Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) appeared at a Teamsters protest as the union is in the middle of negotiations with UPS.
The negotiations between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and UPS have failed so far, and the Teamsters left the negotiation table Wednesday while being set to strike on Aug 1. UPS has been negotiating with the union representing some 340,000 workers since April. Both came to an agreement on 55 noneconomic issues on June 19 but have yet to agree on wages.
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“We just want you all to know that we have your back,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the Queens protest, meant to be a practice strike. “We say ‘we’ we mean the city has your back, this country has your back, every day people have your back, because you’re not just fighting for yourselves. You are fighting to raise the standard for all working people in this country.”
The New York representative caught herself mistaking the number of UPS drivers, which she initially said was over 300 million. Still, 340,000 workers on strike would be the largest strike in American history.
Teamsters attempted to set an early deadline for June 30, which came and went. UPS attempted an early deadline of its own for July 5, which also passed by.
“It’s not that much, it’s not — it’s not too much to ask for,” Ocasio-Cortez said of the proposed wage increases. “We have done this before and we have won before. Keep that a mind [sic], and we will win again.”
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According to the global shipping firm Pitney Bowes, UPS delivers 37% of the United States’s total parcel volume, which is an average of over 21 million packages a day. UPS claims it represents the equivalent of about 6% of the nation’s gross domestic product.
The last UPS strike was 25 years ago.
