With less than a year before the next Teamsters general election; and less than two-and-half years since the catastrophic 2023 UPS-Teamsters agreement negotiated by Sean O’Brien was sold and ratified—the chickens have come home to roost. Ironically, the first casualty of the concessions filled deal has hit the state of Oregon which is home to UPS Western Package Director – Mark Davison. Based out of Portland’s Local 162 and Joint Council (JC) 37 – in early December retired Oregon Teamsters were caught off guard when they learned via mail that their monthly out-of-pocket retiree medical benefits are due to rise $292 per month in 2026—that is a 31% hike.

Broken into three different age groups, the new costs for participants of the multi-employer Oregon Teamsters Employers Trust (OTET) chaired by Davison will be: $792, $1,072 and $1,242 per month—an astronomical cost for retirees who are on a fixed income. For UPS retiree and former U.S. Marine veteran – Manny Silveira – who transferred up to Davison’s Local 162 from Orange County’s Local 952 in 2011 and retired in 2016, he has evaded paying for the expensive Oregon retiree plan and opted instead to use his Military Veteran Affairs (VA) benefits.

For the arrogant Davison who also serves as Western Region vice-president of the most bureaucratized and corrupt union in North America – this is gigantic blemish on his resume after gloating on a zoom session following the tentative agreement (TA) in 2023: “Health care benefits in this contract are protected for another five years, with UPS paying 100% of the premium. Most workers can’t say the same.” Unfortunately his statement excluded retirees.

After O’Brien, Davison and the rest of the intolerant ozholes1 on the general executive board (GEB) championed the 2023 UPS agreement as “historic,” how did this unjust tragedy arrive for retired Oregon Teamsters? In what has been argued by this author since 2023, a combination of negotiating 50% less in Health, Welfare & Pension (HW&P) for Western UPSers than the previous two bargaining agreements (2013 and 2018), plus massive layoffs facilitated by toothless language that has allowed AI to replace Teamster jobs—has resulted in a combined shortfall in medical contributions from UPS.

For Oregon UPS Teamsters which peaked at 5,000 total members at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the layoff off 321 workers from the Swan Island Hub in 2024 followed by another 244 after the closure of the facility last Spring is a total loss of 565 UPS Teamster jobs. It is projected that the reduction of 11.3% of that state’s total UPS membership will result in a shortfall of close to $15 million in 2026 going into both the OTET for full-time UPS workers and the Teamsters Western Region and Local 177 Health Care Plan (TWR&L177HCP) for part-timers. Hence, such shortfall appears to have broken the small Oregon retiree medical plan—triggering Davison to hike their rates.

It is unknown how many more OTET contributions were lost as a result of 2,000 total UPS drivers across the US taking buyouts in 2025. That was 2.9% of the company’s total 70,000 driver workforce. But for Oregon Teamsters – Davison has carefully kept Local 162 and JC 37 from hosting social media pages in his attempt to avoid being scrutinized. Davison is also known to be evasive of media questions, so it is unknown how many Oregon UPSers took the buyout. However, Western officers speaking on the condition of anonymity shared that the Pacific Northwest took the largest buyouts.

Hence, Western Teamsters had held a conference call shortly before the buyouts were dispatched by UPS warning of the ensuing trouble ahead for Teamster medical plans, especially the smaller ones such as the OTET. O’Brien attempted to frighten members into submission by lying that the buyouts were illegal and that members would lose their “quality health insurance.” To no avail, 2,000 UPSers took the buyouts as a bonus and left the Teamster ranks.

When the TA was reached in 2023 following O’Brien’s forced non-disclosure agreements (NDA), it was clear that much like in 2013 and 2018—the IBT was looking to cut another sweetheart deal with UPS. But this time around, O’Brien had the support of the now discredited Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) which have become just another layer of the intolerant O’Brien bureaucracy. In defense of O’Brien, TDU was quick to suppress opposition by joining the general president in promoting the concessions filled contract as “historic.”

