UPS lays off nearly 10% of drivers. 6 months ago they signed a new contract for $170,000 a year.

Photo above - The teamsters and Biden have deep ties. The teamsters have a new $170,000 contract. And massive layoffs at UPS.

First let's have level set: yes, I KNOW the UPS employs 444,000 people worldwide. But they only have 118,000 drivers in the USA. So the news that UPS is axing 12,000 teamsters should be front page stuff. (See link below).

Last summer, after threatening a strike against UPS, the Teamsters won a new contract worth $170,000 annually per driver. (That figure includes health insurance, retirement contributions, etc.). Team Biden immediately took a victory lap, claiming it had prevented a strike, “secured the future of the middle class”, and solved the nation's supply chain bottlenecks, all with a couple of white house phone calls. Now 10% of those Teamsters are without jobs.

In a rational world, nobody would have believed that a truck driver should be paid $170,000. That's double what most teachers get. Or police. It's about what a US Senator makes. Probably some teachers googled “how do I get a CDL license?” after reading about the new contract. Too bad some of the senators didn't try that.

At least Biden wasn't served up as a Teamster-striker prop by his campaign staff. The way the president was, when the UAW walked off the job. That UAW picket line appearance, by a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” was a first in American history. No other president has used union strikes to help engineer his re-election. Detroit immediately caved and gave auto workers a 25% pay hike.

Biden got endorsements of both the Teamsters and UAW in 2020. Undoubtedly, he will get them again this year too. Despite however many UPS layoffs take place. At least Detroit isn't laying off autoworkers, though. Wait . . . they ARE being laid off? Ford has mothballed 2 unfinished battery factories, cut production of the F150 lightning in half, and laid off thousands of assembly line workers. Geesus! And those trucks get huge tax subsidies too. Does Bidenomics deserve any credit for the Teamsters and UAW results? Victory laps were taken, after all.

I'm just sayin' . ..

UPS To Lay Off 12,000 Employees Just Six Months After Teamsters Won Lucrative Deal (msn.com)

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

MethDozer · M

When looking at wages the key is to look at what the CEOs and corporate are making off their labor. Wages should be reflective of how much is brought in and how much is going into the pockets of bougies

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@MethDozer that's certainly the marxist view.

however, in a free - market economy both management and labor are paid commensurately with the value they add to the business enterprise. and both can be laid off if business results don't result in revenue to pay those wages.

MethDozer · M

@SusanInFlorida It's a reasonable and logical view.

. however, in a free - market economy both management and labor are paid commensurately with the value they add to the business enterprise.

not true at all and history has shown this to be a myth. It's all dependent on what is best for the shareholders. The shareholders always won and never sacrific. It's always up to labor, who does the actual work to sacrifice and understand.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@MethDozer shareholders own the company. the owners get to decide things like:

1. what lines of business will be undertaken
2. what products will be manufactured.
3. what markets those products will be sold in.
4. what prices those products will be sold for.
5. how many workers will be hired, and for what wage

only the soviet union tried to pretend that workers should make those decisions. the result was Stalinism, gulags, and mass executions.

that's actual history. you can look it up.

LordShadowfire · 46-50, M

@SusanInFlorida Wow, okay. Paying people what they're worth is a Marxist view?

This comment is hidden. Show Comment

justanothername · 51-55, M

@SusanInFlorida When Steve Jobs returned to being CEO of Apple he took a salary of $1. He said he would continue to take that salary until Apple became profitable.

Many other CEOs could take that same approach.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@justanothername i don't disagree. a real part of the problem are "start ups" which have zero profits, yet go public in billion dollar stock offerings which make the founders instant billionaires.