If a deal isn’t reached by August 1, there could be a strike by 340,000 unionized workers at United Parcel Service Inc. Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are planning to walkout on strike, which “would snarl shipments of the 19 million packages that UPS moves daily in the US.”
If this were to occur, this would be “the largest work stoppage in over half a century.”
What are the issues on the table?
Thus far, the two sides have been negotiating since April of this year and have been able to successfully resolve approximately 95% of their concerns, “including air conditioning in trucks and the elimination of a lower paid class of workers, [but] they remain at odds over some key issues — pay and benefits for part-time workers who make up more than half of UPS’s workforce,” the Washington Post reports.
Who is affected? Around 50% of “UPS employees are people of color, predominantly Black and Latinx.” Richard Hooker, Jr., the first Black man leading a local said that “[a] fair contract is key to combating intimidation and helping communities of color achieve economic stability.”
At the crux of the matter is that employees are not being paid a livable wage, employees are forced to wait 9 months in some areas before they can receive healthcare benefits, and workers of color are being disproportionately impacted.
The company has faced repeated allegations of racism, including a racial harassment case in 2019. In 2021, the company came under fire when “UPS allegedly wrongfully terminated 10 part-time warehouse workers of color who declined to work overtime.”
As Hooker says, “If we don’t go to work, there is no America…When America was ordering everything they needed online, we delivered it.” “We are asking for the public in America to deliver for us. Stand with us as we stood with America and its citizens through a very difficult time in American history,” he reiterated.
Ian Malabre is a part-time package-sorter for UPS and also spoke to New York Magazine about what he wants from this looming strike, explaining that he’s tried to tell his supervisors about the low wages and slashed hours, asking “at least three or four supervisors, would they allow their kids to work here?”
Malabre said, “they tell me straight up that their kids could never work in there,” adding that “[i]f UPS was ‘doing good for you, you would definitely want your kid to be in that position.’” “He and his fellow workers want to help the company grow. ‘All they have to do is respect us,’” Malabre continued.