Potential UPS Strike (Agreement Reached. Members Will Vote from Aug. 3-22)

[mastermind]

What the Teamsters Are Really About

Today on TAP: As a strike at UPS looms, the union’s plans may encompass more than winning a good contract.

prospect.org

The negotiations between the Teamsters and UPS have broken down, with each side blaming the other for walking away from the table. The prospects that the roughly 340,000 Teamsters who work for UPS could strike when their current contract runs out on July 31 have obviously risen, though given the vagaries of labor relations, you might want to hedge your bets on that. (By the way, the media have taken to touting the prospective strike as the largest in U.S. history, which it wouldn’t be: In 1959, 500,000 members of the United Steelworkers struck the big steel companies and stayed off the job for a remarkable 116 days.)

Before the negotiations shuddered to a halt, the Teamsters issued press releases noting the gains they’d already secured in the talks: notably, UPS’s agreement to air-condition its trucks, and to eliminate or greatly reduce its “two-tier” employment model, under which some workers have been paid less than the union norm. The two-tier model was forced on the UAW members who worked for the Big Three auto companies when they required a federal bailout in 2009; it then became a common practice at other companies that browbeat their unions to accept it during the following decade. As those companies recovered from the Great Recession, those unions have sought to get the practice abolished, which the Teamsters now appear to have done.

So, what are the outstanding issues that have yet to be resolved? I have no insider information, but it stands to reason that the main issue for the Teamsters—as it is for most American workers—is securing wage increases that offset or exceed the rising costs of living, most particularly of housing and food. In 2023, the issue of wages keeps rising to the top of the heap. It came as a surprise that the historically militant West Coast Longshore Union was able to reach an early accord with employers on the fraught issue of the mechanization of jobs performed by their members, but held out until the issue of their members’ wages—which are the highest of any blue-collar workers in the nation—was settled to their satisfaction.

If wages are in fact the main outstanding issue for the Teamsters, does that mean this is just traditional meat-and-potatoes bargaining? I think not.

The new regime at the Teamsters, headed by President Sean O’Brien, clearly views its confrontation with UPS as crucial in itself, but also to its hopes to organize Amazon (and, who knows, maybe rival FedEx, too). Amazon workers have a very distinct set of needs. They’re disproportionately young, drawn to their jobs by the company’s higher-than-McDonald’s pay rates, and the great majority of them stay on the job for less than a year, so grueling are the pace and conditions of the work. Many of the things that union contracts customarily deliver—retirement benefits, health coverage, and so on—are of little if any importance to them. They’re there for the wages, and if the Teamsters can deliver major raises to their members at UPS—who are already paid several times what the Amazon workers make—that could make the task of unionizing these transient Gen Zers a little less daunting. It could also prompt FedEx workers to ponder why they’re making so much less than those UPS drivers schlepping the same kind of packages that they’re schlepping.

If the Teamsters can win that kind of victory at UPS, they’ll be better able to activate a slice of their membership to proselytize their Amazon peers—and who know who else? By having let their members know about what they’ve already won in the talks, they’re laying the groundwork for motivating members to a more militant posture, which they’ll need if they strike. A widely publicized big victory at UPS, then, is a precondition for the union’s future organizing.

In that sense, the Teamsters aren’t just bargaining—and if comes to that, they won’t just be striking—for their own members. Like the UAW of yore—and like no union since then—they’re bargaining for the American working class. That, as Joe Biden once said, is a big fukking deal.

