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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @10:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @10:46PM (#690565)

    I did not need a union to pull that off.

    I shopped around and got a decent job at a decent place. Whenever OT popped up it was "a #1" priority to get fixed the next iteration or whatever we called it. OT is a symptom of something is broken. It is not physical it is organizational. It is not even hard to get the others to go along with you. Very few want to be at work at 9PM on a saturday. Those few who do find out quickly they are all by themselves. We just shovel more work on them until they burn out, join us, or quit. Go the fuck home at 5. Yell it to the others as you leave 'go home, see you monday'. Set the pace and others will follow. Call me in on a vacation? Well I will just mark that as a work day and get my vacation when it is not very convenient. Call me in again? Rinse and repeat. Learn how to work the system or the others will work you over and shovel it all on you.