The International Brotherhood of Teamsters are voting on whether to authorize a strike over low pay and poor working conditions if the union and UPS can’t reach a new contract agreement by Aug. 1.
More than 170 local Teamster union chapters across the United States have called upon UPS workers to vote on the strike.
With many UPS workers living paycheck to paycheck, “a strike is something that nobody wants to happen,” Luigi Morris, a New York-based UPS worker and union member, told Fox News Digital. “But we don’t want to have another five years of low wages and bad working conditions and a contract that totally goes in favor of the company.”
On Tuesday, the Teamsters and UPS reached an agreement to equip the company’s fleet of vehicles with air conditioning systems, new heat shields, and additional fans, after some UPS drivers fainted due to extreme heat last summer.
But the Teamsters have additional demands, depending upon the sector within the company.
“In my sector, we want higher wages,” said Morris, who works in pre-load. “We are also asking, for example, for longer breaks; we only stop for ten minutes.”
But the main demand is for better wages.
“Most of the working class [are] suffering with inflation, [and] economic recession, possible uncertainty,” he said. “Hopefully this can bring more stability to our lives.”
The new contract, which will again last for five years, will impact the lives of all 340,000 UPS workers. Adding their families, the outcome of the negotiations “can change the life of 1 million people,” Morris said.
“Hopefully this can bring more stability into our lives.”
If the strike is authorized, it will give the union more leverage. “We work hard, we make things work,” Morris said. “So UPS should do their own part, so we can keep bringing this service to the community.”
UPS workers answered in droves to the Teamsters’ call to vote, with the union speaking of a “national groundswell” in “major cities, remote rural barns, and everywhere in between.”
“This vote is a routine part of the bargaining process and does not mean that there will be a strike,” the Teamsters told Fox news in a statement. “We respect this step in the process and remain committed to making progress at the bargaining table.”
Morris, like many of his colleagues, would rather not see it come to a strike, but at the same time he feels he has his back against the wall.
“$15.50 [an hour] today, it’s crazy. Especially for me, living in New York city, it’s impossible to balance out. I have two jobs,” Morris said. “On my day off, I work in a restaurant. I work seven days a week.”
Morris apologized in advance should it come to a strike: “I understand you might not receive your package for three days or a week, but for us that also means we don’t have income for a whole week. That’s really damaging.”
