Receiving near-minimum wage in many parts of the country, part-time workers at UPS are the most at risk in the company’s workforce of being exploited and cast aside.
This reality was made no clearer than by the actions of UPS negotiators during nearly 20 hours of contract negotiations with the Teamsters that ultimately collapsed in the early morning of July 5. Most shamelessly, the corporation’s final move was to put forth an unofficial offer that, had the Teamsters accepted it, would have forced scores of part-time workers at UPS to be left behind.
“It’s a déjà vu maneuver for UPS who should know since 1997 that part-time poverty isn’t working for America,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “The Teamsters will never sell out our members, especially our extraordinary part-timers, so UPS can bask in a richer stock price.”
“For as much as some millionaires and billionaires at the top want to say working conditions are so much better in this country than they were in 1997, the tragedy of the matter is that they’re the same,” said Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman. “Part-time workers get screwed over, taken advantage of, and forgotten about. The Teamsters Union must put an end to this once-and-for-all at UPS. If the company’s pattern of exploitation doesn’t end now, it never will.”
Without disclosing details, UPS’ corporate PR machine claims its offer to part-timers was honorable. But knowing what it knows about the sacrifices and the struggles of part-time workers, UPS is only prepared to honor its own balance sheet. The company would be wise to remember that just 25 days remain until the contract expiration. If there is no agreement reached by July 31, Big Brown will learn how much its workers are really worth.