New Teamsters chief Sean O’Brien made no secret of his militant stance and eagerness to get strike-happy in an effort to intimidate companies at the bargaining table. Part of this bravado is down to O’Brien dealing with the international union’s plummeting membership (since 2019 and during the pandemic), but that doesn’t make anything easier for the industries that O’Brien targets.
A 10-month strike in the Seattle area saw concrete-pouring companies put business on hold as negotiations faltered with unions. To some degree, drivers flowed back into work beginning in April, although shorter walkouts still plagued the industry. Meanwhile, the Teamsters kept shutting down offers until, finally, both sides agreed, and workers ratified a new contract regarding wages and working conditions.
The Teamsters moved onto pressuring UPS, to the point where the union began to publicly make noises about a strike a full year before their current contract lapses in late July 2023. Given that UPS trucks move about 6% of the U.S. gross domestic product (and over 21.5 million daily packages), and online retail saw a pandemic boost that won’t stop, a lot (and that’s an understatement) rides on the outcome of negotiations.
Although the above strike threat concerns most UPS employees (including drivers and warehouse workers), one subset of the company’s workers probably won’t be going on strike. UPS’ aircraft mechanics (represented by, you guessed it, the Teamsters) already worked out a multi-year contract extension, although workers must still ratify the deal.