 

[Robbie3000]

How the hell did the union accept vehicles without air conditioning for so long and why in the hell is UPS balking at adding a/c to these trucks? It’s 2023

 

[Yapdatfool]

Lol I'm all for folks to get their money but like I said there's two side to everything. The company isn't going to talk in public but the union can. The company literally gave the Teamsters everything they requested (Teamster leadership conformed it) before getting to the final stages of negotiation where they talking about raises. The union is looking for raises based on the booming volume during COVID. Since covid been over volume has been down. It's been the Teamsters asking for things and the company conceding to everything but for the first time there is a little push back from the company O Brian leaves the negotiation table and is making a media circus of this. Brah is refusing to allow the teamsters to vote on this package until he gets everything. There's only 3 more weeks left so there's already not enough time to have the membership vote of what is on the table now. We are heading for a strike but shyt is going to get real for these folks because they not getting paid other than their strike pay which will be about $100 a day. This is not good for either side. Especially the drivers that gets the following:

• After hitting seniority alot of these drivers make over 100k with OT only needing a GED (most make more than their own supervisor)
• Retirement Pension
• Top of the line Free health insurance paid for by the company
• Up to 7 weeks vacations plus days off
• Triple pay on certain holidays
• Free dry cleaning
• IVF and adoption assistance
• Etc.

How you 'for folks to get their money' then site everything else the company doing EXCEPT the unionized workers getting... their... money...

 

[nyknick]

Lol I'm all for folks to get their money but like I said there's two side to everything. The company isn't going to talk in public but the union can. The company literally gave the Teamsters everything they requested (Teamster leadership conformed it) before getting to the final stages of negotiation where they talking about raises. The union is looking for raises based on the booming volume during COVID. Since covid been over volume has been down. It's been the Teamsters asking for things and the company conceding to everything but for the first time there is a little push back from the company O Brian leaves the negotiation table and is making a media circus of this. Brah is refusing to allow the teamsters to vote on this package until he gets everything. There's only 3 more weeks left so there's already not enough time to have the membership vote of what is on the table now. We are heading for a strike but shyt is going to get real for these folks because they not getting paid other than their strike pay which will be about $100 a day. This is not good for either side. Especially the drivers that gets the following:

• After hitting seniority alot of these drivers make over 100k with OT only needing a GED (most make more than their own supervisor)
• Retirement Pension
• Top of the line Free health insurance paid for by the company
• Up to 7 weeks vacations plus days off
• Triple pay on certain holidays
• Free dry cleaning
• IVF and adoption assistance
• Etc.

You're making it seems like UPS agreeing to things that should have already been a basic standard was some kind of a grand concession on their part. UPS was nice enough to finally give them AC (so drivers stop dying from heat strokes) and make MLK paid holiday and union had the nerve to talk about pay raises.

 

[Hood Critic]

I stand with them..I hope they get what they deserve.







But my swoosh deliveries

 

[Arizax2]

You're making it seems like UPS agreeing to things that should have already been a basic standard was some kind of a grand concession on their part. UPS was nice enough to finally give them AC (so drivers stop dying from heat strokes) and make MLK paid holiday and union had the nerve to talk about pay raises.

I don't see an issue with the AC and MLK as a day off that's cool. But if brahs are asking for more money while making north of 100k with a pension and the best benfits in the country then they doing to much going on strike for that because its threatening the US economy and causing UPS customers to shift over to another company. Market share will be lost.

Everytime the company gives its being taken away somewhere else because they have to show growth to the shareholders. Teamsters demanded the removal of the 22.4 union jobs will lead to termination of actual employees. The increase of costs will also just motivate the company to expedite the automation route which will lead to more job losses.

Cause and effect. So far they have cut Management job, offered volunteer separating packages to mangment, lowered benfit packages for mangment, took away pension plans from mangment and cut bonuses from mangment. This was in preparation to cover the loses they will give up to the union during this contract. All that is taken place and they union still wants to go on strike?

 

[nyknick]

I don't see an issue with the AC and MLK as a day off that's cool. But if brahs are asking for more money while making north of 100k with a pension and the best benfits in the country then they doing to much going on strike for that because its threatening the US economy and causing UPS customers to shift over to another company. Market share will be lost.

Everytime the company gives its being taken away somewhere else because they have to show growth to the shareholders. Teamsters demanded the removal of the 22.4 union jobs will lead to termination of actual employees. The increase of costs will also just motivate the company to expedite the automation route which will lead to more job losses.

