Sean O’Brien, the Teamsters president, told members on a union podcast that he is “not optimistic of coming to a tentative agreement without striking UPS” when the contract expires at the end of July 2028, FreightWaves reported. The union represents 330,000 UPS drivers and package handlers.
A shipper signing parcel terms that run past the middle of 2028 now decides whether to name a second carrier in the contract before rates are set.
O’Brien listed what the union will bargain for:
No automation or autonomous vehicles
An end to outsourcing through Roadie and Happy Returns
Union representation at UPS Supply Chain Solutions
The right to strike over deadlocked grievances in all four regions
Higher part-time pay and pensions, and protected healthcare
Shippers moved volume the last time this came up: about 1.5 million packages a day left UPS at the peak of the 2023 talks, split roughly evenly between FedEx, the Postal Service and regional carriers, per Supply Chain Dive. UPS had won back 600,000 a day by that October.
The Teamsters opened a national grievance in June arguing that Roadie, the nonunion gig subsidiary UPS bought in 2021, is doing bargaining-unit work using UPS labels, tracking and equipment. Roadie drivers earn a median $12.70 an hour, against a top union rate of $49 by 2027.
UPS said it expects to keep working with the Teamsters as it has for more than a century. It said the current agreement already pays industry-leading wages and benefits. The last national strike at UPS was in 1997. It ran 15 days and cost the company more than $600 million.
The union launches its contract campaign in fall 2027.
