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posted by martyb on Friday June 08 2018, @04:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the unhappy-workers dept.

The Center for American Progress reports

The Teamsters union represents the 280,000 UPS employees who voted overwhelmingly in favor of going on strike[paywall] if a deal is not reached before the current labor contract expires on August 1. More than 90 percent voted for a strike.

Issuing a strike authorization vote does not necessarily mean UPS workers will order a work stoppage, but it does give the union leverage over management to win their negotiations.

[...] Since UPS began offering regular Saturday delivery service just a year ago, [demands on its labor force] have increased. While the company hasn't announced plans for Sunday service, the union claims UPS has made several proposals to expand weekend deliveries.

[...] The shipments [which] UPS transports comprise an estimated 6 percent of the United States GDP. A labor strike among the company's workers would have a sizable effect on the economy and would be the largest U.S. labor strike in decades. Three bargaining sessions ago, in 1997, UPS workers went on strike for 16 days, and there were 180,000 Teamsters at UPS at that time. There hasn't been a bigger strike since.

Coverage by the World Socialist Web Site is skeptical about the union's efforts and what will be the outcome. Not surprisingly, that article closes with:

There is no progressive answer to the continual lowering of living standards outside of the transformation of industry, communications, and transportation monopolies into publicly owned utilities under the democratic control of the working class.

Also covered at Fortune in UPS Has 260,000 Union Workers and They've Just Authorized a Strike:

The labor talks are proceeding amid discussions on pay and work schedules, as UPS looks to increase warehouse automation to keep up with surging demand from e-commerce shipments. The union has proposed increasing the part-time starting wage as well as improving the overall pay structure, according to a statement on its website. It's also pushing the courier to increase contributions to health and welfare and pension funds.

A previous "big" thing (39,000 workers): Largest Labor Action in 5 Years Slated for Wednesday, April 13 Against Verizon


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by isostatic on Friday June 08 2018, @12:25PM (2 children)

    by isostatic (365) on Friday June 08 2018, @12:25PM (#690285) Journal

    Well in that case the shareholders of UPS had better pay what their drivers are worth.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @05:35PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @05:35PM (#690414)

    A warm body with a clean driving record. And yes I personally know a UPS truck driver and she says they are the laziest people on Earth. (And she's getting a back pay settlement on the 26th from UPS)

    • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday June 09 2018, @05:00PM

      by isostatic (365) on Saturday June 09 2018, @05:00PM (#690835) Journal

      If 100k UPS drivers withdraw their labour for a couple of weeks, and UPS share price drops by $10b, the value of those drivers not withdrawing their work is $100k per driver. You may think they aren't worth it, but they clearly are. Market forces.

      If the driver wasn't worth anything, then share price wouldn't drop.