260,000 UPS Workers Authorize Strike for Better Pay

By teleSUR

07 June 18

The workers are bargaining issues involve pay and work schedules, including expanded service during weekends.

he United Parcel Service, UPS workers authorized their union to call a strike for the first time in over 20 years giving workers more leverage to negotiate and replace a labor contract set to expire at the end of July which would impact about 260,000 UPS workers, nationwide.

Details about voter participation weren't provided but an overwhelming 93 percent favored the authorization and 91 percent of UPS freight employees agreed to the measure, per a tally released by the labor union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Tuesday. 

A strike authorization is a commonly used strategy to put pressure on the company. But the union can't go on a strike until after the current contract expires on July 31, said UPS spokesman Glenn Zaccara.

"UPS is confident in our ability to reach an agreement that meets the needs of our employees and the business," Zaccara said, according to Fortune Magazine.       

The members' vote "gives the negotiating committees bargaining leverage this week and during subsequent negotiations for the national contract and the supplements," Denis Taylor, a Teamsters director and co-chairman of the bargaining committee said in a statement. 

In a May 15 letter, the union leaders pushed for support for strike authorization. The last time negotiations broke down was in 1997 when drivers went on strike for less than three weeks before terms were reached.

"Nobody wants a strike. It hurts the company and it hurts members," said the letter signed by James P. Hoffa, general president of the

Teamsters, and Denis Taylor, co-chair of the union’s UPS National Negotiating Committee. "However, the ability to strike is necessary in order to ensure a timely and positive conclusion to negotiations. We have to show that we’re not afraid of striking." 

UPS and the Teamsters already have reached tentative agreements on a "wide variety of non-economic issues," Zaccara noted. 

The workers are bargaining issues involve pay and work schedules, including expanded service during weekends. 

UPS started making regular Saturday deliveries last year, and while it has not yet unveiled plans for Sunday deliveries, the union said the company has made proposals to expand weekend services, CBS News reported. The shippers hope to keep up with demand for e-commerce deliveries by increasing warehouse automation.

Part-time UPS drivers now earn US$15 an hour. Full-time drivers currently earn about US$36 an hour, or about US$75,000 a year.