This summer, the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild were on strike together for the first time in sixty-three years.
At the same time, hotel workers across Southern California were organizing coordinated rolling work stoppages.
Even UPS workers had vowed to walk off the job, in what would been the largest single-employer strike in U.S. history. But it didn't come to that.
UPS and its Teamsters union have signed a tentative contract deal for about 340,000 U.S. workers at the parcel delivery company, one week ahead of the threatened strike that could have cost the economy billions and disrupted a quarter of the nation's package shipments.
The drafted document had overwhelming support among union leadership, who voted 161-1 in favor of the deal. Teamsters President Sean O'Brien called it "the best contract in the history of UPS."
Recently, 33-year-old UPS driver Skyler Stutzman went viral on TikTok for explaining what this deal actually means for drivers.
UPS workers have just been approved for a massive new labor deal with big raises
Image credits: wikimedia (not the actual photo)
This made one TikToker ask his audience, "So now that UPS drivers are making $170,000 a year, are you thinking of switching careers?"
Image credits: skylerleestutzman
So 33-year-old UPS driver Skyler Stutzman took it upon himself to explain to the general public what this deal actually means for the drivers
Image credits: skylerleestutzman
"Now, $170,000 a year is a bit of an exaggeration here, but let me break it down for you. Now, I don't know about you, but I love factual information"
"So I'm going to do my best to just be transparent about the wages that we make. Under the current contract, our wage is $41.51 an hour. Now this contract has been seen all over social media, once that contract is ratified, which is in the voting process, right now, we'll be making $44.26 an hour."
Image credits: Aaron Doucett (not the actual photo)
"If you do some quick math here - if you were to take $44.26 an hour times 2080 hours, which is 40 hours a week, that comes out to about $92,000 a year"
"But that's not including overtime. And it's also not the important part that we're missing here. See, one of the other things that a lot of people don't take into consideration is our medical insurance and our pension."
Image credits: Tai L (not the actual photo)
"Now, our pension, don't quote me, but it's roughly somewhere between $11 and $13 per hour, that's paid into our pension at the 2080 hours, which comes out roughly about $25,000 a year"
"Now, you can figure the medical insurance at whatever you want. But you can quickly see that it would actually take about $170,000 a year job to replace this one for me. Now, while the media is making it a little more profound than it really is, they're really not that far off of how amazing it is to work for this company."
Image credits: skylerleestutzman
The union achieved many of its negotiation goals
UPS moves $3.8 billion worth of goods a day, which is about 5% of the country's gross domestic product.
"Teamsters have set a new standard and raised the bar for pay, benefits and working conditions in the package delivery industry. This is the template for how workers should be paid and protected nationwide, and nonunion companies like Amazon better pay attention," Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said.
The union said they achieved many of their key negotiating goals, including across-the-board pay raises of $2.75 an hour that are retroactive to August 1 and total raises of at least $7.50 an hour, or more than $15,000 a year for full-time workers, during the life of the contract.
Some workers are getting even larger raises as the company agreed to eliminate a lower pay scale for many of the workers who joined since 2018.
UPS drivers will average $170,000 in pay and benefits at the end of the five-year deal, CEO Carol Tomé said on an earnings call earlier this month.
The company cut its full-year revenue and margin forecasts, citing the "volume impact from labor negotiations and the costs associated with the tentative agreement."
The company also addressed the complaints that 95,000 delivery vans in its US fleet do not have air conditioning. The union said that is more than an issue of comfort; it's a safety concern. Although UPS did not agree to retrofit the existing vans with air conditioning, it will purchase only air-conditioned vans starting next year. Existing vans will be retrofitted with some changes to reduce the heat in the cargo area, where temperatures can pose the greatest threat.
Skyler's video has already been viewed over 19 million times
And has prompted an interesting discussion, with some people questioning it and also disagreeing
Some reacted in a positive way
