UPS strike threat isn’t over: Teamsters will announce today whether UPS workers approve a new contract

CNN, KCCI, TEAMSTER.ORG, UPS

By Chris Isidore, CNN

New York (CNN) — On Tuesday, the Teamsters union will announce if their 340,000 members at UPS have ratified a new contract or if they rejected it, reviving the risk of a crippling nationwide strike.

A strike at the package delivery company could be only days, maybe even hours, away if a majority members vote no.

For the last three weeks, Teamsters membership has been voting on the five-year tentative labor deal reached a week before an August 1 strike deadline. The union leadership has praised the deal, calling it a game changer. The company is calling it a win for the union members, for the company and for its customers.

But the opinion that really matters now is what the rank-and-file have to say, and they have voted no in the past, including five years ago.

The union said the results should be known after 3 pm ET Tuesday. What it won’t say is what it will do if the majority vote no.

The options would be a near-immediate strike, or setting a new strike deadline perhaps only hours or days away from the announcement, giving union leadership and the company a last chance to reach a more acceptable 11th-hour deal.

Supply chains, economy at risk

A strike could be a body blow to recently recovered supply chains and the overall US economy. About 6% of the nation’s gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, moves in a UPS truck, according to figures from the company. In the first half of this year UPS moved 18.2 million packages a day on average. And while there are alternatives for shippers if the Teamsters walk out, there’s general agreement that there is not enough excess capacity to move all those packages on time.

Although many major shippers made alternative plans ahead of the original August 1 strike deadline, some may have dropped those plans once the tentative deal was reached. As a result, a sudden strike now could cause greater disruptions than an earlier strike would have.

If the Teamsters do walk, it will be the largest strike against a single employer in US history. And it would add to a summer of widespread strike activity, from Hollywood writers and actors to the potential of a strike by up to 145,000 auto worker at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis next month.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien ran for election last year making opposition to the 2018 contract a central part of his campaign, as well as promising to deliver membership an agreement they “deserved.” He praised the deal when it was reached July 25.

“The union went into this fight committed to winning for our members,” he said. “We demanded the best contract in the history of UPS, and we got it.”

The leaders of the locals representing Teamsters nationwide agreed, voting 161-1 in favor of the deal.

Will there be a strike?

Despite the union leadership’s support for the deal, it is not certain the tentative deal will pass.

While rank and file at UPS voted down a deal five years ago, a majority did not participate in that ratification process. Because of that, the contract was imposed upon them despite their opposition. That sparked widespread anger among membership and led to a rules change, so that a no vote this time would block this deal from taking effect.

There is also anger among members who saw UPS earnings soar 70% to record levels during the life of the existing contract and who believe the workers were not fairly compensated for the surge in profits during that time.

And there are some part-time workers who are urging members to vote no on this deal because they argue they are being left underpaid. More than half of the 340,000 Teamsters at UPS are part-timers.

“We work beside full-time employees who make more per hour, and there’s no difference in what we do,” said Jennifer Hancock, a part-time employee in Richmond, Virginia, who has been at UPS for 32 years. She’s one of the leaders of Teamsters Mobilize, a group urging no votes on social media and in flyers they’re passing out at the front gates of UPS facilities.

Hancock won’t make a prediction for how the vote will go, only saying she expects it to be close one way or the other.

There are numerous examples in recent years of rank-and-file union members voting down deals recommended by their leadership and sometimes forcing a strike.

Just last month FedEx pilots voted 57% against a deal that would have raised their pay and retirement benefits by 30%. But because of the different labor law they work under, they were not able to go on strike following that deal rejection.

What’s in the deal

The UPS deal being voted on does give the Teamsters union some of its key bargaining goals.

One of its biggest wins is the elimination of the two-tier wage system put into effect five years ago. That lower pay scale for new hires was one of the major reason rank and file voted against the deal five years ago. Those hired under the lower pay scale will move up to the higher pay scale immediately.

The union measures address the lack of air conditioning in package delivery vans. While the company’s fleet of 95,000 existing vans will not be retrofitted with air conditioning, they will have some modifications to reduce the heat in the cargo area, where the temperatures can be particularly bad in the summer. And vans purchased starting next year will have air conditioning. The union argued the lack of AC was more than an issue of comfort but one of worker safety.

The tentative deal also includes an immediate 35% increase in starting wages for part-time workers, taking that pay from $15.50 an hour to $21.00 an hour, with the starting wages for those workers rising to $23 an hour by the end of the contract.

Wages for full-time workers would increase by $2.75 an hour immediately, or more than $5,700 a year. By the end of the contract, full-time wages would increase by at least $7.50 an hour, or more than $15,000 a year. And this contract has a cost-of-living adjustment to protect workers from rising prices, a provision that used to be common in union deals but now is rare.

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