Minneapolis, MN – Over the weekend of July 21and 22, members of Minnesota Workers United took to the streets in Minneapolis and Eagan, a Minneapolis suburb, with hundreds of UPS workers who are members of Teamsters Local 638 and their supporters. The workers and solidarity supporters conducted practice-pickets to show their readiness to strike if UPS doesn’t meet their demands for a new contract by August 1.

Part-time pay increases are the only remaining strike issue on the table and UPS has nine days left to pay up for its part-time workers, who are the backbone of the company, and avert a 340,000-person strike across the United States. UPS drivers, as well as full and part-time workers who work inside, have banded together in solidarity as Teamsters across the country held practice pickets in recent weeks. As a result of the pressure applied by the unwavering unity between UPS Teamsters and their surrounding communities, UPS is returning to the bargaining table after claiming at the beginning of July that they had nothing left to give to the workers who create their profits.

In June the Teamsters and UPS reached tentative agreements that represented significant progress for the Teamsters in every area except for part-time pay. According to Teamsters Local 638 member Nuala Cacek, “UPS is looking to drive a wedge between full-timers and part-timers by paying up for all of the above except the part-timers. This time around, the Teamsters aren’t falling for any of that. We aren’t leaving anybody behind this contract, so the choice is up to the UPS bargaining committee; pay up, or we shut it down.”

The solidarity with UPS Teamsters on display isn’t just within the labor movement, but also in their surrounding communities. Many local organizations have been arriving in contingents to practice picket with the Teamsters, including Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

SDS member Jasper Nordin emphatically stated, “UMN SDS stands in total and unwavering solidarity with the Teamsters union and their fight to win concessions from UPS. SDS has always been proud to fight alongside organized labor and these demands for fair wages and workplaces from the Teamsters are no exception. Solidarity forever!”

Local 638 member Cacek summed the situation up by saying, “An historic work stoppage consisting of 340,000 strike-ready UPS Teamsters and their allies is looming and the clock is ticking for one of the world's biggest logistics corporations to put their corporate greed aside and put their profits back into the pockets of the working class folks who created them.”

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