By an approval of 97% of its 340,000 members, UPS Teamsters voted today to authorize a strike, sending a message to UPS that they are solidly behind a strike and will do so when their contract runs out on July 31 if they haven’t reached a tentative agreement.
In a press release sent out by the Teamsters, President Sean O’Brien stated, “The strongest leverage our members have is their labor and they are prepared to withhold it.”
If this strike were to take place, it would be one of the biggest in United States history.
The UPS Teamsters’ last strike was in 1997. A strike now, 26 years later, would have an even greater impact, given the increased importance of package delivery in the current economy. UPS estimates that the equivalent of 6% of the U.S. gross domestic product is delivered through its trucks.
The Teamsters are currently led by officers allied with the rank-and-file caucus, Teamsters for a Democratic Union. They came into office as critics of the current contract which was negotiated in 2018. Through a loophole in the Teamsters constitution, the previous leadership was able to impose it on the membership, overriding their rejection of it.
The current contract sets up two tiers of drivers: regular package car drivers and what are known as 22.4 drivers, who can also be assigned non-driving tasks. The 22.4 drivers are paid less than regular package drivers under the current contract. Doing away with this two-tier system is one of the union’s major demands, along with an end to forced six-day work weeks, better pay for part-time workers and better opportunities for them to move to full-time jobs, and an end to subcontracting to independent drivers.
