UPS Teamsters 'Just Practicing' [View all]

UPS Teamsters picketing in Milwaukee (pictured) and around the country are showing management the strike threat is real. Photo: Teamsters

July 19, 2023 / Alexandra Bradbury, Luis Feliz Leon

The clock is ticking on the August 1 strike deadline of 340,000 UPS Teamsters. It would be the largest strike at a private employer in decades.

“People are actually paying attention,” said delivery driver Kioma Forero, a Local 804 shop steward in New York City. Customers along her route stop her to say, “I hope your negotiations go well.” The hosts are talking about it on Hot 97, the city’s top hip-hop station.

A deal could still avert a strike—as we went to press, the Teamsters announced UPS had reached out to resume negotiations. The union bargaining team had dispersed to members’ home locals after talks broke down July 5, for practice picketing that has put on display just how ready to strike UPSers are.

Already the Teamsters have won tentative agreements to end two-tier pay and forced sixth-day work for drivers, install air-conditioning in new delivery trucks, make Martin Luther King Day a paid holiday, eliminate driver-facing surveillance cameras, and curtail the subcontracting of feeder work.

FULL story: https://labornotes.org/2023/07/ups-teamsters-just-practicing