Looks like ups is gonna eat shit, support your local teamsters during the strike!
https://twitter.com/Teamsters/status/1676509553205051396
Ngl, I kind of wish we still did the thing to owners who won't unconditionally meet workers' demands
This “trinity of austerity“ is very well described in Clara Mattei’s The Capital Order.
Finally another The Capital Order enjoyer! I haven't finished it yet (it's been an embarassingly long time tbh) but it's dramatically reshaped my thinking on economic matters already
I'm not sure I share your pessimism entirely but yeah, that is a great summary of the environment this strike would likely be happening in. I would just say, it isn't deterministic. Just because rates are going up doesn't mean the strike can't succeed. They will need some luck to succeed, but I think it is possible, and seizing the moment now could be the last chance for some time to win some gains. Better now than in 6 months after the rate hikes, or just accepting an incredibly raw deal from UPS for the next however many years just because the outlook doesn't look amazing. The question is can UPS really ride out a strike long enough for recession to bring people crawling back? My feeling is not really, but the stakes are pretty high if the teamsters lose. I'd love to see them fight and win, but a last minute concession package from UPS would also suffice assuming favorable terms.
The question more than "how much profit can UPS lose" is "how much profit will capitalists who rely on UPS lose before they put pressure on UPS to settle?"
The real victim of the strike isn't UPS but everyone who relies on them:
Amazon, USPS, phizer, the US Military, BNSF
Would you piss those guys off?
that's on the capitalists to worry about. as workers our weapon is striking, even if illegally. fuck them. workers have faced the national guard before and won. im tired of this BS workers are helpless narrative, i just hope teamsters leadership really is about it and doesn't sabotage the actual rank and file anger that is present when presented with some slightly better deal by capital in the form of legislation or a slightly less bad deal by management or some other bullshit. of course capital is gonna do what they are gonna do and the interest rate belt tightening scheme has been the way to go for them but that in no way invalidates the power of striking, which will make supply chains hurt and disrupt the ability of capital to realize its profits significantly. of course they have counter-playbooks and we gotta be aware (and frankly offer counter analysis and playbooks to workers and caucauses within unions) of those but im generally impressed with obrien slate and TDU so far and how they are not bowing to pressure. that said, apart from talking good game at the negotiating table history will show how militant they will allow the workers to be when presented with harder pressure from capital and how class consciousness will persist or not in response to the inevitable counter-attacks. either way im going to show up to the strike, should it happen, and talk to workers and push them farther along the path towards revolutionaries during those heated moments.
if you don't put it into practice you can theorize all you want and it amounts to nothing and you do intelectually walk yourself into a doomer position, what can I say. of course its not simple but if you don't attempt to bring about the more militant material conditions through participating in active struggle and injecting yourself into these situations and doing coordinations you wont even know the tiniest extent of the complexities involved on a practical level. not disparaging the work you are citing, its probably an interesting read but sometimes you learn a lot more about the books you read through actually talking and organizing with workers engaged in active struggle, just a thought.
Honestly, we've got to remember that president pays hella well and folks like O'Brien and Fain have a mandate to strike and win. The success of the strike is the security of their jobs. Leadership has ($)200,000 reasons to stay strong.
Can I ask, are you in a communist formation within the teamsters? I know FRSO is sort of re-founding the TUEL.
i don't wanna talk about what im in or not in on this site for opsec reasons but i'd imagine all sorts of parties are gonna try to bring their particular theories into practice
otherwise i agree about guys like obrien and fain representing leadership of more militant slates than the last hoffa/curry regimes, for one, and being part of troublemaker-type slates but with leadership you gotta be careful because they will sometimes get comfortable in those paid positions and also can get corrupt and start working hand in hand with the capitalists and ignore the rank and file.
rank and file unionism is better than business-as-usual unionism but imo it still has some weaknesses and has a tendency to still bend to the libs/sucdems before the fight even starts through rellying on business-class politicians for support through electoral campaigns or backroom deals instead of focusing on class struggle as the primary tool and escalation tactic. i have higher hopes for TDU and UAWD relative to previous slates/caucauses and really see potential there but as far as Obrien/Fein are concerned, they gotta feel the heat under their ass from the workers to feel the pain and really represent what the struggle is about to be good leadership. anyway exciting stuff
A logistics strike this big will create the kind of massive downstream effects that other capitalists who rely on UPS (for example, the pharmaceutical industry and Amazon) will put pressure on UPS to settle.
