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Teamsters are Preparing for what Could be the Nation's Largest Strike in Decades

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

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

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

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 09 2018, @12:20PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 09 2018, @12:20PM (#690762) Journal
    So why do businesses that ignore turnover do well enough to survive? It's not the internal metrics that matter here. It's the question of why these things are profitable enough? As I see it, the answer is not enough business creation and growth. The game has been tilted against businesses with good behavior. What's perverse is that a lot of this tilting has been attempts to empower workers and make jobs better.

    For example, if you make workplace safety rules so onerous that only someone who breaks them can exist, then you can't get good behavior - you can't even afford to fully enforce those rules, if you wish to keep the business. In addition, that regulation game inhibits new business creation. Because they can't in theory exist, but in practice can by ignoring the right rules to the right degree, it creates a hidden knowledge that a new business would need to have in order to be a successful competitor. This is a barrier to entry, one of many.

    I tire of the arguments to make things worse because there are awful businesses. The Teamsters Union is just another such business, created by yet more poorly thought out impulses to make life better for the worker, but which have the opposite effect.