Last year, a push was made to form a union with Starbucks baristas. Amazon warehouse worker It almost monopolizes the attention of labor organisations.

That may be why the most important developments in this area have been kept under wraps until very recently. We are talking about contract negotiations between United Parcel Service and the approximately 340,000 members of the Teamster union.

The negotiations have already won an overwhelming majority of member states’ votes to strike if no agreement is reached by July 31, when the current contract expires. Arguments over the impact of the UPS strike have intensified recently, as the shutdown of a company that handles 6% of its estimated gross domestic product (GDP) could have dire economic consequences, according to UPS.

But more important is the impact of successful negotiations and strikes on the health of organized workers in the United States.

It would demonstrate that after three years of a pandemic and a year of profit-fuelled inflation, workers have gained real influence over their employers. It could also demonstrate the value of trade union solidarity in the face of firm resistance from employers.

As we have previously reported, the idea that the pandemic has given American workers an edge over their employers is greatly exaggerated.

As newsy labor expert Teresa Guilarducci points out: A recent study by Oxfam According to this, among the 38 developed countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, measures of wage policies such as minimum wage (36 out of 38), right to organize (32nd), protection of workers (number of deaths), etc. , the United States ranks at or near the bottom. 38) at the end.

My employer is doing much better, thank you. That includes UPS, which has been hit financially by the pandemic. UPS’s revenue increased to $100.3 billion last year from $74.1 billion in 2019, while profit increased to $11.6 billion from $4.5 billion in 2019.

In other words, the company’s profit margin almost doubled from 6% in the pre-corona year to 11.6% last year. If there are arguments against further allocating to the workforce the enormous costs that made its growth possible, let’s hear them.

Given U.S. law and past practices, staged organizing activities in discrete workplaces like Starbucks stores always face an uphill battle.

Starbucks managed to pull much of its barista unionization effort to a draw by exploiting the indifferent and slow system of U.S. labor law enforcement. was engaged in an act authorized by ‘Hundreds of Unfair Labor Practices’ But his sentence came more than a year and a half after the crime was committed. The enforcement process is not yet finished.

The union negotiates all UPS members company-wide, so Teamster can’t be manipulated so easily. That said, Teamster leaders in the past have been overly indulgent to the company. Some of their historic concessions are now on the negotiating table. Additionally, today’s Teamster leadership won seats by specifically promising to take a tough stance against UPS.

This stance has already brought agreement on many non-economic issues. Most importantly, it may be the company’s agreement to install heat shields and air conditioning in its delivery vehicles, where summer temperatures can exceed 100 degrees Celsius. Numerous UPS drivers He is said to have died of heat injuries.

Why Driver Esteban Chavez Jr. Died Last Summer His family claims he had a heat stroke I was damaged while delivering a package in Pasadena. (The question, of course, is why UPS needed union bargaining to address this issue.)

“We have a new person in charge,” says Viviana Gonzalez, a nine-year UPS driver and steward of Covina-based Teamsters Local 396. She’s referring to former UPS employee and general president Sean O’Brien, who won the Teamsters post. In 2021, former President James P. Hoffa defeated a hand-picked candidate to emerge victorious.

“Sean O’Brien has made it clear that we will not accept any concessions,” Gonzalez told me. Employees are proud to have kept UPS running during the pandemic, he said. However, there is a widespread feeling that the company is not sufficiently acknowledging the role of its employees during the pandemic. difficult times.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the current contract negotiations is the union’s demand to eliminate lower second-tier drivers who do the same job as other drivers but are paid less. The main difference in their duties is that they work from Tuesday to Saturday instead of weekdays.

By creating the so-called 22.4 Drivers (named after the section of the contract that covers drivers), the company is allowing full-time workers to extend their delivery service into weekends without paying extra for weekend work or overtime. became.

The median income for a full-time driver is approximately $95,000. 22.4 drivers earn less per hour despite receiving comparable health insurance and pension benefits.

Previous agreements have given the company more flexibility in hiring part-time workers, to the point where nearly half of all UPS Teamster members are part-time.the company says A part-time workforce is “critical to our success”. This is because the average working hours alternately include periods of intense activity and periods of leisure.

UPS also describes the part-time opportunities as “ideal for many” who want time to “further their education and pursue their passions.”

This means that by classifying drivers as independent contractors, even if it means giving up job protections and benefits, drivers gain the flexibility they value in their lives. Sounds a lot like gig companies like Uber and Lyft claiming they can From the classification as an “employee”. For businesses, it means lower costs, so you decide.

At UPS, part-time workers earn less than half the average full-time hourly wage.

Serious labor leaders know that two-tier and part-time employment is poisonous to workers’ interests. Employers have long argued that “full-time workers do not fight for more full-time opportunities or better wages for part-time workers, while younger part-time workers seek better pensions and better wages for full-time workers.” We assumed they wouldn’t fight for subcontracting cuts,” said Teamster officials Matt Witt and Rand Wilson. 1999 Retrospective About the last UPS strike in 1997.

The two-week strike ended with one of the best contracts Teamster has ever made with UPS. After a series of mediocre contracts signed by the union leadership sparked internal divisions, the union took a more belligerent stance against UPS in 1997 and, perhaps more importantly, led the union to contract members. A concerted effort was made to engage them in the bargaining campaign.

Problems then, as they are now, included the company’s reliance on part-timers. Part-time workers often worked the same hours as full-time workers, but were paid less. His four years until contract negotiations in 1997, Over 80% of new hires Classified as part-time. Striking workers benefited from a positive public image, immunized from corporate advertising campaigns aimed at giving the impression that they were greedy.

The strike’s success has provided lessons for organized workers in general. Mainly, successful bargaining is the best advertisement for union members. “One million home visits, 1000 TV commercials and 100 strawberry rallies still fall short of the kind of action the UPS strike has brought to organizing,” said AFL- CIO President John Sweeney said at the Umbrella Union’s national convention. 1 month later.

However, by chance the glow faded. Union membership and influence of organized workers continued to decline steadily. At UPS, Teamster allowed the company to introduce his 22.4 classification in 2018, even though his 54% of voting members rejected the deal.

Then-President Hoffa ruled that the deal was approved.citing union rules that allow voting if voter turnout falls below 50% or if “no” votes do not exceed two-thirds. Turnout was just 44%.

Of course, a strike vote does not mean that a strike is inevitable. But the vote is a signal that UPS management is ignoring the danger. The most important question may be which side the Biden administration will put its thumbs on.

In November, when railroad management balked at a proposed union deal requiring more sick days — a proposal that the financially sound railroad could afford thanks to record profits — Biden Mr. stood on the railroad side. Then, as now, the rhetoric was about the “devastating” effects of the strike.

Biden has claimed to be a pro-worker president. The truth is that he has been a better friend to workers than any of his predecessors since Franklin D. Roosevelt. As such, the UPS situation has become an unbeatable test for him. He should applaud the unity of teamsters demanding a fair share of UPS’s profits. Don’t get me wrong. If there is going to be a strike, it is because his UPS management wants it to happen.