The head of the Teamsters union is threatening a strike by UPS workers in the next few days if negotiations over pay do not reach an agreement.
‘We’ve organised, we’ve strategised, now it’s time to pulverise!’ Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said during a speech at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday.
O’Brien – who leads one of the world’s largest unions with 1.2 million members – revealed how 95 per cent of contract negotiations have been completed but he wants package delivery company UPS to adequately pay all its workers, including part-timers.
A strike will cause significant disruption to the package delivery network and cause long delays in delivery.
Although UPS part-time workers receive the same benefits as full-time workers, they earn less than full-time workers, who earn an average of $95,000 annually.
The head of the Teamsters union, Sean O’Brien, seen in blue, is one of the world’s largest labor unions, with 1.2 million members, threatening a strike by UPS workers in the next few days if an agreement on pay is not reached.
Although UPS part-time workers receive the same benefits as full-time employees, they earn less than full-time workers, who earn an average of $95,000 annually.
Pay for part-time workers starts at $16.20 an hour and after 30 days workers become eligible for the higher hourly rate, with an average wage for part-timers of $20 an hour.
Negotiations broke down on July 5 over a dispute over wages for experienced part-time workers, some of whom make less than new hires as starting wages have risen due to labor shortages over the past few years.
If an agreement is not reached by July 31, O’Brien said the Teamsters will go on strike starting at midnight on August 1.
“UPS represents our members who deliver goods and services that account for 7% of the gross national product,” O’Brien told CNN. ‘Then [UPS] Supply chain solutions will take a huge hit.’
A strike would cause huge disruption to the package delivery network and see long delays in item deliveries, O’Brien said
Contract negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters labor union have reportedly resumed. The current contract, which expires on July 31, 2023, covers about 340,000 workers.
Pay for part-time workers starts at $16.20 an hour, and workers become eligible for a higher hourly rate after 30 days, with an average wage for part-timers of $20 an hour.
Contract talks between UPS and the union have broken down with the company now planning to train non-union workers to take action during a strike if no deal is reached by the end of July.
UPS bosses said this week they will return to bargaining next week with a better offer for about 340,000 Teamster-represented U.S. workers.
Even pilots who fly cargo planes for the company have vowed not to work if the Teamsters strike
Even pilots who fly cargo planes for the company have vowed not to work if the Teamsters strike.
O’Brien said, ‘The pilots union that represents the pilots for UPS promised us that if the Teamsters went on strike, they would not turn the wheel.’
Contract talks between UPS and the union have broken down with the company now planning to train non-union workers to take action during a strike.
UPS bosses said this week they will return to bargaining next week with a better offer for about 340,000 Teamsters-represented UPS workers.
According to one estimate, officials are eager to avoid a strike that could cost the company $7 billion in just ten days.
UPS aims to avoid a strike that could cost the company an estimated $7 billion in just ten days
Negotiations broke down on July 5 over a dispute over wages for experienced part-time workers, some of whom make less than new hires as starting wages have risen due to labor shortages over the past few years.
In a statement, UPS bosses said they are ready to raise their ‘industry-leading pay and benefits’ and talks are set to continue next week.
Many package handlers say they are preparing to go without pay if the strike goes ahead
Contract talks between UPS and the union have broken down, prompting the company to make contingency plans, including training non-union employees to replace striking workers.
If UPS strikes, they will join tens of thousands of other workers who are either already on strike or preparing to do so, in what is shaping up to be the largest summer of industrial action in the United States in decades.
Joe Hohenstein, a Pennsylvania Democratic state representative, rallied UPS workers in a ‘practice picket’ this week.
He said they have the ‘power’ to decide whether to show up to work and win bigger paychecks by ‘sticking together’.
In a statement, UPS bosses said they are ready to raise their ‘industry-leading pay and benefits’ and are ready to continue negotiations next week.
A part-time package handler said he was preparing to go without pay if the strike went ahead.
‘Packages don’t move until we move them… We’re the ones making all that money and we don’t see it. How is that fair?,’ said Elizabeth Luster.
