UPS employees that are part of the Teamsters Union were threatening to strike if their demands weren’t met when their current contract expires on July 31st. Workers, specifically part-time, were demanding that their pay be increased, saying that harsh working conditions pack a punch they weren’t being fairly compensated for.
Go deeper: Teamsters members and UPS have reached a tentative agreement as of July 25th, that will hopefully prevent a strike from happening. If the strike were to occur, the U.S. economy could take a massive hit of over $5 billion, both from lost UPS wages and loss from consumers according to a study done by Anderson Economic Group. The suggested new deal still needs to go through a ratification vote by employees, but it would give a raise to all employees, giving existing part-time employees a minimum wage of $21 per hour. Full time employees would make an average of $49 per hour. To learn more about the proposed contract and what a strike could do to our economy, check out this article from CNBC.
