Join us for a public meeting with UPS Teamsters and union activists to discuss how we can best support UPS workers in the contract fight!
Featuring Speakers Nick Wurst and Ronan Foley.
Nick Wurst is a freight train conductor, member of ISG and SMART-TD. He is also a member of the International Steering Committee of Railroad Workers United.
Ronan Foley has worked as a part-time package handler at UPS for over a year, and is a member of the Teamsters Local 170 (personal capacity).
April 2nd 3pm at IBEW Local 96 Hall in Worcester, MA
The Independent Socialist Group stands in solidarity with the 350,000 workers represented by the Teamsters union in the opening stages of a contract battle with UPS. UPS is one of the biggest logistics companies in the world and is making record profits.
UPS workers are fighting for:
- Ending the two-tier wage system for all delivery drivers.
- Real pay increases for all workers, including raising part-time pay to $20 an hour.
- Increasing the number of full time jobs as opportunities to move from part-time to full-time.
- Removing cameras and ending surveillance of delivery drivers
- Installing AC in all driver vehicles.
- Removing the vague and unfair “dishonesty” clause in the contract that lets management fire Teamsters nearly at-will.
- MLK Day and Juneteenth as paid holidays.
- Eliminating union-busting subcontracting and seniority violations in hiring for new positions.
Every previous contract after the ‘90s, when the last strike occurred, has been a victory for UPS. It’s time for a UPS Teamsters win. Teamsters need to be prepared to strike.
BIGGER THAN UPS
UPS Teamsters are the largest unionized private sector workforce in the US, and are moving into this contract battle at a key time. The capitalist class is facing an economic crisis as the working class bears the ongoing recession, increasing cost of living, high inflation, and low wages. There has been growing support for unions and increased interest in unionization as a way for workers to fight back. The capitalists want to cut off this wave before it escapes their control and sparks a greater, more unified labor movement.
The Teamsters leadership will be under huge pressure from the federal government, the capitalists, and even conservative elements of the labor movement, to not strike and to make concessions to UPS. The rank-and-file of the UPS Teamsters, as well as the broader labor movement and the socialist movement, including the Independent Socialist Group (ISG), must keep the pressure up to win a good contract by any means necessary. A workers’ victory or defeat at UPS will set the tone for the labor movement, giving confidence to either workers or the companies respectively to go on the offensive and potentially break the stalemate.
SOLIDARITY NEEDED!
Solidarity will be key to defeating the company and their allies in the US government.
The Independent Socialist Group will be doing all we can to support UPS workers in the fight for a good contract. We call on other organizations and unions, especially other transportation and logistics unions such as Amazon Labor Union and the postal and railroad unions, to do the same. Our members working at UPS and other ISG members in the Teamsters are involved in organizing initiatives to help prepare the union for a possible strike. We are campaigning with fellow Teamsters to win our demands to make up for decades of concessions to the corporation. Every UPS Teamster who wants a good contract should look for ways to get involved like this in their local union.
We in the Independent Socialist Group propose:
- Launching solidarity committees of Teamsters locals, other unions, and community organizations to coordinate support.
- Organizing public meetings, rallies, standouts, and informational pickets to get the word out to the broader working class about the fight at UPS.
- Organizing collections for the strike fund.
- Planning mobilizations among members of other unions, community organizations, and supporters to join picket lines and block scab hiring if a strike is called.
- No union workplace should have or handle anything delivered or shipped through UPS during a strike, and nobody should have any personal packages delivered or shipped through UPS.
Independent Socialist Group 