UPS-Teamsters Talks Break Down | Transport Matters

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Face-to-face negotiations on a brand new labor deal between UPS Inc. and the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters stalled July 5 after exhibiting promise over the weekend, renewing concern that employees represented by the union might strike on the finish of the month if a remaining settlement is just not reached.

“We’ve got almost a month left to barter. We’ve got not walked away, and the union has a accountability to stay on the desk,” Atlanta-based UPS stated in a July 5 assertion. “Refusing to barter, particularly when the end line is in sight, creates vital unease amongst workers and prospects and threatens to disrupt the U.S. financial system. Solely our nonunion rivals profit from the Teamsters’ actions. We’re happy with our supply. It delivers wins for our folks. The Teamsters ought to return to the desk to finalize this deal.”

The union issued a 4 a.m. tweet on July 5 charging that it was the parcel service that had left the negotiating desk. “UPS had a option to make, and so they have clearly chosen to go down the mistaken highway,” Teamsters Basic President Sean O’Brien stated in an announcement.

The breakdown arrived simply days after a July 1 Teamsters tweet indicated {that a} tentative settlement was in place on three financial points involving wages for a selected tier of drivers, extra time work on scheduled days off, and recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a full firm vacation.

UPS TEAMSTERS REDOUBLE STRIKE READINESS AROUND THE COUNTRY

With @UPS strolling away from the nationwide desk early this morning, #Teamsters’ apply picketing actions are escalating at UPS barns nationwide. #1u pic.twitter.com/Q8UO0tGYFZ

— Teamsters (@Teamsters) July 5, 2023

The July 5 breakdown signifies that pay is the primary sticking level stalling progress. UPS’ 22.4 job classification — launched in 2018 as half of the present contract — is a tier of drivers who earn a decrease hourly wage and obtain fewer advantages than full-time drivers. The union has vowed because the system was carried out to take away it within the subsequent contract cycle.

The present contract expires July 31, and the union has stated it won’t work underneath an extension. O’Brien had been pushing to have a full tentative settlement in place by July 5 so he might current it to the rank-and-file members and search approval from union management council and the membership. That course of often takes a number of weeks. Final month, union members voted in favor of calling a strike if no settlement is reached. The union says it has banked greater than $300 million in a strike fund.

The Teamsters union represents greater than 340,000 drivers and loaders, and the corporate processes 25 million packages a day, totaling 6% of the nation’s gross home product. Union officers have lengthy confused that UPS noticed its income and revenue soar throughout the pandemic, as freight quantity surged amid client and enterprise shifts to extra house and workplace supply of things, together with bigger parcels. The union has stated it expects its members to be rewarded for his or her onerous work throughout the pandemic.

UPS has described its most up-to-date supply as “historic” and maintains that it’s providing employees a deal that “builds on our industry-leading pay.”

Neither aspect can afford a strike, stated Bruce Chan, director of world logistics and future mobility for funding agency Stifel. He famous that the final UPS strike, which happened in 1997, lasted for 16 days and price the corporate market share within the parcel sector.

UPS ranks No. 1 on the Transport Matters Prime 100 checklist of the most important for-hire carriers in North America.