Twenty-one years after the historic 1997 United Parcel Workers strike, are UPS-Teamsters ready to once again walk off the job? After Tuesday night’s strike authorization vote, workers are one step closer to that possibility.þþOn Tuesday, thousands of Teamsters across the country listened-in on a national conference call as the union’s chief negotiator, Denis Taylor, reported that UPS and UPS Freight members voted by over 90% to authorize a strike if UPS does not agree to an acceptable contract by July 31 when the current contract expires.þþUPS is the largest private-sector unionized employer in the United States and a strike at the company could see up to 280,000 UPS-Teamster members walk out, with potentially major disruptive impacts on the U.S. economy. And it would be the largest strike the country has seen in decades.þþWhy “yes”þþThe Teamsters are negotiating two national contracts with UPS. One contract covers the parcel division that is most familiar to Americans with their chocolate brown trucks on commercial and residential streets. The second is the lesser-known UPS Freight, previously Overnite Transportation and Motor Cargo, that UPS bought in 2005 and subsequently rebranded.þþThe issues at the negotiating table include the poverty level pay for part-time workers, healthcare and pensions, subcontracting union especially feeder work [or over-the-road work between hubs] to non-union contractors, and UPS’s demands for drivers to work a 70-hour week.þþUnder the current contract, UPS drivers can refuse work after completing their 60th hour of work in any work week.þþThroughout negotiations, UPS has remained focused on winning concessions from the Teamsters and General President James P. Hoffa, the son of the notorious Jimmy Hoffa. Unfortunately, chaos and confusion have characterized the union side of the negotiating table.þþLast September, Hoffa fired then-chief negotiator Sean O’Brien, president of Teamsters Local 25 and a longtime Hoffa ally, after he reached out to Fred Zuckerman, a Teamster leader who ran on the reform slate Teamsters United (TU) in the 2016 election and came within a few thousands votes of defeating Hoffa.þþHoffa replaced O’Brien with Denis Taylor, a Baltimore Teamster leader and an unrecognizable figure for most UPS-Teamsters.þþFurther adding confusion to this situation was a proposal from the Teamster bargaining team to create a new, inferior category of ‘hybrid-drivers’ who would be paid less—through a two-tier wage scale—and work weekends without overtime pay. If accepted, this proposal would begin the process of breaking up the highly paid but physically demanding 60,000 full-time package car delivery jobs.þþTU called the proposal the “worst giveback in UPS history.” Opposition on the negotiating committee led Taylor to remove three of its members—Avral Thompson, John Bolton and Matt Taibi. Thompson and Taibi had both been vocally opposed to the “hydrid-driver” proposal.þþChaos in the leadershipþþThe results of the strike vote soon went viral on social media. UPS was quick to respond on Twitter claiming “The voting results were expected as this is common in negotiations. The current contract remains in force, so it’s business as usual while negotiations continue.”þþYet, negotiations are anything but usual this time around. This year, the Teamsters, led by Hoffa, reluctantly called a strike authorization vote.þþDuring previous contract negotiations in 2013, Hoffa and the then-chief union negotiator Ken Hall didn’t call such a vote — sending a strong signal to UPS that union leadership would push for membership ratification — even though the proposed contract was filled with concessions.þþHoffa and Hall were surprised by the widespread opposition to the national contract and the local and regional riders and supplements, or mini-contracts. In the end, a frustrated Hoffa used his constitutional authority to impose the national contract along with the riders and supplements despite membership opposition.þþIn the 2016 election by rank-and-file members, Hoffa nearly lost reelection to TU leader Zuckerman.þþIt was a bombshell election that shook up the Teamsters establishment and left the old guard scrambling. It is widely believed, though not certain, that Hoffa will not run for reelection in 2021.
Source: Salon.com
