UPS workers are preparing for a strike. Here’s how Centre County could be affected

With hundreds of UPS workers in central Pennsylvania preparing for a massive strike that could impact supply chains locally and across the country, a “practice picket” took place Thursday morning in State College.

UPS workers have been hosting practice pickets across the country to prepare union members and raise awareness of the impending strike on Aug. 1 if a contract is not reached.

The 425 UPS workers of the Teamsters Local 764 are among those preparing for the worst, hosting practice pickets in their region that covers areas including State College, Williamsport and Sunbury. Of the 425 UPS workers, about 110 of them work in State College, union representative Eric Kime said. Dozens of them showed up early Thursday morning to practice picketing before heading into their shifts at the State College UPS Customer Center on Carolean Industrial Drive.

After months of negotiations between the union and the company, negotiations have been at a standstill since July 5, with just weeks before the contract is set to end on July 31. The deadlocked negotiations mean 340,000 UPS employees could be heading to the picket lines in search of fair pay and additional benefits for part-time workers.

“During the pandemic, the corporate CEO, all the shareholders, they all got big bonuses, COVID pay,” Kime said. “Our members literally worked out and risked their lives as essential workers. And UPS did not reward them in the slightest.”

UPS has denied walking away from negotiations.

“We have not walked away, and the union has a responsibility to remain at the table,” the company said in a statement last week to CBS News. “Refusing to negotiate, especially when the finish line is in sight, creates significant unease among employees and customers and threatens to disrupt the U.S. economy.”

One of the major goals of the union’s negotiations is to help lower the gap between full-time and part-time employees. Kime said that the majority of part-time employees work inside the facility and are paid around $6 less an hour.

“They are the unsung heroes of UPS,” Kime said. “Everybody knows the brown trucks. They love their UPS driver, but without the part-time employees who work inside the facility who load or unload the package cars and do the sorting, those trucks don’t move.”

UPS has said it moves 6% of the country’s gross domestic product, meaning a strike would cause a major disruption in the supply chain. When UPS teamsters last went on strike in 1997, the 15-day walk out cost the company $850 million. With the increase in online commerce and reliance on shipping, experts believe a 10 day strike could cost nearly $7 billion.

“It would be a massive disruption to the supply chain across the country,” Kime said. “It would affect businesses locally, rurally, in cities and across the country. The last thing we want is a strike.”

With 25 years since the last UPS strike, Kime said he’s talking to a new generation of union workers who have never been on a picket line. But in a post-pandemic world, Kime said he’s seeing more and more involvement in unions from the younger generation. In recent years, workers at companies like Starbucks and Amazon have gained national attention for unionizing efforts. Kime said he’s had an increasing number of calls from employees looking to unionize since the pandemic.

“It’s been a generation since we’ve had a strike of this magnitude in our country,” he said. “And right now, in our lifetime, this is probably the best organized labor atmosphere we’ve ever seen. Just the general public, our employees, they see the corporate greed, for lack of a better term.”