Cause and effect. So far they have cut Management job, offered volunteer separating packages to mangment, lowered benfit packages for mangment, took away pension plans from mangment and cut bonuses from mangment. This was in preparation to cover the loses they will give up to the union during this contract. All that is taken place and they union still wants to go on strike?

You said it's a problem that union wants a raise based on COVID boom volume but have no issue with UPS trying to keep a two-tier pay system based on the 2008 recession, that's laughable.

Also you're painting a narrative of O'Brien and Teamster bosses as rogue actors trying to remove 22.4 against member wishes when it's exactly the opposite. The main reason O'Brien is now in charge and previous president, Hoffa, was ousted was because Hoffa went against majority member vote in 2018 (54% against ratification) and pushed the agreement through with a loophole.

 

[the cac mamba]

You're making it seems like UPS agreeing to things that should have already been a basic standard was some kind of a grand concession on their part. UPS was nice enough to finally give them AC (so drivers stop dying from heat strokes) and make MLK paid holiday and union had the nerve to talk about pay raises.

let me ask, in order to get all sides of the issue;

what is an average UPS driver making a year, for how many hours a week? because if these dudes are pulling down 80k or more; its a tough job, but median income is about 35. and this is a degree-less job

 

[Arizax2]

let me ask, in order to get all sides of the issue;

what is an average UPS driver making a year, for how many hours a week? because if these dudes are pulling down 80k or more; its a tough job, but median income is about 35. and this is a degree-less job

Listen to O'Brian speak below and tell me he's not the one thats the problem. He gets checked by the anchor on air that the average UPS driver makes 95k a year (theres a ton that makes more than 100k) and inside workers makes $20 with a pension and benfits. They asked him what will it take to get back to negotiation table and his response is that UPS has to agree with his demand on pay. This is after the company gave him 100% of everything he requested during the entirety of this process. This isn't negotiating in good faith. Our economy is about to take a big hit if they strike. Brah isn't even letting his members vote on the current offer as it stands. Smh

 

[GunRanger]

If you got Amazon Prime, you better start ordering now. August gonna be a long summer.

Amazon got their own delivery. And theyre non union.

Those Rivian vans are nice

 

[Lord-Yosh]

fukk ups that proposal was shyt. I hope they strike and cost them millions.

 

[mastermind]

Our economy is about to take a big hit if they strike.

‘An economic catastrophe’​

In the run-up to the rail strike deadlines, news outlets sensationalized the potential economic damage that would be caused by a work stoppage.

Look no further than the clips, edited together by the Recount‘s Steve Morris, of CNN pundits and reporters warning audiences of an “expensive” “disruption” that would devastate our economy—only weeks before the holidays, no less! Meanwhile, every media outlet under the sun bleated ad nauseam the Association of American Railroads–generated fact that a strike would “cost $2 billion a day” (Fortune, 11/22/22; Newsweek, 11/21/22; CNBC, 9/8/22; AP, 9/8/22; Barron’s, 9/14/22).

It’s telling that no such vapors were stoked by railroad companies threatening limited service stoppages of their own–that is, illegal lockouts during negotiations.

We should expect a similar shadow to be cast on a strike at UPS, a company that transports about 6% of the country’s GDP, and unsurprisingly, may be the railroad companies’ largest customer. Already, we’re seeing forecasts of economic doom: Business Insider (2/1/23) warns that “a driver strike threatens to upend millions of deliveries,” Fortune (9/6/22) decries that the strike “could hurt virtually every American,” and Bloomberg(1/30/23) emphasizes that “the stakes are high for [UPS CEO Carol] Tomé and the US.”

…

 

[ORDER_66]

…

Should have put AC in them vans fukk em... they wanna be greedy while theirworkers are dying, being broken while they just raked in billions off their labor... fukk it burn it all...

 

[Anerdyblackguy]

Congratulations to the Teamsters

 

[Pressure]

Good, hopefully we don’t get too many think prices on how this deal they agreed to is bad.