In by the rules labor disputes, it's not really about labor vs capital, but labor splitting capital against itself.
When labor goes toe to toe with capital and directly threatens profits it's generally outside of legal contexts like an economic or ULP strike.
There's some doomers in this thread, so let me lay out some facts:
Everyone relies on UPS. Has anyone else gotten a notice from their pharmacy that their meds might be late?
How would Amazon fair without UPS doing the main part of their shipping?
What happens when port workers start calling out because they can't get their meds?
What happens when auto mechanics can't get parts for jobs?
This will create massive tension between UPS and the rest of the capitalist class. The real negotiations won't happen at the bargaining table, but in back rooms between UPS execs and pharma execs, tech execs.
We don't win by hurting their profits, we win by pitching capital against itself.
Not mentioning half, give or take, of USPS's shit is sent through UPS, the military has a bunch of contracts with UPS to move their sensitive shit, a whole bunch of ground cargo companies also get their shit from UPS, there's also been a growing international trade network UPS has been growing. American teamsters striking means all of that grinds to a halt
I don't want to say too much, but when I say that capital is divided and labor can use that to win, I'm speaking from experience, not theory. Theory says they give in when you hurt their bottom line. That's not my experience. My experience is that they give in when you pitch the short term thinkers against the long term thinkers, the liberals against the hard noses, and the financiers against the productive capitalists.
Gramsci said that after one failed anarchist revolution and before a second. The capitalist class had learned solidarity through struggle, just like we do. Today's capitalists are in new waters: finance has taken over and tech hasn't been tested by worker uprisings yet. Still others are resting on the victories of the Reagan years.
I don't belive in generating pessimism in people once we've committed to struggle. So instead of saying "it won't work," I have to ask "what should we do differently based on your analysis?"
I hope you don’t mind me butting in with a tangential question: you mentioned industry and finance capital, distinction I think is important to make when discussing capital, but also mentioned tech being untested in a way that made me think you’re treating it as a third type of capitalist.
That isn’t an idea I’ve encountered before and would be interested in hearing about that. I’ve assumed up until this point that tech represented a wing of finance capital.
I agree that tech is a wing of finance capital, just one that hasn't had to face significant worker struggle the way that other sectors of finance have
Imo ALU hasn't done the work to go on any kind of strike let alone an illegal strike.
That said, Amazon muscling in is exactly the kind of intra-capitalist tension that helps us win.
I'm sure the conditions to strike are well outlined in their contract. But man, they should strike now not a month from now.
That's how you break contract and weaken the union. They're following the rules to let the company hang itself with it's own rope
No, the contract expires August 1st, but the union told the company to get them an offer by July 1st.
It looks like that offer wasn't good enough, although I expect that there will still be negotiations of some sort throughout July. It's just that the Teamsters expect that they'll have to go on strike.
Yeah, time's running out on being able to review the contract and have the members vote on it.
Just do it Hoffa Jr. Style. Shove a contract into their hands and say "vote yes"
Yeah, no thanks. I don't want another dogshit contract rammed through because of some technicality that lets them ignore the majority voting no.
That’s weird. Feels like a hollow threat. “If you don’t get us a good offer by July 1 we’re going on strike (unless you get us a good offer by August 1)”
The contract needs to be reviewed by the negotiating committee to give the membership a recommendation on whether to vote yes or no. Then the contract and ballots are sent out to all union members. I've heard there's a two-week voting period so accounting for review, sending out ballots, the voting period, sending in ballots, and counting leaves very little time for the company.
Yeah. So if they give a good offer a couple days before the strike, then great, the Teamsters will only have to strike for 12 days.
Ah yes, that all makes sense. I hadn’t really thought about the time that all takes. Thank you!
