
A UPS driver named Juan Trujillo went on TikTok to obviously articulate the explanations for supporting the worker-led strike that’s set to start out on July 31, 2023, which is the date that UPS staff’ contract expires. Trujillo posted a number of movies responding to feedback that UPS staff don’t deserve the $42/hour wage they at present make.
The UPS driver defined the legitimate explanation why they’ll go on strike, regardless of being paid $42 an hour.
As Trujillo made clear in his TikTok put up, UPS staff are planning to strike to point out their assist for part-time staff, who solely make $16 an hour.
Trujillo recorded himself sitting within the entrance seat of a supply truck, replying to a remark stating, “No approach you deserve $42 an hour as a supply man, lol. Takes zero ability.”
“Yeah, $42 an hour is certainly not sufficient,” Trujillo mentioned. “Even the corporate thinks so. That’s why we’re getting a increase, and we do yearly. It’s about $1.40 to $1.50 yearly. And it’s going to be increased round this one. We’re not happening strike as a result of the drivers aren’t getting their raises… our increase has already been negotiated.”
“The total-timers, the drivers, like, we’re gonna get ours. You realize, $42 isn’t sufficient and we’re gonna get greater than that. We’re happening strike as a result of a part-timer is just making $16 an hour, and that’s unacceptable,” he exclaimed.
“I’ll stand subsequent to my part-time brothers and sisters and ensure they get theirs on this one, too. And I’ll sacrifice 2 weeks of labor if I’ve to, as a result of that’s what solidarity is. That’s what we do,” Trujillo mentioned.
Trujillo believes UPS staff should make greater than $42 an hour due to the excessive quantity of income they generate for the corporate.
He praised the negotiating energy held by the Teamsters’ Union, asking, “How the hell do you assume we obtained to $42 anyhow? By sitting again and accepting $35? No, no, we demanded what was ours and that’s what we’re doing now. And $42, that’s what it’s now. In August, when that contract will get signed, we’ll have greater than that. And it’s gonna hold going up yearly as a result of their income go up yearly.”
In a earlier put up on TikTok, Trujillo responded to a distinct declare that “42 an hour is greater than sufficient.”
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“I simply wanna make a clarification, as a result of a few of you might be lacking the purpose,” he acknowledged. “Once I say $42 isn’t sufficient, it’s not as a result of I can’t dwell comfortably. It’s not sufficient based mostly on the quantity of income that we’re producing for this firm. Particularly throughout the pandemic, once they made $100 billion and simply stored that. They didn’t even work for it.”
“I’m speaking about their shareholders, who they’re. They sat there, like, we have been those loading the vehicles. We have been those delivering the packages. They have been nowhere to be discovered. However we all know the place they have been. All of them bugged out to their doomsday bunkers, and left us out right here to maintain working, and hold the availability chains shifting,” Trujillo mentioned.
He criticized the corporate’s actions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, when UPS drivers continued to work, regardless of their lives being at risk.
“They sacrificed us, mainly,” Trujillo acknowledged. “That stuff was working by means of the hubs; folks catching it– a few of them died. We have been out right here, the drivers, coping with most of the people, a few of us contracted it, introduced it again to our households, and a few of them died. And so they didn’t care.”
He questioned the narrative being disseminated by numerous TikTok commenters who consider UPS are grasping for asking for increased wages.
“How are we grasping? We’re not the grasping ones. We’re those that really labored for that $100 billion. They did nothing. We’re not grasping. We’re standing up and demanding our minimize. That’s our cash. They don’t deserve one cent of that $100 billion, for having performed nothing however put us in hurt’s approach. We didn’t get no hazard pay for that,” Trujillo exclaimed.
“They’re not seeing these folks within the feedback, defending them and their system of exploitation. That pisses me off. Y’all speculated to be on our facet. We are able to all get it; we are able to all eat. They did the identical factor to you, besides they’re solely paying you 20,” he mentioned.
Trujillo identified that the vitriol being solid at UPS staff is fully misplaced, and that anger ought to as a substitute be directed on the companies holding the facility.
“You guys gotta get it collectively,” he mentioned. “We’re not in opposition to you. You guys hating on us within the feedback, however try to be hating in your boss. Y’all needs to be emailing your CEO proper now, like, ‘You realize what UPS will get? Why can’t we get that?’ Or try to be calling your native teamsters’ workplace, being like, ‘Hey, how will we get in on this?’ As a substitute, you’re over right here, losing your vitality hating on us.”
“It’s not about what they assume we deserve, it’s about how a lot cash we’re producing for them, proper? They’re holding it. It’s ours, all proper? Y’all gotta get yours, too. Everybody can, man. That is it,” he ended his put up.
An article printed by Forbes Journal detailed the large impact a UPS strike would have on the US economic system, probably costing the US billions of {dollars}. As 340,000 staff put together to strike, the doable ramifications could be dire. A strike would imply slower supply instances, provide chain disruptions, and better delivery prices, which might get handed on to shoppers to cowl.
UPS delivers 24.3 million packages a day. If staff strike, different providers gained’t be capable to take in the labor. In keeping with Forbes, a UPS strike “could be the costliest strike in at the very least a century, costing the US economic system upwards of $7 billion, together with $4.6 billion in losses for purchasers, $1 billion in misplaced wages and greater than $800 million in direct losses at UPS.”
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien reported that the union seeks to ascertain a “livable beginning wage” for part-time staff, who at present make “poverty wages.”
Occurring strike is a deeply-rooted act that staff have utilized all through historical past to try to rectify inequitable working situations.
Trujillo made it clear that what’s at stake is about greater than cash. It’s about being on the correct facet of historical past. It’s about an organization that made immense income on the backs of staff who they endangered throughout a worldwide pandemic. That firm is now being held accountable by the employees that carry it, and it’s as much as them to make the simply resolution.
Alexandra Blogier is a author on YourTango’s information and leisure group. She covers office points, popular culture evaluation and all issues to do with the leisure trade.