When timid Western officers fearful of O’Brien leaked the pension concessions to rank-and-filers in the West, anger quickly brewed on social media. Davison who much like O’Brien is best known for his intolerance of constructive criticism, was quick to target those responsible for hitting the alarm bells, including this author who he challenged to a debate on a Local 952 podcast friendly to them and their conservative brand of pro-business unionist agenda. As for the Oregon retiree medical plan going bust just two years later: the podcast, Davison nor Ken Paff of TDU have yet to report on the crisis or issue a statement.

With the massive reduction of Teamster jobs at UPS since the 2023 agreement was signed, it is believed that up to 60,000 Teamster jobs have been trimmed, reducing the entire UPS Teamster workforce from 340,000 at the height of the pandemic down to a low of approximately 280,000. The question now is, how many more Teamster medical retiree plans are due to implode as a result of 60,000 less contributions going into medical plans and negotiating half ($2.50) of what was negotiated in the two previous ($5.00) bargaining agreements in HW&P? This was simple elementary math that the UMass flunky – O’Brien and the rest of his acolytes in the West failed to comprehend due to their clear fiscal illiteracy that followed the greatest inflation crisis in forty-years.

More embarrassing today, both the OTET and The Teamsters Care plan serving 7,200 participants at Boston’s Local 25 and home of O’Brien – appear to be the two most expensive retiree plans in the union. For Davison who serves as Western Package Director of the largest UPS region in the US and O’Brien who heads the 1.2422 million Teamsters union, such reality is beyond comprehension. The rates for Boston Teamsters retiring before age 65 are even more expensive than the Oregon plan and why the two ozholes have been envious of the superior 40,000 member Southwest Rider and the $150 per month retirees pay under the TWR&L177HCP.

Worse yet for the Teamsters, in mid-December UPS announced it will continue with its automation plan to boost profit by reducing more labor costs through continued job cuts in 2026 and 2027—that will result again in less contributions into union HW&P funds. Rumors swirling of a second round of buyouts from the package king in the first half of 2026 would only add more fuel to a wildfire the incompetent O’Brien administration has as of yet failed to contain.

For other small plans in the Western Region like the Utah-Idaho Teamsters Security Fund and the Washington Teamsters Welfare Trust they could possibly face the same consequences Oregon Teamsters are now stuck in. Interestingly, full-time Utah-Idaho Teamsters are currently diverting $1.253 per hour worked from wages into their retiree medical plan to help keep it afloat and at an affordable $100 a month. For twenty-three year Salt Lake City feeder driver – Tony Winters: “those may very well go up next year though.” He adds, “I might want to torque a couple more negatives about our plan, especially since our premiums have only been able to remain low due to the lifetime cap. It really isn’t an early retirement by any means.”

For Davison who according to T-union Link raked in a total of $282,220 out of three salaries from his positions as: Western Region vice-president, Local 162 president, JC 37 president and stipend as UPS Western Package Director—his performance has been a complete failure. This is why not only Oregon and Western Teamsters, but Teamsters internationally need to unite next fall to turn the page on this tragic chapter in Teamsters history and reject the failed polices of Mark Davison, his boss Sean O’Brien and the rest of the intolerant O’Brien-Zuckerman Teamsters United Slate – who deliberately lied about the actual sham the 2023 UPS agreement has turned out to be and send them packing.

Among timid officers internationally, it has been argued that the O’Brien administration is by far the most vindictive and corrupt since that of William McCarthy’s who in 1989 was forced to agree to a consent decree with the Southern District Court of New York (SDNY) over the union’s continuous ties to organized crime. Not surprising, the Teamsters have remained under a federal government oversight over its culture of violence and unending corruption scandals. This is why the most viable option for all Teamsters in 2026 is to vote for the Richard Hooker Jr. led Teamsters Fearless Slate 2026.

1 OZhole(s) is a term coined after the O’Brien-Zuckerman (OZ) administration to describe old-guard officers blindly loyal to them ushering a new era and degree of intolerance and thuggery against any constructive criticism that has superseded that of the Hoffa Jr. regime.

2 According to the last Teamsters General Executive Board (GEB) meeting the first week of December, there were under 1,242,000 million bargaining unit members and not the 1.3 million Sean O’Brien and the IBT have continued to claim on their press releases.

3 Joint Council No. 3 Feeder, Package, Mechanics & Combination Employees, (see page 305).Email