UPS workers vote to authorize strike if talks break down

United Parcel Service union employees have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike should contract talks break down after the current agreement ends on July 31, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said Friday.

The vote is a standard practice in union contract campaigns designed to give leverage to the union representing some 340,000 UPS workers.

It comes during relatively cordial talks as new Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien works to get a UPS deal that shares billions of dollars of its pandemic profit with workers and helps to recruit new members — including Amazon warehouse staff.

UPS again on Friday said it is confident that the two sides will reach an agreement that provides wins for all involved.

“The results do not mean a strike is imminent and do not impact our current business operations in any way,” the company said.

The company and the union already have agreements on issues such as adding air conditioning in new delivery trucks — but talks continue on wages, a crucial issue.

Jeremy Tancredi, a former UPS manager-turned-industry consultant, said the strike authorization vote is a normal step the union takes to ensure it can quickly respond to any impasse after the contract expires.

Still, he expects the Teamsters to win a “healthy” raise without having to resort to a work stoppage.

“There is money out there to (pay for the) increase,” he said, adding that the lift would not be “crazy drastic” or stressful to UPS.

Tancredi, a partner at consultancy West Monroe, said interdependence between the Teamsters and UPS reduces strike risk.

That’s because UPS management sells Teamster professionalism and teamwork as a strength over competitors, and the Teamsters count UPS as its largest employer at a time when union membership is struggling to grow, he said.

Still, employees told Reuters that Teamsters members are unified and will stop work if the company balks at raises that reflect the time and health risks they took to manage the COVID-19 cargo surge or their value to the company.

“We were working basically Christmas hours for two years straight” during the pandemic, when e-commerce surged, said Rikki Schreiner, a full-time UPS employee in Eagan, Minnesota.

UPS was more profitable than FedEx during the pandemic when animosity between that rival and its lower-cost delivery contractors festered.

“They get what they pay for,” Schreiner said of UPS, adding that company delivery drivers, who make about $150,000 annually including base pay and benefits before overtime, “earn it.”

UPS shares fell as much as 1.5% after the news but quickly pared losses to trade down 0.6% in midday trade.