340,000 UPS workers voted to strike. If they do, it'll be the biggest since Reagan
line goes up means world more gooder
UPS is a big company. The 536,000 workers at United Parcel Service move ~5 billion packages per year, worth about 6% of US GDP and 2% of global GDP.
The Teamsters represent 340,000 of those workers. Since April, they've been in contract negotations. Their demands are simple: Better conditions and better benefits, including:
Air-conditioning in delivery trucks (after several workers died from heat stroke)
A $20 minimum wage (currently as low as $15.50 an hour for warehouse workers)
An end to clause 22.4, which gives new full-time drivers $6 an hour lower wages, increases burnout, and discourages workers from building seniority
UPS is not a poor company. Its CEO has a $19 million salary. Per its SEC filings, in Q1 2023 UPS earned $22.9 billion and profited $2.5 billion -- for an 8.3% net profit margin.
UPS can afford air-conditioned trucks and living wages.
Largest strike in decades
On June 16, an overwhelming 97% of Teamsters at UPS voted to strike. If their contract demands were not met by August 1st, 340,000 Teamsters will stop working.
That would be the largest strike against a single employer in US history, the largest in a single sector since the 1959 steel strike, and the largest number of striking workers per year since 1986, under Ronald Reagan:
More people have already struck from 2018-2023 (6 years) than 2005-2017 (13 years) -- and COVID-19 severely reduced strikes during 2020-22!
That's a big fucking deal! Workers are more militant in demanding better conditions than in decades. Every strike we win is one step we take away from the neoliberal vision of work:
This contract fight is about two visions of work in the twenty-first century.
One is promoted by workers: equal pay for equal work, dignity and autonomy on the job, and a stable work-life balance.
The other is promoted by Wall Street: hypersurveillance, low pay, subcontracting, gig work, and “flexible” scheduling practices that hurt workers and benefit bosses.
We live in the richest country on Earth. A living wage, a safe workplace, and regular work are not too much to ask.
Will they strike?
Of course, the Teamsters may not actually strike. The threat of a strike may be enough for the union to win better conditions. (For example, the Disney World unions voted by 96% to strike, which they used to win a 37% pay raise.)
Will the strike happen? In June, the Teamsters leadership wrote that "a strong vote authorizing your committee to call a strike can help prevent one from ever happening". But today, the Teamsters walked away from the negotiation table -- after UPS offered a contract that actually cut cost-of-living adjustments.
A strike is more likely for every day that UPS delays.
A win for workers
Even if the strike doesn't happen, the mere fact that it was threatened is a win for democratic unions.
Back in 2018, Teamsters president James Hoffa used an obscure rule in the union's constitution to force through the current (shitty) contract, against the will of 54% of Teamsters.
That betrayal energized Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a left-leaning reform organization. In the 2021 elections, the TDU candidate Sean O'Brien took 2/3 of the vote, handily beating Hoffa's chosen successor.
The TDU is a success for the "rank-and-file strategy", in which leftist union workers focus on organizing workers inside existing unions to fight against centrist union leadership. (Another strategy, "organizing the unorganized", focuses on helping unorganized workers create new unions, in which DSA EWOC has seen great success.)
Organized workers get the goods.
What can you do?
Take 15 seconds to should sign the Strike Ready pledge.
If Teamsters strike, socialists must support them. You can show up at the picket line, bring food, and raise strike funds -- and win the biggest strike against a single employer in US history.
Sign the Strike Ready pledge now!
When workers are organized and militant, we can demand a better world. If you want to make that happen, you should join the DSA.
Summary and shilling
In short: Hot Labor Summer is just getting started!
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