New York (AFP) - UPS drivers came out in force Friday for a "practice picket" event organized by the Teamsters as the union edges towards a possible strike in light of stalled contract talks.
Joined by progressive Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, workers at the UPS hub in Maspeth, Queens shouted demands for "fair contracts" and threatened to "shut it down" if the company doesn't return to the bargaining table with a better offer.
The negotiations for a new four-year contract have loomed for months as a question mark in logistics, but the odds of a strike rose earlier this week when labor talks broke down, with UPS and the Teamsters each blaming the other.
On Friday, a UPS spokesman reiterated a call for the Teamsters to "return to the table to finalize this deal."
The current contract expires July 31. The Teamsters represent about 340,000 workers, meaning a strike would be the biggest in decades.
Vincent Perrone, president of the Teamsters Local 804 in New York, said the practice picket events were designed for younger workers who were not around for the last UPS strike in 1997.
"You have to mentally prepare people that this could happen." said Perrone, who blamed the breakdown in talks on management not taking union demands "seriously."
Many of the speakers at Friday's union rally highlighted the need to provide more generous raises to part-time workers than UPS has so far offered.
Alease Annan, a part-time worker at UPS who addressed the rally, described the effort as "fighting for one single cause, which is leveling up the pay in New York City and everywhere in the United States.
Annan makes $16.65 an hour unloading trucks and sorting packages at UPS, one of three jobs she holds while working 60-70 hours a week.
"We're ready to strike if we have to," she told AFP. "That's not ideal, but we're absolutely ready."
