WASHINGTON—After UPS took one step forward in marathon bargaining with the Teamsters, by eliminating the hated two-tier wage system at the nation’s largest package firm, the company took a bigger one back. It presented its prior inadequate wage offer, then walked out of talks at 4 a.m on July 5.
The union’s bargaining team unanimously rejected what union President Sean O’Brien previously called an insulting offer from the company. Talks broke down, with no new sessions scheduled before the current contract covering 340,000 workers expires at midnight on July 31-August 1.
The union intends to walk then, O’Brien said. Around the country, Teamsters UPS locals have been staging practice strike picketing and informational picketing at UPS terminals to let the public—and UPS customers—know what’s going on.
Worker pressure, including a nearly unanimous earlier strike authorization vote, forced the firm to junk the two tiers and to promise to promote its current part-time drivers to full-time status.
UPS made that same part-time promotion promise in its last contract, with O’Brien’s predecessor, Jim Hoffa. But it never followed through, after Hoffa’s board imposed the pact on the UPS workers who had voted it down—leading to a rank-and-file revolt which propelled O’Brien and his team to victory in a following election.
“UPS walked away from the bargaining table after presenting an unacceptable offer to the Teamsters that did not address members’ needs. The UPS Teamsters Nat’l Negotiating Committee unanimously rejected the package,” O’Brien said in the first of a series of tweets about the talks.
“UPS refused to give the Teamsters a last, best, and final offer, telling the union the company had nothing more to give,” tweets added. The Teamsters bargaining team demanded such an offer by July 5 and negotiated round-the-clock through the Independence Day holiday to try to pry it out.
O’Brien previously told the firm it needed the offer by that day to let the bargaining team, then Teamster leaders at UPS locals, then the union’s 340,000 UPS workers, all vote on it before the old pact expired.
Union solidarity against two tiers, a management divide-and-conquer tactic at many firms—including the Detroit 3 automakers—for more than a decade forced UPS’s hand on that issue. Tweets showed widespread labor support for the Teamsters in the U.S., from the AFL-CIO, and abroad, from the International Transport Workers Federation. Prominent politicians weighed in for the union too.
“Our union won major victories on three strike issues” on July 1, with the abolition of the two tiers the big one, said Teamsters for a Democratic Union, the insurgent organization which promoted O’Brien’s successful run against Hoffa’s handpicked successor.
“UPS will convert all two-tier” drivers, called 22.4s, “into regular package carrier drivers (RCPDs) with full pay and (seniority) rights, establish Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday,” and set definite workweeks—Monday-Friday or Tuesday-Saturday—for the new full-timers, TDU said.
The firm also yielded on demands for a ban on forced and excessive overtime. “Big issues remain as the clock ticks toward the July 5 deadline, but this is huge!” it added.
Then talks collapsed when UPS honchos walked out.
“This multibillion-dollar corporation has plenty to give American workers. They just don’t want to,” O’Brien said after the company took its hike. “UPS had a choice to make, and they have clearly chosen to go down the wrong road.”
“The Teamsters have repeatedly made clear that UPS members will not work beyond the expiration of the current contract. In June, rank-and-file UPS Teamsters authorized a strike by an overwhelming 97%,” the union’s tweet reminded readers.
Twitter showed wide support for the union’s bargainers and disgust with UPS, though some posters wanted both sides to disclose specifics of what they proposed. Neither has. “What’s being offered and rejected? Come clean with all the info now!” tweeter Bryan Stanley urged.
“If we don’t get a substantial pension raise, I’m voting no anyways,” Mark Huckleberry warned.
“Let’s do it,” tweeted another respondent, identified as JC Helena. “Let’s see how much money they can make without us and for how long. Not even a step back; let’s move forward.” Tweeted Iam Nakai: “These employees work really hard for everyone.”
“Just a few million of us waiting around till midnight to know if we’re taking you to pound town nationwide, big brown/@UPS,” tweeted voteunion©2023, whose bio identifies him as a business agent for Teamsters Local 251 in East Providence, R.I.
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