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UPS Strike

By Bill Davis

Last summer's Teamster strike against United Parcel Service (UPS) was at once a stunning victory for organized labor but also a reason for hope on the part of the 'newly disenfranchised' - the armies of underpaid part-time workers. Viewed by the multinational corporations and growing service industry as a deep and expendable labor pool, part-time workers stepped into the spotlight.

From the time the 120,000 International Brotherhood of Teamsters members at UPS walked off the job and struck UPS in the first week of August '97, UPS, the international package giant, was reeling, beat at its own game of media manipulation and public relations. Formed in 1906, UPS has grown steadily to control upwards of 70% to 80% of daily shipped ground packages in the US and an increasing share of the air shipping market. In direct proportion, UPS has grown to 180,000 workers in the US alone.

In the early '70s, about 15% of UPS's employees worked part time. Now over 70% of its employees are part-timers, not unlike the growth in all industries worldwide. Unfortunately for these UPS part-timers and their equals everywhere, wages and benefits have not kept up with the growth in their ranks.

The American public quickly sided with the Teamster strikers, given their own experience with a burgeoning economy that offered few full-time jobs but a raft of casual, temp, or part-time 'situations'. Few were more surprised by the popular support than the beleaguered IBT led by President Ron Carey, himself a former UPS driver.

The IBT, long reviled in print, politics, and film as the very embodiment of corrupt unions, under a coalition of East and West Coast teamsters and Teamsters For a Democratic Union (TDU) activists led by New York Teamster local leader Ron Carey had wrested control, through elections, away from many of the 'old guard' Teamster bosses by a slim margin. Young, energetic, and diverse, the Teamsters faced off in the media against a smooth, smarmy and conservative UPS.

UPS, long accustomed to the role of media darling, the friendly brown giant, was stunned to find itself cast in the role of villain. In spite of millions spent on advertising and bankrolling a huge stable of Congress members to do their bidding on labor and safety issues, UPS's PR 'suits' came off wooden and dogmatic before the media and public. The American public had fallen for UPS's own 'ambassadors of service', the drivers and package handlers - their friends, neighbors, and children. The 'underemployed' work force of the 'service economy' flexed its muscle, perhaps for the first time.

After three high-profile weeks of massive picketing, stirring rallies, and acts of solidarity from the broad AFL-CIO family, UPS declared victory in the negotiations and crumbled. UPS had pumped its lower and middle level management full of hang-tough, we're-in-it-to-the-bitter-end optimism - then abruptly pulled the plug and declared the new five-year contract length their major goal, forsaking any further talk of pension control, health care, and union busting. The Teamsters returned to work with their original health care plan in place, control of their own pension funds, and language to implement a plan for converting more part-time jobs to full time and with increased benefits and pay across the board.

Recent events have taken a little sparkle off the victory. UPS, determined to prove the axiom that "mean people do, indeed, suck," embarked on a program of petty and vindictive retribution when the workers returned. Teamster President Ron Carey has stepped down from office under allegations of fund mismanagement. With Carey disqualified for reelection, the progressive slate faces a challenge from Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. for future control of the Teamsters. In April Hoffa was declared eligible to run for General President in the upcoming election, despite having been found guilty of numerous examples of misconduct. His campaign has been fined thousands of dollars, and his chief strategist, Richard Leebove, was barred from participating in any further election activity, but it's clear that Hoffa's campaign isn't as nice a target for Congress as Carey's was. Running against Hoffa will be Ken Hall, who was co-chair of the negotiation committee during the UPS strike.

Many secondary contract struggles (such as health care) drag on. UPS, crying poor, recorded their most profitable quarter in history following the strike, raising the privately held stock twice and showing deep pockets when challenging labor issues.

Clearly though, the pendulum has swung to labor this time. Fresh on the heels of the Teamster win, other unions such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) drew strength from the popular victory and have begun making inroads into the vast labor reserves know as the part-time workers.

Bill Davis is a Vietnam vet, former US Air Force Staff Sgt. and Chief Steward for three Northen Illinois districts of UPS in Local 701 I.A.M. & A.W. Davis has been a member of VVAW for 28 years.