‘The company has already received our blood, our sweat and our tears … just give us what we’ve worked for.’
Cast members of the seven-season hit Netflix TV show Grace and Frankie regularly show their support for striking actors and screenwriters on picket lines in Hollywood.
If UPS strikes, they will join tens of thousands of other workers who are either already on strike or preparing to do so, in what is shaping up to be the largest summer of industrial action in the United States in decades.
A collective strike by actors and writers in Hollywood is entering its second week. It has already seen Tina Fey, Kevin Bacon, David Duchovny and other stars join the cast and producers on the picket line.
Unions for Detroit’s so-called ‘Big Three’ automakers are poised to join them in the coming weeks if they go through contract negotiations — and none of those scenarios are a long shot.
Bank of America auto analyst John Murphy put the odds of an autoworker strike at ‘better than 90 percent.’
2023 is going to be a bumper year for industrial action
For many analysts, the United States and other Western countries are witnessing a resurgence of long-dormant industrial action, as unionists seize opportunities in a tight labor market to pressure bosses for better pay and benefits.
University of California labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein told Bloomberg it was the ‘biggest strike moment since the 1970s’ as union chiefs found their nerve and went ‘on offense’.
For Americans who aren’t hurting themselves, industrial action could cause parcel deliveries, car supply chains, and new show and movie releases to become a trickle later this year.
About 65,000 actors and 11,500 screenwriters are on strike for pay, health care benefits and protection from artificial intelligence, shutting down TV and movie sets in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago and beyond.
It’s unclear when talks will begin between their union, SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild, and the studios and streaming companies, which are represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The group said it already offered writers and actors better pay and benefits.
A temporary strike affecting Broadway shows looks likely to be averted this week, thanks to a tentative deal
President Joe Biden met this week with Sean Fein, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents 150,000 US hourly workers at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler-parent Stellar, to discuss an escalating strike.
Does 2023 mark a reversal in fortunes for America’s flag-carrying unions?
United Auto Workers President Sean Fein plans industrial action while huddling with General Motors workers at a Detroit factory.
The contract between the union and the Big Three carmakers is set to expire in September.
Fein has criticized their record profits and attempts to shift production overseas.
Still, a move across all three manufacturers at the same time is unlikely, analysts say.
‘We’ll just have to see where things go,’ Fein said.
For their part, the automakers say they already offer good wages and benefits and need to stay competitive against lower-paying rivals like Elon Musk’s Tesla, as they pump money into next-generation electric vehicles.
In Hollywood, studio bosses have their own cashflow problems to switch to streaming, which is less profitable.
Similarly, UPS has struggled with demand as the U.S. emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.
How the negotiations play out could set a precedent for workers, unions and bosses for years to come.
If the unions win, it will send a message to workers at companies like Amazon and Starbucks, who have resisted unionization, that they can band together and put pressure on executives.
It would also mark a shift for organized labor, which has seen membership decline in recent decades.
It seemed as if Mega Strike was in America’s rearview mirror
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the early 1980s, fully one-fifth of America’s private sector was unionized. Which has come down to just 6 percent these days.
The biggest actions in US history – the steel strike of half a million workers in 1959 and the 400,000 railroad shop workers who destroyed equipment in 1922 – were present in the rearview mirror.
In their recent book Union Booms and Busts, Judith Stepan-Norris and Jasmine Kerrissey, cite 1974 as the peak year for labor action, with 6,074 separate strikes in the United States.
Union leaders were reined in as the courts became more hostile to them in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan.
The strike ended with fewer gains for workers and decreased union membership.
That’s why many analysts see 2023 as a turning point for workers, who continue to flex their muscles even as global supply chains and automation should put more power in the hands of employers.
‘Never forget this: working people vastly outnumber billionaires and CEOs,’ says Robert Rich, a University of California, Berkeley professor and Carter-era labor secretary.
‘If we stand in solidarity, we will win.’
Read Full News Here