Concessions that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters won from United Parcel Service Inc. promise to reshape the trucking business, even with the broader labor situation unsolved, and give organized labor a surer foothold at Amazon.com Inc. and other delivery firms that rely on contractors.
Before negotiations collapsed on July 5, UPS agreed to end a two-tier wage system that the union says short changes part-time drivers who also do warehouse work, as well as outfit its delivery trucks with air conditioning for the first time. Because of the way collective bargaining works, it’s unlikely that those agreements would be revisited, strike or no strike.
While the company and the union are apart on wages and other economic issues, the Teamsters showed it’s possible to regain ground that the union lost during the late 1980s through the Great Recession, creating the conditions for a spillover effect into other companies, business and labor observers say. That gives unions a new organizing argument as it battles automation and dwindling membership.
“The list of successes that the Teamsters have had in these negotiations, and that other unions have had at the bargaining table in other negotiations, is communicating the message to workers that unions are worth it—that the risk of organizing with your coworkers is worth it,” said Seth Harris, the former top labor...
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