and walkers with the San Francisco messenger service UltraEx have overwhelmingly approved a union contract guaranteeing higher pay, reimbursements for work-related expenses and better health benefits, following negotiations between the company and workers that lasted about eight months, organizers said.
The 22-1 ratification vote Tuesday night makes UltraEx the first messenger company in The City since the 1980s to have a union agreement – a hard-fought victory workers said they hope will set a standard.
The contract will take effect June 1, according to officials with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. It will apply to 38 UltraEx messengers: 24 bicyclists, five walkers and nine drivers.
According to the ILWU, foot messengers will receive raises of between 80 cents and $1.50 an hour to a minimum of $7.25; bike messengers’ commissions will rise by an average of 6.5 percent to 40.5 percent of the delivery bill; and drivers, whose pay fluctuates, will be guaranteed a 41 percent commission. Messengers will receive printouts of delivery bills so they can verify that their wages are calculated correctly.
In addition, drivers will be reimbursed for parking and bridge tolls, while bike couriers will receive $7 a day toward equipment maintenance.
UltraEx also agreed to a give messengers one floating holiday a year and include a domestic partner provision in employee health care contracts, said Marcy Rein, an ILWU organizer and spokeswoman.
“Overall, this is the first company out there that is going to be paying commissioned workers under legal guidelines” governing overtime and other state and federal wage provisions, said Fred Pecker, the ILWU business agent who helped negotiate the contract on behalf of the messengers.
A company official disputed accusations that UltraEx has failed to provide reasonable benefits and fair wages. UltraEx is a pro-employee corporation that already offered better benefits than its competitors do, said Sal Grassia, chief executive officer of the company, which has about 290 employees in California.
Employees gained little in pay and benefits through the union contract, Grassia said. In fact, he said, the union’s approach to the company – seeking to set an example for the industry – prompted UltraEx owners to sell the San Francisco division effective June 1, when the union contract takes effect.
“We’ve already done all we could to take care of our employees,” Grassia said. “The union has not respected the values of the company. . . . We felt it was just better to get out.”
UltraEx will continue to operate in The City, but only by contract, he said.
Two bike messengers central to the talks said they view the contract as a breakthrough, but only a starting point.
“It’s actually a first step, a beginning, not an ending. We’ve got to think in terms of the whole industry,” said Howard Williams,47, a bike courier since 1982 who is secretary and past president of the San Francisco Bike Messenger Association, established in 1990.
Williams expects more messenger groups will pursue union contracts as a result of the UltraEx workers’ success, and that working conditions will continue to improve even among non-union messengers.
“Among veteran messengers, it’s very clear these (improvements) have come because of our union efforts,” Williams said, referring to strikes staged in the past year by messengers including those who work for UltraEx and DMS Corp.
UltraEx messengers held a three-day strike in April, and a weeklong strike by DMS couriers in front of the dispatch company’s Third Street offices in January resulted in higher wages for messengers, Williams and others said Wednesday.
The minimum pay granted under the new contract actually brings messengers back to the pay scale they had about 15 months ago, before UltraEx decreased commissions, said 15-year veteran bike courier Manuel “Rak” Affonso,37, who rides for UltraEx, based in Rocklin, Placer County.
“Now that we’re bound by contract, they can’t just arbitrarily change our rates any more,” Affonso said.
Currently, couriers for Professional Messenger are the only others in San Francisco actively negotiating a union contract, said the ILWU’s Rein.
UltraEx messengers voted June 1,1999, to unionize, and their negotiations with the company began in September.
When UltraEx changes ownership, employees will remain under union contract with the new owners, Rein said.
“Companies have been doing everything they can to stop” unionization, Affonso said. “The whole industry is watching – both the companies and the bikers. What has happened here is going to set the tone.”
An estimated 350 bike messengers work in The City, Williams said. Foot couriers number about 50; there are more than 1,000 vehicle messengers, although the estimate depends on how broadly the group is defined.
Williams and Affonso said that in future negotiations, they’ll pursue more paid holidays and time off, matching funds for pensions and higher commissions for all messengers, among other benefits.
