VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — As the country draws closer to a potential UPS worker strike, "practice picket" demonstrations are popping up in higher frequency across the country including in the Hampton Roads region.
On Monday, UPS workers in Virginia Beach and Suffolk demonstrated outside UPS facilities, amidst labor negotiations between the company and the Teamsters, its largest labor union representing more than 300,000 UPS employees.
“Always an arrow in the quiver, but we didn’t start actuating that policy until the negotiations broke down," Jared Henry Ramsey said, representative of the Teamsters 822 branch.
The contract between the two sides, cited as the largest private-sector union relationship in North America, expires on August 1, 2023.
Negotiations are attempting to reach a new five-year agreement, which includes:
- better pay for all workers
- eliminates the two-tier wage 22.4 job classification
- increases the number of full-time jobs
- addresses safety and health concerns around heat illness
- stronger protections against managerial harassment
“Our interest is to try and bring it back to a more equitable level of earnings," Ramsey said. "We do succeed when the company succeeds so we have an interest, but it's to a point where the balance of income is not properly distributed."
Last week, the national Teamsters Facebook page announced progress toward improved air conditioning regulations for the UPS fleet.
Ramsey also acknowledged some progress has been made between the two sides.
“We have over 55 tentative agreements, which are 'work rules' so language in the contract that dictate rights of employees, and if f they don’t follow them there is a grievance procedure," Ramsey said, who added there is still work to be done for supporting and paying part-time employees who make up a significant portion of UPS employees and Teamsters members.
Both sides acknowledged that negotiations will continue next week.
According to a spokesperson for the Teamsters 822 branch:
The plan is to continue practice pickets until an agreement in principle is reached. Next week there are practice pickets planned for Wednesday and Thursday.
A statement from a UPS spokesperson on the negotiations reads:
As evidenced by our 100-year partnership with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, UPS supports our employees’ right to express their views. We are proud of the progress we have made to date negotiating a new contract that includes increases to our industry-leading wages and benefits for our people.
We agree on the vast majority of the issues the union and our people have raised. We look forward to returning to the negotiating table next week to come to an agreement by August 1 that represents a win for our customers, our employees, the union and the company.