UPS Union Workers Vote to Authorize Strike. Here’s How it Could Play Out.
More than 330,000 UPS workers in the U.S. could potentially be going on strike in less than two months, in a move that would send shockwaves across both domestic and worldwide supply chains.
On Friday, members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike at the shipping giant on Aug. 1 if there is no agreement in current contract talks. It would be the largest strike of workers from one employer in the country’s history.
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An estimated 97 percent of votes were in favor of the potential labor action, which could possibly halt the movement of up to 6 percent of U.S. gross domestic product—the number UPS pegs it moves via cargo every day.
“This vote shows that hundreds of thousands of Teamsters are united and determined to get the best contract in our history at UPS. If this multi-billion-dollar corporation fails to deliver on the contract that our hardworking members deserve, UPS will be striking itself,” said Teamsters general president Sean M. O’Brien in a statement. “The strongest leverage our members have is their labor and they are prepared to withhold it to ensure UPS acts accordingly.”
Negotiations will resume the week of June 19-24, with UPS saying it a statement it remains “confident” it will continue progress to reach an agreement before the end of July.
In total, when counting internationally, 70 percent of UPS’s 536,000 employees are represented by unions.
According to Tommy Storch, transportation procurement expert at Insight Sourcing Group, an estimated 10 and 20 percent of UPS’s to roughly 24.3 million packages shipped per day can be picked up by other competing carriers such as FedEx, The United States Postal Service and some regional carriers.
Since the remaining carriers would be overrun with the new shipments and routes added within the UPS delivery network, the backlog of shipments could take weeks or even months to clear after an agreement is reached.
To better understand how a potential strike could play out, one should learn from the 1997 UPS strike, according to Kate Bronfenbrenner, the director of labor education research and a senior lecturer at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
In that case, UPS was forced to shutter operations for 15 days after 185,000 members of the Teamsters union went on strike on Aug. 4—costing the company $600 million.
Brofenbrenner expects strong public support based on the relationship built between the company and customers over the years.
“We know from the ’97 strike that UPS customers really love their UPS drivers. It’s not just that they bring them the things they need, but there’s a long tradition of UPS drivers checking on the elderly and the disabled,” Brofenbrenner told Sourcing Journal. “The workers have done very good community relations, and so has the union, in educating people about the issues—whether it’s the conditions that drivers work under or the fact that the part-timers work for less pay than the full-timers or health and safety issues.”
Unions in other countries, as well as pilots, are likely to support the Teamsters as well, she said. Brofenbrenner also noted that the union has been media-savvy in the past, with the scheduling of press events either in the late morning or ahead of 5 p.m. television news broadcasts.
“If you run up to anybody on the picket line, they knew what to say. They’d be educated on the issues that are the priority for the union, and they chose young people and people of color to speak for them—very effective strategies,” said Brofenbrenner. “It seems like they’re doing similar work this time.”
The Teamsters are seeking a new five-year agreement that eliminates excessive overtime and the two-tier wage system that separates full- and part-time UPS workers from making the same hourly pay. The union hasn’t publicly disclosed the wage increase they are seeking. The union members are also posturing for more full-time jobs and protection from heat and other workplace hazards.
“They’re going to have to do something about this incredible difference in wages between the part-timers and full-timers,” Brofenbrenner said. “Many of the part-timers are titled as part-timers, but not only do the same work as full-timers, they work the same hours. And yet, they’re paid much less.”
The union already got a major win on Wednesday when the companies brokered a tentative deal to add air conditioning to the package carrier’s iconic brown delivery vehicles for the first time.
Lack of air conditioning has been a common complaint among labor leaders. More than 100 UPS workers have been hospitalized for heat illnesses in recent years, with some falling so ill that they neared kidney failure, according to reports.
An agreement would require in-cab air conditioning in most UPS delivery vehicles purchased after Jan. 1, 2024.
In the past, UPS has been “stubborn” in strike negotiations, Brofenbrenner said, noting that the shipping giant has previously introduced a “bogus” pension issue, where it proposes major changes to pension in an effort to bring about compromise elsewhere.
“The union is used to this. It’s happened over and over again. And they know that it’s a smokescreen. It’s a tactic to try to get the union’s back off the other issues. UPS has always backed off on their pension demand, every time,” Brofenbrenner said.
Teamsters notch strike authorization at TForce Freight
The UPS deal isn’t the only recent win that the Teamsters have collected, with 7,000 union representatives working at trucking company TForce Freight also overwhelmingly voting to authorize a strike on Thursday.
That same day, Teamster local union leaders endorsed a new tentative agreement at another truckload carrier, ABF Freight, for more than 8,500 members.
The national contract at TForce Freight, which coincidentally used to be owned by UPS until its sale to transportation and logistics company TFI International for $800 million in January 2021, expires July 31.
“The resounding vote in favor of strike authorization serves as a clear message that our members will not accept anything less than a strong, comprehensive agreement that raises standards and improves working conditions,” said Kris Taylor, co-chair of the Teamsters National Freight Industry Negotiating Committee (TNFINC) at TForce Freight, in a statement. “This is a critical vote that will give us more bargaining power as we enter the final phase of negotiations.”
TFI International did not have comment on the vote.
TNFINC will resume negotiations on June 26 in Dallas.
