LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Wednesday will mark a key turning point in whether about 340,000 rank-and-file UPS workers go on strike next month, according to their union.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said Saturday that the shipping giant must offer acceptable terms for a new five-year labor contract by July 5 so that Teamsters in hundreds of local unions around the country can vote to ratify the deal by Aug. 1.
The union has said for months that its members — most of whom are package handlers and delivery drivers — won’t work a day past July 31, the expiration of their current contract with UPS, unless they reach an agreement for their next contract.
“UPS has two choices to make. They can either go down one road where they want to reward our members who have made them the success they are today, concede to our demands and give us what we deserve, and we will go out there and ratify this agreement,” O’Brien said during a news conference Saturday in Washington, D.C., the site of the ongoing negotiations.
“Or they can take the other road where they don't concede to our demands — they stay loyal to Wall Street and forget about Main Street. “And if they do that, they are making a choice — a choice to strike themselves.”
UPS’ response Saturday was more muted: “Our focus remains on the progress we’re making at the bargaining table,” company spokeswoman Michelle Polk said.
The Teamsters are threatening what would be the largest labor strike in the country to date. They have walked out on UPS only once before, for 15 days in 1997.
After a number of agreements on peripheral issues — the most significant being air conditioning in package delivery trucks — negotiators are tussling over the meat of the contract: economic terms such as wage increases, pension benefits and healthcare.
After saying last week that a strike was “imminent,” O’Brien said Saturday that the latest economic terms UPS is offering are improved.
“They made some movement, but it's not enough,” he said. “ … We will determine when it's enough.”
