Opinion: The UPS strike authorization vote is about more than just pay

Editor’s Note: Terri Gerstein is the director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Center for Labor and a Just Economy, and is a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute. Jenny Hunter is a labor lawyer, writer and consultant to nonprofit organizations and unions. The views expressed in this commentary are their own. View more opinion on CNN.

Earlier this month, the Teamsters union announced that UPS workers had voted 97% in favor of authorizing a strike if an agreement wasn’t reached before their current contract expires on July 31. If the workers strike, it will have a profound impact on the economy and American households: The Teamsters represent more than 340,000 UPS workers, and the company handled an average 18.7 million domestic packages per day in the first quarter of 2023.

Days before the strike authorization vote was released, UPS and the Teamsters announced a tentative agreement about a subject of critical importance to workers: protection from extreme heat. UPS agreed, among other things, to install air conditioning in new trucks.

Protection from heat is an increasingly urgent worker safety issue. A Public Citizen report estimated that environmental heat is likely responsible for 170,000 work-related injuries every year and 600 to 2,000 fatalities. A UPS driver was a tragic example of this: The family of 24-year-old Esteban Chavez said he died of extreme heat, and drivers took to social media to share pictures of temperature readings of 120 or more in their trucks.

Although extreme heat is already hazardous and likely to get worse in coming years, there is no federal requirement that employers take specific measures to keep workers safe from extreme heat, beyond employers’ general duty to provide a safe workplace and few state rules on the subject. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed a rule around workplace heat, but it will likely take years to finalize. In this context, the union’s success in obtaining agreement from UPS on heat protections provides a striking example of how workers can often win gains much more readily through a union than through other means.

The negotiations at UPS could also help workers who are not union members. Unions cause a spillover effect, achieving gains that later become standard or legally mandated, like benefits for LGBTQ+ workers and their families, as well as the eight-hour work day and days off on weekends. Air-conditioned UPS trucks, for example, will help set a norm that all workers deserve heat protection.

The UPS strike authorization vote also reflects the increasing willingness of workers in a range of industries to exercise collective power to seek better conditions for themselves, their coworkers and future generations. And it’s not just about pay. Railroad workers last fall sought paid sick days. The Amazon Labor Union was formed because of concerns about Covid safety. Kellogg’s workers went on strike in 2021 over a two-tier compensation structure. And on Friday, workers in about 150 Starbucks locations went on strike over the company’s alleged restricting of Pride decorations in some locations.

UPS workers seek higher pay (as they should: UPS posted record profits in 2022) but, like workers in other fields, they are seeking many non-monetary changes, including protections from harassment and surveillance, as well as fairness for newer and future UPS workers in the form of more full-time jobs and the elimination of the company’s two-tier wage system.

UPS said it was confident there wouldn’t be a strike. “The results do not mean that a strike is imminent,” a company statement said. “We continue to make progress on key issues and remain confident that we will reach an agreement.”

It would be folly to take the possibility of a strike lightly, though: UPS workers themselves — not union leadership — voted to authorize a strike. This is how unions work; they’re democratic institutions. UPS workers also elected their union leaders and shaped their bargaining priorities, highlighting an often-overlooked benefit of union participation — strengthening democracy — that’s particularly relevant in light of our flawed and declining system of government. People accustomed to having a voice at work develop the expectation that they’ll also have a voice in their communities; not surprisingly, unions increase voter turnout and help promote elected political leadership from working and middle-class jobs. Overall, unions remain one of the only national institutions that can at least sometimes serve as a counterbalance to anti-democratic efforts like gerrymandering and voter suppression, as well as to corporations’ ability to shape policy by pouring money into politics.

So there’s a lot at play in the Teamsters authorization of a strike at UPS. Ideally, UPS and the Teamsters will reach an agreement that the workers can accept, and a strike will be averted. But the workers’ vote to authorize a strike is a vivid and positive demonstration of a willingness to stand up for themselves, their co-workers and the future.

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