A UPS strike could be just around the corner. The clock is ticking. As the deadline to reach a new contract nears, a potential UPS strike feels closer than ever.
Negotiations broke down earlier this month and teamsters UPS went on strike and have been holding rallies and practice pickets across the country. The Teamsters, which represent more than half of the company’s workforce, will resume talks with UPS on Tuesday.
Teamster UPS strike
To avoid teamsters UPS strike, company has less than a week to come to an agreement before the current contract expires on Monday, July 31. The authorized UPS union strike with Sean M. O’Brien, a fiery leader elected last year to lead the union, has vowed to do so if their demands aren’t met.
“We’re sending a message, all 340,000 of our members are united and ready to fight,” O’Brien told The Associated Press at a practice teamsters UPS strike on Friday in Atlanta it’s based.
UPS’s unionized workers still seethe about a contract they feel was forced on them in 2018, and say that the company delivers millions more packages every day than it did just five years ago. The Teamsters are calling for better pay, particularly for part-time employees, and improved working conditions.
UPS has maintained that it already offers “industry-leading pay and benefits,” but says it’s prepared to increase that compensation. In a Friday update, the company said it aimed “quickly to finalize a fair deal that provides certainty for our customers, our employees and businesses across the country.”
Much on the union’s demands comes down to better pay and improved working conditions.
Share in UPS annual profit
UPS annual profit in the past two years are close to three times what they were before the pandemic. Owing to the UPS annual profit, the company returned about $8.6 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks in 2022, and forecast another $8.4 billion for shareholders this year.
UPS union strike is for this reason. Teamsters say frontline UPS workers deserve some of that windfall. A sticking point in negotiations has been wage increases for part time workers, who make a minimum of $16.20 an hour.
Another reason for the UPS strike is union wanting to eliminate a contract provision that created two separate hierarchies of workers with different pay scales, hours and benefits. Driver safety, particularly the lack of air conditioning in delivery trucks, is also in the mix.
What UPS agreed to?
Tentative agreements were made including installing air conditioning in more trucks. Agreeing to adding air conditioning to U.S. small delivery vehicles purchased after January 1, 2024. No upgrade in to existing vehicles, but will have other additions like fans and air vents.
Another tentative agreements to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a full holiday for the first time, end unwanted overtime on drivers’ days off and get rid of the two-tier wage system for drivers who work weekends and earn less money.
Could a UPS strike be avoided? Can the government intervene?
The UPS strike can be avoided if both parties agree to a new contract before July 31 deadline. There’s also a possibility of government intervention.
Impact of UPS strike
If negotiations are unsuccessful and if union strike happens then the deliveries that Americans have come to rely on, could be vastly disrupted. UPS strike has not happened since 1997, and if and when a teamsters UPS strike by 185,000 workers happen it could cripple it.
The 24 million packages UPS ships on an average day amounts to about a quarter of all U.S. parcel volume, as per global shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes. As UPS puts it, that’s the equivalent of about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product.
Higher prices and long wait times are all but certain if there is an impasse. A strike also threatens to extend lingering supply chain troubles.
UPS said this month that it will temporarily begin training nonunion employees in the U.S. to step in should there be a strike.
Implications of UPS union strike win
Beyond shipping and supply implications, a union win at UPS could have significance for organized labor across industries. UPS’s contract talks arrive amid other prominent labor campaigns at Apple, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and other companies as well as the current writers and actors’ strikes seen in Hollywood.
UPS shares update
UPS shares had marginal gains at the end of trading day at $187.30 up 0.30
