UPS Teamster “Practice Picketing” in Queensbury

Along Main Street in Queensbury, people drove by honking their horns in support as the UPS Teamsters were out practice-picketing. Wearing their brown UPS uniforms and carrying brown and yellow,  “Just Practicing for a Just Contract” signs, workers looped along the sidewalk near the entrance to the Northway. Jason Hughes – a driver for UPS – was amongst the practice picketers: “The company and the Teamsters are at a standstill with negotiations. Right now, we are fighting for the part-timers that the company doesn’t want to pay a living wage… We are just out here showing them that we are going to do what it takes to win a strong contract. The contract expires at midnight on July 31st, so if they don’t have a deal by July 31st at midnight, we will be out here permanently, and that will be a full blown strike. Right now, we are out here from 8:15AM to 8:45 AM, before our start time,” Hughes said.

The credible strike threat is one of the most powerful tools of the Teamsters Union. UPS is the single largest employer in the Teamsters Union, with the largest private collective bargaining agreement in North America… The Teamsters and UPS have agreed to eliminate the two-tier wage system for part-time and full-time employees, establish Martin Luther King Jr. day as a full holiday, and end forced overtime on drivers’ days off. UPS Teamsters include more than 340,000 full-time and part-time workers that deliver millions of packages a day. 

The value of the goods that are delivered annually is estimated at 6% of the U.S. economy. In the latest round of negotiations, each side accused the other of walking away from the table… The Teamsters have stated that UPS members will not work beyond the expiration of the current contract. In June, rank-and-file UPS Teamsters authorized a strike, with 97% of the members voting in favor.