If the Teamsters strike at UPS, the union may only have $882.35 in strike pay for each striker
A change in 2021 to the Teamsters Constitution puts the union in a precarious financial position if a strike is called at UPS.
If a Teamster strike were to take place against United Parcel Service (UPS) at the end of the month, a modification made to Teamsters policies in 2021 regarding how it pays striking members may have a significant impact on the union's capacity to sustain a protracted strike.
The possibility of a strike at UPS may have subsided slightly over the weekend, but Teamsters President Sean O'Brien made it clear at a press conference on Saturday that if UPS does not submit to the union's demands, the union will put its 340,000 members out on strike at the end of July.
If a strike does occur, a 2021 amendment to the Teamsters' Constitution mandates that the union must start distributing strike pay to each of the 340,000 Teamster members who walk the picket line beginning the first day of the strike.
Before the 2021 change to the Teamsters’ Constitution, union members who went on strike against their employers had to be on strike two weeks in order to start receiving union strike pay.
In a June Financial Times article about O'Brien and the UPS negotiations, it is stated that the union has $300 million in its Strike and Defense Fund.
“O’Brien touted a $300mn strike and defence fund that would allow the union to replace striking members’ pay cheques and healthcare benefits,” reported the Financial Times (emphasis added).
If the $300 million figure is accurate and the union has 340,000 members eligible for strike pay, this means that the union only has an average of $882.35 to give to each striker before its Strike and Defense Fund runs dry.
$300,000,000 ➗ 340,000 = $882.35
Of course, the strike pay would not be given out all at once and the actual amount given weekly would vary by the amount of dues paid by striker.
For example, if a member pays $60 per month in union dues, the individual would be entitled to $300 per week in strike pay. Persons who pay more monthly dues would be entitled to more weekly strike pay, and vice versa.
However unlikely it may be, if the union were to strike more than a few weeks, it is not inconceivable that the Teamsters’ Strike and Defense Fund could be depleted within a month, which could hamper the union’s ability to pay strike pay for strikers at other companies.
Though it may have felt like the right thing to do in 2021, given that the vast majority of states do not pay unemployment compensation to strikers, the change to the Teamsters’ Constitution may have hampered the union’s capacity for long, protracted fights at UPS and elsewhere.
