Teamsters president says UPS strike seems "inevitable" as negotiation deadline approaches
Sandy Springs, Georgia - Unless the United Parcel Service (UPS) gets its act together, its unionized workforce may soon launch a historic strike that could bring the company to its knees.
"The largest single-employer strike in American history now appears inevitable," International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Executives at UPS, some of whom get tens of millions of dollars a year, do not care about the hundreds of thousands of American workers who make this company run," O'Brien continued. "Their actions and insults at the bargaining table have proven they are just another corporation that wants to keep all the money at the top. Working people who bust their asses every single day do not matter, not to UPS."
Earlier this month, UPS workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a nationwide strike if management could not agree to a contract deal that meets their needs by July 31.
The Teamsters issued a Friday deadline for the package delivery company to "act responsibly and exchange a stronger economic proposal for more than 340,000 full- and part-time workers," they said in their statement.
Teamsters slam UPS for "turning its back" on workers
In the negotiations, union members are seeking a new five-year contract agreement that guarantees higher wages, an end to the two-tier payment system, and more full-time positions, as around 60% of the workforce is only part-time. They also want greater protections against heat and other dangerous conditions on the job.
The Teamsters said they had on Tuesday initially given the company had a week to come to table with a better offer, but "UPS executives couldn't make it one more day without insulting and ignoring union leaders and rank-and-filers as negotiations resumed on Wednesday," the union wrote.
If a deal is not reached on time, UPS workers may go on strike on August 1, potentially bringing the nation's largest parcel delivery service to a standstill.
"Time has run out for UPS to give workers that honorable contract. The Teamsters repeatedly told the company from the beginning of this process that there would be no extensions. But UPS has sat on its hands and chosen to turn its back on these workers," Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman said.
"Come August 1, it’s going to be damn hard for UPS to ignore us any longer."
Cover photo: IMAGO / USA TODAY Network