Across the United States, 340,000 logistical workers, organized with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, have been struggling against UPS (United Parcel Service) for increased wages, the end of a two-tier classification system, the end of forced overtime, the creation of full-time positions, heat protections, and other critical demands. Party militants across the United States intervened in this struggle with the use of the following leaflet.

 

UPS Workers and the Working Class in the USA:
For United Class Action! Neither the Democrats nor Republicans!
Cut the Link Between the Unions and all the Bosses’ Parties!

[July 25th]
    At the time of the writing of this article, a tentative agreement between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and UPS is being considered by union membership. The agreement which accepts $21 an hour wage increases for thousands of part-time workers who fought for $25 an hour, was accepted by leadership after the Biden administration applied pressure for union leadership to accept the deal.
    The International Communist Party encourages UPS workers across the United State to fight onwards — don’t accept an agreement that leaves 180,000 part time workers behind! With what has already been accomplished with creating a credible strike threat, so much more can be accomplished by actually striking!
    A strike by UPS workers would provide millions of workers experiences on the picket lines which could only strengthen our collective fighting capacity as a class.
    Workers all over the world are hitting picket lines as they refuse to tolerate stagnant wages in the face of escalating inflation.
    UPS workers have taken to a combative form of unionism centered around the power of the strike and are refusing sell-out contracts; the results have so far paid off with the company conceding to almost all worker demands. This is a refreshing step toward the return of a class unionist movement — a workers’ movement recognizing the absolute antagonism between the interests of the owning class and the working class.
    If the strike occurs, it would be the largest in the U.S. in decades with 340,000 participants. As the current economic crisis intensifies, workers must unite across industries and sectors to develop a class union movement free from the influence of either capitalist political party.

UPS workers are bringing a company which reported $100 billion in profits in 2022 to its knees. It is a powerful example of the kind of leverage workers can have when our unions organize themselves around strike power and national bargaining strategies beyond individual workplaces. Companies need workers because our labor is the only source of surplus value (true profit). The bourgeois press complains that the UPS strike is expected to result in $7 billion in economic “damages” if it extends past 10 days. It is true that workers can only defend ourselves from the bosses’ exploitation by “damaging” the companies’ profit-making capabilities. In our society dominated by the drive toward profit accumulation, workers’ only point of leverage to defend ourselves from the constant attacks of the employers lies in making collective demands and collectively withholding our labor in ever-growing numbers. When workers are divided, bargaining for isolated individual contracts around issues particular to a single section of workers, we are always in a weaker position. The fact that UPS workers created a credible strike threat against UPS, and have so far won on most all of their demands, points to the power workers can have when we unite across territories; however, for workers to maximize our leverage, solidarity must extend beyond the horizons of any one particular company and industry.

In the event of a strike, UPS would inevitably divert shipping to other firms they have contracted with; thus, we encourage UPS workers to link with the struggles of other logistical workers and appeal to their solidarity. We salute the 3,300 pilots from the Independent Pilots Association union committed to striking in solidarity with UPS workers. As is well known, Amazon workers are beginning to get unionized across the country. Today, USPS workers in the American Postal Workers Union continue to struggle against ever-deteriorating workplace conditions and low wages. Just last year, 100,000 rail workers across 12 different unions nearly led the largest strike in decades. In a strike against UPS, postal traffic would be diverted to all of these other sectors. For UPS workers to get the best deal, it is necessary for workers across these industries to unite and thwart the efforts of the company to undermine the strike. Since a UPS strike would impact the many capitalist firms that rely on the company for its services, the longer the strike extends, the more effective the workers are in bringing its operation to a halt, and the more likely it is that the agents of the two political parties representing the collective interests of the capitalist class will be tapped to activate the State’s coercive powers and attempt to force workers back to work.

The deteriorating living standard and working conditions of UPS workers is the result of a general capitalist crisis in which both Democrats and Republicans are just the puppets of the bourgeois State. Both parties act completely in line with the capitalist State’s only existential purpose, to ensure the profit-making ability of the capitalist class. Since the recession of 2008-2009, world capitalism has not yet emerged from economic crisis; we live in an unstable capitalism being kept alive with the band-aid fixes of large cash injections from central banks and the fresh blood of new surplus squeezed from increased rates of worker exploitation (faster work pace, lower wages, etc.). In recent years, this crisis has only gotten worse. In order to stabilize the system to prevent hyper-inflation in 2022 (a result of pandemic policies of quantitative easing and skyrocketing oil prices after the beginning of the imperialist war which exploded in Ukraine that year), the Federal Reserve increased interest rates. By raising interest rates, the State instigates the creation of unemployment, thus lowering wages and the leverage of workers in the labor market in order to preserve capitalism’s profit-making capability. As Jerome Powell (Democratic Party-nominated Chair of the Federal Reserve) said when raising interest rates, there needs to be “some softening of labor market conditions”. Powell also said that the Federal Reserve’s hope was “to get wages down and then get inflation down without having to slow the economy”. These policies are intended to attack workers’ collective bargaining power by creating more unemployment, putting workers in greater competition with each other, and enabling bosses to more easily break our solidarity, ward off strikes, and decrease wages. In short, both the Democratic and Republican Party continue to be tools in the hands of the bosses to repress and attack the working class and our ability to fight back.

As unfortunate as it is, both Teamsters leadership and the Democratic Socialists of America are in bed with the Democrats — politicians who do not hesitate to brutalize the working class. Teamsters leadership promotes Democratic politicians through their social media and in the 2018 elections spent $1,750,068 on political contributions to the Democratic Party. In the 2022 election cycle, UPS spent $3.5 million on political contributions to both Democrats and Republicans. So today, UPS workers are fighting against a company that gives money to the same party to which the leadership of the union gives money! As for the DSA, in December 2022, 3 out of 4 of DSA-US House of Representatives members voted yes for the law that imposed an agreement on rail workers that did not include the sick days that rail workers struggled for. This law took railroad workers’ supposed “right to strike” away and forced them back to work under brutal conditions similar to those that UPS workers experience. This act of class war was a bi-partisan affair with the vast majority of Democrats (including DSA Democrats) and Republicans falling into line to ensure the struggle of rail workers was snuffed out and repressed!

With UPS workers continuing to be on the move and bourgeois parties working to extend and continue their influence on the working class, it is with relentless, unified, offensive class action that UPS workers and the working class as a whole may defend its living and working conditions. We salute UPS workers for their combative footing in the course of their recent campaign. We encourage UPS workers to keep up the fight — don’t leave part time workers behind! Consider the positive impact that striking can have for the wider working class. Onwards!

For United Class Action!
Neither the Democrats nor Republicans!
Cut the Link Between the Unions and the Bosses’ Parties!