Contract negotiations between UPS and Teamsters Union will begin in the spring before their current contracts expire at the end of July 2023. Before negotiations begin, business experts anticipate that drivers and package handlers will be gone. he hits.
“The question is how long will it take,” said Todd Vachon, professor of Labor Relations at Rutgers. “The union president ran with a more militant approach and won. Even if they were very close [to a deal]The rank and file company will be hungry to take over.”
In such a situation, a strike at UPS would affect almost every household in the country. An estimated 6% of the country’s gross domestic product is transported by UPS trucks each year. The explosive growth of online retail has made the company and its drivers more important than ever to the country’s struggling supply chain. In addition to home deliveries, the company also delivers many products found in stores, factories and offices.
Approximately 350,000 Teamsters work at UPS as drivers and sorters from a global workforce of 534,000 permanent employees. And that’s growing fast – the company has added nearly 72,000 jobs represented by Teamster since the start of the pandemic.
“We want a contract that benefits our people and gives UPS the flexibility to stay competitive in a rapidly changing industry,” the company said in a statement this month. “UPS and Teamsters have worked collaboratively for almost 100 years to meet the needs of UPS employees, customers, and the communities where we live and work. We believe we will continue to find common ground and reach a good deal with Teamsters for everyone involved.”
Anger at the current contract
There are certainly signs of strain in relations between the company and the union – both its leadership and lower-tier members.
“Our members wake up every day asking for a strike. I would say no. But are they fed up? Yes, they are,” O’Brien told CNN Business last week. “Whether it strikes or not is entirely up to the company. We will leverage as much as we can to get our members the contract they deserve.”
UPS said the average salary for delivery drivers is $95,000 per year, with benefits like the traditional retirement plan worth an additional $50,000 per year. UPS semi tractor drivers are paid even more. That’s far higher than most salaries at FedEx and Amazon, where many drivers work for small independent contractors.
The current contract expires on August 1 at 12:01. O’Brien swears that the union will not allow any contract extension after this deadline.
and added that In addition to improved pay and benefits, the union will demand better working conditions, including the addition of air conditioning to panel trucks used in UPS deliveries, which the union says poses a health risk to drivers.
Record profit at UPS
The company often talks about how much it values the workforce represented by Teamster.
And in an important way — employment numbers — UPS is one of the best friends labor has in the ranks of US corporate management despite obvious tensions. UPS is one of the few unionized employers to significantly increase payrolls and union membership. In other businesses, union membership numbers have been declining steadily for decades.
“Everyone but our members continues to get richer,” O’Brien said.
It also tries to reassure both investors and UPS customers that the company will be prepared if the union goes on strike. He declined to comment on what these preparations were.
“Our goal with Teamsters is win-win-win,” he told investors in July. But he added that UPS is “creating contingency plans.”
