The Teamsters Union has won its historic strike against the United Parcel Service (UPS). The dispute paralysed this giant parcel delivery company, which employs nearly one out of every 400 American workers, and transports about 5% of the US's gross domestic product. 185,000 US Teamsters took part in the most important labour struggle in the US in decades.
For 25 years now, the real wages of American workers have dropped dramatically, and multiple-tiered wage scales have divided the American labour movement, relegating younger and minority workers to low-wage, part-time poverty. UPS has been in the forefront: 60% of UPS workers are part-time employees, whose starting wage rates are less than half those of their full-time brother and sister unionists.
The Teamsters secured the curbing of part-time work shifts and the conversion of a sizable number of these positions into full-time decently-paid jobs.