A negotiating session between UPS and the Teamsters union early today ended with both sides accusing the other of walking away from the table, WKOW reports. There are no signs of a contract settlement at this point; the current contract expires July 31.
If an agreement is not reached, 340,000 UPS workers could go on strike Aug. 1. The two sides had been attempting to reach a deal to prevent UPS customers from moving their business to rival services like the U.S. Postal Service and FedEx.
The two sides had previously reached agreements on several other issues, but the union said its negotiating committee unanimously rejected the company’s most recent economic offer.
One of the union’s key demands is the elimination of a two-tier wage scale put in place during the last contract to help UPS expand its delivery service to six days per week, rather than five. It points to UPS’ record profit in recent years following the pandemic, which increased package delivery volumes. Profits have nearly doubled during the five-year life of the current contract from an adjusted net income of $6.3 billion in 2018 to $11.3 billion on that basis last year.
UPS profit, revenue, and volumes fell in the first quarter compared to a year earlier, however, and the company has warned that a slowdown in the economy could hit shipments.
