unionized UPS Workers overwhelmingly voted to allow the strike, while contract negotiations proceed, paving the best way for a possible work stoppage as early as August 1.
Some 97% of workers who forged ballots voted in favor of the move, Teamsters leaders said on Friday, after greater than per week of voting that preceded Tuesday night’s tentative heat safety deal that will cover 340,000 delivery drivers and parcel handlers at the biggest carrier in country.
Teamsters CEO Sean O’Brien said in an announcement that the vote showed employees “are united and determined to secure one of the best contract in our history at UPS. If this multi-billion dollar corporation fails to deliver on the deal our hard-working members deserve, UPS will strike itself.”
UPS confirmed the results of the vote and noted that Friday’s strike authorization doesn’t mechanically stop work.
“The outcomes don’t mean that a strike is imminent and don’t affect our ongoing business operations in any way,” the corporate said in an announcement. “We proceed to make progress on key issues and are confident that we are going to reach an agreement that can ensure a win for our employees, drivers, our company and our customers.”
The choice comes days after union leaders and UPS reached an agreement in which the corporate committed to step by step introducing air-con to its fleet of iconic brown delivery vehicles for the primary time.
Drivers and labor supporters hailed the deal as an unexpected step forward on a key issue in the present round of labor talks.
“Persons are very excited,” said Zakk Luttrell, a UPS driver and union store manager in Norman, Oklahoma. “That is something they have been saying won’t occur. We have been hearing for years that it won’t work.”
UPS has long resisted calls to air-condition its trucks and vans, although not less than 145 of its employees have been hospitalized with heat-related illnesses since 2015. Luttrell hailed the change as the corporate’s long-awaited acknowledgment that record summer temperatures require a change of approach .
“When the warmth is what it’s … it is not nearly what’s cost-effective and efficient anymore,” he said, “it’s about keeping people alive.”
Amit Mehrotra, managing director and research analyst at Deutsche Bank, which covers the transport sector, described progress in heat mitigation as “one piece of the puzzle” that was “probably in the highest five overall issues” in contract talks.
“It is a drop in the bucket from a price perspective for UPS, and it has huge quality of life advantages for the union, so I believe it is a win-win for everyone,” he said.
Mehrotra expressed optimism concerning the general direction of the progress talks, saying he expected the parties to “seal it and do it by the top of July” and avoid a strike.
The UPS shutdown could be the biggest single-employer strike in US history. Logistics experts say that even a couple of days’ shutdown of UPS deliveries would disrupt the flow of more packages than major competitors reminiscent of FedEx or the US Postal Service could handle, threatening to turn the shopping season the wrong way up.
“UPS’ success is definitely tied to the success of the Drivers because what they do in terms of service is actually essential,” said Mehrotra. “The opposite side of the coin is that UPS’s success is so essential to Teamsters’ profitability since it’s really the one place where there was an enormous increase in Teamster employment,” after the declining membership of other major unions made UPS “literally the one oasis in this vast desert” for the labor movement.
He added: “I do not understand how a strike will not be a loss.”
While many union members at UPS voted to allow the strike ahead of the announcement of the warmth safety deal, some drivers later said other essential priorities remained. Luttrell, for his part, said his major concern was “excessive” demands for time beyond regulation.
“We make good money because we’ve got a union, but all my time shouldn’t belong to this company,” he said.
Mehrotra said he expects UPS to close the gap on pay issues, reminiscent of establishing wage parity between different worker classifications, which he described as an “additional cost” to the corporate.
Heat safety experts praised the tentative agreement on air-con but warned that addressing the threat of utmost temperatures would take time.
“Although these doors are opened and closed often, it’ll keep these vans from heating up and grow to be ovens all day long,” said Juley Fulcher, spokeswoman for consumer rights non-profit Public Citizen, which focuses on consumer rights. thermal safety.
But in part since the changes will only affect newly purchased vehicles first, she said “this may not be an instantaneous solution for workers”, adding: “It takes time to turn these fleets around.”
Some Teamsters supporters and leaders have also called for a more dynamic scheduling system that would higher distribute driving routes on very popular days, reducing the variety of packages each driver has to deliver.
“The quantity of labor needs to be a part of the discussion,” Fulcher said, “because after we speak about heat stress, heat comes from two sources – it comes from contained in the body and it comes from outside the body.”
Seth Harris, a professor of law and policy at Northeastern University who was President Joe Biden’s chief labor policy adviser, said advances in UPS thermal safety could have broader implications.
“The initial agreement to protect against thermal hazards will put tremendous pressure on UPS competitors to meet or exceed these standards,” he said. “Drivers looking for work will want to know if their employer will handle them and keep them protected.”
However the concessions have already shaken UPS workers and their allies with some optimism.
“We’re so excited you may have no idea,” said Theresa Klenk, a nurse and wife of a Recent Jersey UPS driver who suffered a serious illness brought on by overheating at work in 2016which prompted her to start a petition for air-conditioned trucks it collected over 1.3 million signatures.
The newly announced changes, if eventually approved as a part of a recent deal, are “huge”, Klenk said. “I believe it’s an amazing start.”
“Annie Probert contributed.