American truck drivers are about to go on strike
The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas has rejected a request by less-than-truckload carrier Yellow Corp. seeking an injunction preventing its fleet drivers from participating in a strike. In his decision, the judge denied the motion for a temporary restraining order and injunction. The decision allows the union to go ahead with the planned strike, which could begin as early as Monday. The strike was sparked by Yellow’s failure to pay benefit contributions to the Central State Fund on time last week, which will see workers lose health insurance on Sunday.
The two sides have been locked in a bitter dispute over the past nine months, with operational changes at stake. Yellow Corp insists the company will struggle to survive without the changes, while unions argue that enough concessions on wages, benefits and work rules have been made in the past. More than 300,000 truck drivers will stop working on Aug. 1 if no deal is reached. It would mark the first strike on delivery services since 1997.
Yellow said the company would likely file for bankruptcy if the court did not uphold its claims. Yellow said in a news release Friday evening that it will appeal the court’s decision and continue to pursue its breach of contract lawsuit against the team’s drivers. Recognizing that the strike could lead to the closure of the company and the loss of 30,000 jobs, the court warned unions that although they won the battle today, they could lose the war.
340,000 UPS drivers are about to strike
Sean O’Brien, president of the Truckers Association, lashed out at critics on Saturday who said the union’s tough stance in contract negotiations with UPS would tip the economy into recession and said the burden of pulling the country out of it fell on UPS, not the Truckers Association. O’Brien said UPS would plunge the country into recession if it didn’t strike fair contracts with truck drivers. Before the talks broke down, the two sides had been in extensive talks over a new five-year agreement that would cover about 340,000 UPS unionized workers. The delivery companies have agreed to some of the truckers’ demands and pledged to end the two-tier wage system.
The remaining major sticking point lies with part-time workers. The Truckers union disputes UPS’s claim that part-time workers earn an average of $20 an hour. Sean O’Brien, president of the Truckers Association, said they were paid “poverty wages”. Truckers also want part-time workers to have earlier access to health insurance and pension plans, as well as a clearer path to full-time employment. The union also seeks to address safety and health issues, better wages for all workers and stronger protections against management harassment.
The impasse followed two years of record profits for UPS. The firm will liquidate $12.9 billion in 2021 and $11.5 billion in 2022. The Teamsters union argues that these record profits mean UPS can afford to pay higher wages. If unionized UPS workers do go on strike, many U.S. consumers will surely be concerned about delays in the delivery of online purchases. UPS handles about 25% of package deliveries in the United States. In the event of a strike, UPS’s competitors, including FedEx and the USPS, may be able to handle about 20% of UPS’s deliveries. That’s because delivery workers today are working fewer hours per week than they were at the height of the COVID-19. Package delivery demand will peak in 2021, when millions of Americans remain socially distanced. Experts have warned that in the event of the strike, UPS could lose up to 30% of its business as customers switch to rival services.
