The United States is on the brink of what could be the country’s largest strike in over half a century.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ (IBT) contract with UPS will expire in around three weeks, but as of right now, negotiations have stalled. In the early hours of July 5, UPS walked away from the table, and as a consequence, the IBT negotiating team went home. The current contract ends on July 31. If no agreement is reached, some 340,000 Teamsters will go on strike nationwide, making it the sixth largest strike in American history, and the largest since 1959.
IBT leadership has been taking a notably aggressive posture against UPS throughout the negotiations, ramping up the pressure especially in the last few weeks. They asked for strike authorization from the membership, and got it on June 16, with 97% approval. With the membership solidly at their backs, they walked out of negotiations on June 28, citing lack of progress. IBT President Sean O’Brien stated that a strike appeared “inevitable,” eliciting concessions from UPS, which returned to the bargaining table on June 30. In the last few weeks, Teamster locals throughout the country have been performing “practice pickets”, a show of force meant to demonstrate to UPS that workers and their community supporters are ready and willing to come out when called. Milwaukee area Local 344 held several practice pickets on Thursday and Friday of last week.
The source of this aggressive posture can be found in the results of the contract negotiations of 2018, which led directly to the election of the current leadership in 2021. Those negotiations were most notable for two things. The first was a two-tiered wage system, which created a subset of drivers, referred to as 22.4 or hybrid drivers, who can be used for either delivery or warehouse work, and are paid less than regular drivers. Two tiered wage systems became popular in the 1980’s, when organized labor found itself on its heels. They are both a way to increase profits and to cause disunity in a workplace, and in so-called right-to-work states, it can cause workers to leave unions. With labor militancy increasing, unions are increasingly pushing back against these two-tiered systems.
The second thing notable about the 2018 negotiations is that the negotiated contract was forced on the membership by the leadership, despite 54% of members voting against it. Since only 44% of the membership voted, it allowed the IBT leadership to invoke a clause in the constitution, which states that if less than a majority of the membership votes on a contract, it takes a two-thirds majority of the vote to reject it.
While the IBT negotiating team reported progress at the bargaining table as late as July 5, critical divisions remained. Sean Orr, a shop steward and negotiator for Chicago Local 705, stated that “All non-economic demands have been wrapped up. This is a fight over pulling part timers out of poverty and eliminating all tiers at UPS.” Kas Schwerdtfeger, business agent for Milwaukee Local 344, echoed that while addressing members before practice pickets in Elm Grove, stating that part-time and 22.4 drivers would not be left behind.
In these same addresses, Schwerdtfeger made a point of reminding the members that this fight is part of a long, at times bloody, at times even deadly, struggle, one that has been going on for centuries now, and that our predecessors in that fight left a legacy which we have to continue to fight for and expand on, for those who come after us.
The Democratic Socialists of America and Teamsters for a Democratic Union have developed the Strike Ready campaign, to help the Teamsters in their fight. If you’re in the Milwaukee area and haven’t been asked to participate yet, but you would like to, you can contact the Milwaukee Labor Solidarity Working Group at mkedsalaborsolidarity@protonmail.com. You can also contact the Milwaukee DSA chapter at mke@dsawi.org.
