United Parcel Services, the world’s biggest transport company, epitomises the global operations of modern day capitalism. The company has its HQ and biggest operations in the USA and operates in over 200 countries. It directly employs over a third of a million workers worldwide, including 295,000 in the USA. This does not include all those employed by associated joint venture companies and subcontractors. Its wholly owned airline is the ninth biggest commercial fleet in the world. UPS aircraft operate through hubs in the US (fourteen airports), Germany, the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Canada (four airports). In 1996 the company generated $21 billion revenue with profits of $1 billion. It moves 12 million parcels a day worldwide.
While there are some differences from country to country in conditions of employment for UPS workers there are some striking similarities. Common complaints include the employment of casual and part-time labour and the subcontracting of certain functions in the name of “labour flexibility”. Another grievance is the risk attached to the compulsory handling of heavy packages. Worldwide, the company has a reputation for attempting to avoid and undermine trade union representation. In the USA, it has attempted to circumvent shop steward representation and established disciplinary procedures by trying to introduce “team concept” arrangements.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation set up a UPS World Trade Union Council in February of this year. It is the first workers’ council of its kind in the transport sector. The first meeting, held in London, was attended by representatives of transport unions in eleven countries. A key decision of this meeting was to hold an International Day of Action to support a demand that UPS management meet the World Council to discuss issues including job security, full-time employment, union recognition, and the establishment of international safety and health standards. The Day of Action took place on 22nd May, with pickets, protests and rallies taking place in 25 centres worldwide. To date the company has not replied to the Council’s request for a meeting.
The Day of Action was followed by a second meeting of the World Council in Washington in July. At the time the Teamsters were in negotiations for a new contract for US workers. A dispute was looming. By 3rd August, 185,000 Teamsters were on strike and World Council participants were ready to give solidarity.
The dispute in the USA was over four key issues: full-time employment, safety, control of the pension scheme and the right to strike. Nearly two thirds of UPS workers in the USA were on part-time contracts. Their hourly rates were much less than those of full time workers and had not increased since 1982. Many were working up to a 40 hour week (some for over ten years) but were defined as “part-timers”. Effectively they were casual workers. The union demanded that 10,000 new full time jobs should be created from part-time jobs over four years (management’s last offer proposed 1,000).
UPS has the worst record in the USA for complaints lodged with the government about health and safety. Most are related to injuries caused by lifting heavy packages. The Teamsters argued that there should be no disciplinaries for refusing to handle packages of over 70 pounds without assistance and that the existing company weight limit should not be increased without union agreement. UPS wanted to be able to increase the weight limit unilaterally at any time.
Pensions for UPS workers are administered by a multi-company Teamsters pension plan. UPS proposed establishing a company specific plan which would improve pensions provisions in some areas but reduce the influence of workers in investment decisions.
Teamster members have the right to honour union picket lines in the event of strikes by other unionised workers. Management wanted to make it an offence to refuse to cross a picket line. There was a further dimension. Ron Carey, a long standing activist of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), in 1996 defeated Jimmy Hoffa Jnr. in a contest for union president. The vote was won by a relatively small margin and it was being challenged in court by Hoffa on a technicality. Whatever the outcome of the case it was important that Carey consolidated his political presence in the union. As a former UPS worker who has artificial knees as a result of years of heavy lifting, the dispute was close to Carey’s heart.
Within hours of announcing the strike, UPS operations in the USA were down to about 5%. Although around 80,000 non-union workers continued to work, operations were all but stopped. Critical to this was the refusal of UPS’s airline pilots to cross picket lines. Although organised in the Independent Pilots Association the pilots remained solid. When the strike was announced, those in other countries parked their planes and either hitched back to the US or linked up with local solidarity actions.
Local Teamster activists, and particularly those associated with the TDU, swung into action throughout the US. In almost every city and small town in the country, supporters organised non-stop fund raising activities and kept pickets fed and watered. There was no sign of the company budging. Massive support rallies were held in New York and Atlanta ten days into the strike. With its emphasis on “community” and “family” in contrast to insecure employment at low wages, the union mustered massive public support. The Teamsters received unprece-dented media coverage — almost all positive. Despite pressure put on Clinton to stop the strike (using security legislation which allows this), the climate made this impossible.
Meanwhile the union had dispatched a key official of its Strategic Campaigns Department and a UPS shop steward to Europe to facilitate international solidarity. The Teamsters do not have an International Department. Under Carey all international activity is integrated into the union’s campaign department. Working with ITF staff at the organisation’s London headquarters, international solidarity started to take off. By week one, Carey had received over fifty solidarity letters from ITF affiliates worldwide and the company had been bombarded with protest letters. Leaflets were distributed in five languages throughout the world and workers were considering local action. The Teamster representatives conducted a flying tour of UPS workplaces in the UK (Nuneaton), Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium to meet workers and explain the dispute. By the end of the second week of the strike there was every possibility of solidarity stoppages. A meeting of European UPS workers was scheduled for 21st August to co-ordinate action. In the event the strike was settled two days beforehand. There is strong evidence that possible European solidarity action played an important role in shifting the company’s stance.
Despite protestations that it would not budge off its last final offer, early in the third week of the strike and in the face of growing local and international support for the strikers, UPS management softened. After intense negotiations a settlement was announced which conceded almost all the union’s demands. This was two days before a national Action Day for Good Jobs was scheduled. Many of the planned actions turned into community victory celebrations.
Agreement was reached on the creation of 10,000 new full time jobs, increasing the hourly rate of part time workers, new limits on subcontracting, a guarantee of trade union negotiation in the event of changes to the package weight limit, and improved pension provisions under the existing Teamster pension plans. The single concession made by the union was that the contract would be extended to five years, in contrast to previous four-year contracts. Ron Carey’s message was that “American workers have shown that we can stand up to corporate greed. After 15 years of taking it on the chin, working families are telling big corporations that we will fight for the American Dream. This is not just a Teamster victory — this is a victory for all working people”.
The Teamsters’ success holds lessons for all trade unionists. Within the US, it followed five months of solid campaigning on the part of the union. The consolidation of activist networks was encouraged by the union in general and by Carey and the Strategic Campaigns Department in particular. The media approach of the union was to link the UPS dispute with everyday concerns of ordinary people — low pay, job insecurity, and unemployment and to use a language understood by all. The public support of high profile popular figures and media personalities was sought but grass-roots activities were put in the forefront. The union issued an open invitation to the population to express their solidarity with the striking workers in whatever way possible. Despite a few scuffles and arrests the strike was remarkably free of violence, and the company did not dare hire scab labour for the duration of the strike.
On an international level, the UPS World Trade Union Council and the information already exchanged through that forum clearly facilitated a quick response on the part of UPS workers worldwide. The immediate release by the Teamsters of an official and a shop steward to concentrate on international solidarity and to work closely with the ITF was also critical. No time was lost in getting the message out to transport trade unions worldwide.
Most importantly, the unambiguous and militant messages emanating from both the striking workers and the Teamster leadership made it possible for the ITF and its affiliates to spread the call for solidarity. The Teamsters, the ITF and the international trade union movement should be able to build on the experience of the UPS strike and take the astonishing victory forward.