Philly UPS workers have been preparing for a possible strike

The clock is ticking on a contract between UPS and the union that represents roughly 340,000 of its employees, who have already voted to go on strike if they don’t have a new collective bargaining agreement in place by Aug. 1.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 623, which represents Philadelphia UPS workers at the company’s Oregon Avenue facility and its air hub at the Philadelphia International Airport, has been readying for a work stoppage, holding practice pickets throughout this month. The local has roughly 5,000 members who work for UPS as drivers, sorters, loaders, clerks, and more, according to secretary-treasurer Richard Hooker.

If a work stoppage were to take place, it would be the largest single-employer strike in U.S. history. And even if there is no strike, the UPS workers’ next contract is expected to set a new standard for package delivery workers across the country.

“This is a crucial time in American labor,” Hooker said, noting the significance of this contract’s national reach. “We’re just demanding more because we have been pushed to the brink, and we’re not gonna settle for anything less than what we are worth.”

More than 70% of UPS’s U.S. employees are Teamsters, so deliveries could be delayed significantly if the union goes on strike, and that could have ripple effects for the larger economy. UPS has taken credit for moving 6% of the U.S. gross domestic product each day.

“A lot of people will be affected. A lot of small businesses, a lot of corporations will be affected by us not being able to go to work,” said Hooker.

UPS Teamsters went on strike in 1997 and essentially caused the entire company to shut down for 15 days. The work stoppage cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

If another strike were to happen this year, UPS would likely lose some business to FedEx, perhaps permanently, logistics consultant Satish Jindel told Reuters last week. “Now UPS handles about 20 million [packages] a day, and FedEx is handling 12 million. So they have capacity for three or four million [more packages] easily without sweating. And they would love to keep it,” Jindel said.

FedEx put out its own statement last week urging potential customers to “begin shipping with FedEx now” if they’re considering making a switch. “In the event of an industry disruption, FedEx Corporation’s priority is protecting capacity and service for existing customers,” the company said.

Yes. The Teamsters and UPS have reached agreements on some parts of their national contract and supplements that apply to local unions.

According to UPS, they’ve reached agreements on all noneconomic topics, such as safety requirements and operations issues. In that category, the company agreed to get air-conditioning in all new small package delivery vehicles beginning in 2024, with a priority for updating vehicles in the hottest areas of the U.S.

Negotiations then moved to the economic issues, including wages and holidays. In early July, UPS agreed to end a dual-wage system for delivery drivers, eliminate mandatory overtime and establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a paid holiday — Teamsters had asked for that addition to paid holidays, noting that the U.S. Postal Service already has it. The union, on Twitter, said these agreements secured early this month were “extraordinary gains” on “key issues.”

Just a few days later, however, both UPS and Teamsters accused the other of walking away from the bargaining table.

“Right now, as far as we know, there’s a big hang-up on part-time wages,” Hooker said.

Part-timers, whose jobs include sorting packages and loading them for delivery, make up more than half the UPS workforce.

Part-time worker wages currently start at $15.50 per hour in Philadelphia. According to Hooker, it takes years for the typical UPS employee to graduate from a part-time role into a full-time position.

“They work early in the morning [and] late at night. A lot of them have two or three jobs,” Hooker said. “The part-timers have been exploited for a long, long time and they need to be compensated for all the stuff they bring to the UPS organization.”

According to UPS, the average part-time employee makes $20 per hour after 30 days with the company, and they’re eligible for health insurance through UPS as well as tuition reimbursement. Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien told industry publication Supply Chain Dive that UPS offered $6 or $7 less per hour for part-timers than the union wanted.

Hooker said he would also like to see more protections for workers who file grievances or otherwise try to assert their rights under the union’s contract. Beyond compensation for employees after the fact, he wants to see harder consequences for managers who commit unfair labor practices.

“This is not the same old generation as it was before. This new generation of worker is not going to continue to take the constant disrespect, the constant disregard,” he said.

While the Teamsters have said UPS walked away from the bargaining table and refused to make a final offer, UPS has stated that there is still time to reach an agreement, and that it was the Teamsters who had stopped negotiating.

“This multibillion-dollar corporation has plenty to give American workers — they just don’t want to,” O’Brien said in a statement.

“Refusing to negotiate, especially when the finish line is in sight, creates significant unease among employees and customers and threatens to disrupt the U.S. economy,” a UPS statement said. “Only our nonunion competitors benefit from the Teamsters’ actions.”

If a strike did take place, experts told Vox it wouldn’t likely last long, given that it would cost UPS hundreds of millions of dollars per day in lost revenue.

Hooker said a strike seems likely, given that the contract expires in less than three weeks and members still haven’t seen information on wages.

“If we don’t show up to work, UPS is nothing,” said Hooker. “They’re going to find out the hard way come Aug. 1 if we don’t have a deal.”