International Teamsters President Sean O’Brien entered office in May 2022. He quickly began to refer to himself as “militant” every five minutes or so and resolved to use his $350 million strike fund whenever contract negotiations didn’t go his way.
Will this happen? We aren’t fortune tellers, but in recent days, the Teamsters authorized strikes at TForce Freight and UPS. Neither authorization is a huge surprise, given they are intended as leverage. Still, the latter negotiations are of great interest, given that UPS moves around 6% of the U.S. GDP daily.
The two sides must reach a deal covering around 350,000 UPS workers before Aug. 1. If that fails to happen, UPS will see its first strike since 1997 and the most significant U.S. strike since the 1950s. Union demands for UPS include pay increases, disbanding the two-tier pay system, moving more part-timers to full-time jobs, and focusing on heat safety.
Can the company and union come together to avoid a strike? Some promise can be found in the agreements thus far:
- Workplace grievance disputes: To speed up the process of “fairly” processing grievances, the Teamsters agreed that more arbitrators would help this happen.
- Payroll errors: UPS and the Teamsters clarified the applicable UPS penalties when full-and-part-time workers’ paychecks are incorrectly processed.
- SurePost: Regarding this UPS economy service, the company agreed that half of SurePost packageswould move from being delivered by the Postal Service in favor of UPS delivery.
- Heat safety: For at least 95% of the delivery fleet, UPS has agreed to install air conditioning or multiple cab fans in vehicles. Additionally, the company will install cargo-floor heat shields and improve airflow in cargo areas—more information on these adjustments at the UPS website.
Should this contract not come together, though, we could soon see real-life outcomes from the recent Supreme Court decision in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters, which will result in union liability for causing intentional damage to employer property. Our own Michael VanDervort recently spoke with Jim Rovers, Senior VP and General Manager at AFIMAC Global, and he shared tips for employers on gathering picket-line evidence to file claims regarding union-caused damage.
Here are some odds and ends to wrap up this roundup:
- The Teamsters and ABF Freight System agreed on a tentative new five-year contract, which will be put to a vote with workers this week.
- Teamsters-represented Hawaii Gas workers voted in favor of a new three-year contract, ending a three-week strike.
- The Teamsters filed ULP charges against Green Thumb Industries, a producer of cannabis products and owner of RISE dispensaries. Among other grievances, the union accused the company of taking hours from part-time workers who went on strike and giving those hours to temp workers.
- The Teamsters opposed a merger of Kroger and Albertsons grocery store chains. The union represents 22,000 workers from both companies – not exactly a UPS-scale contract but still worth watching.
