The Teamsters working for shipping giant UPS said a strike is \u201cimminent\u201d after walking away from the bargaining table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UPS Teamsters said in a statement<\/a> late Wednesday it gave UPS a one-week notice Tuesday to \u201cact responsibly and exchange a stronger economic proposal\u201d to more than 340,000 employees of the shipping company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Teamsters demanded that UPS delivers its \u201clast, best and final offer\u201d to the union by Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe largest single-employer strike in American history now appears inevitable,\u201d Teamsters General President Sean O\u2019Brien said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExecutives at UPS, some of whom get tens of millions of dollars a year, do not care about the hundreds of thousands of American workers who make this company run,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this month, UPS agreed to<\/a> \u201cequip all newly purchased U.S. small package delivery vehicles with air conditioning\u201d in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company also promised to install additional cab fans and heat shields in delivery trucks, after UPS came under fire for viral social media posts<\/a> showing excessive temperatures putting drivers in uncomfortable and even dangerous working conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that momentum appears to have stalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The union has been vocal about how higher inflation and corporate profits have created an untenable situation for working-class employees. O\u2019Brien also took further aim at UPS management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey don\u2019t care about our members\u2019 families. UPS doesn\u2019t want to pay up,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cTheir actions and insults at the bargaining table have proven they are just another corporation that wants to keep all the money at the top. Working people who bust their asses every single day do not matter, not to UPS.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The UPS Teamsters have been engaged in ongoing negotiations for about two months, but a strike could thrust the commerce industry into chaos because it would lead to the largest U.S. strike in decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It will include more than 340,000 warehousing, transportation and delivery workers bound by the largest private-sector bargaining agreement in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The UPS Teamsters wrote that UPS risks \u201ccausing devastating disruptions to the supply chain in the U.S. and other parts of the world\u201d with its Friday deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group wrote that it met with UPS negotiators late into Tuesday, but union members walked away from the table after they said UPS attempted to \u201cwithhold any additional benefits from the Teamsters, seeking concessionary language instead.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTime has run out for UPS to give workers that honorable contract,\u201d said Fred Zuckerman, general secretary-treasurer for Teamsters, in a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Teamsters repeatedly told the company from the beginning of this process that there would be no extensions,\u201d Zuckerman said. \u201cBut UPS has sat on its hands and chosen to turn its back on these workers. Come August 1, it\u2019s going to be damn hard for UPS to ignore us any longer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n