Twenty-three years ago, Teamster members won labor’s biggest victory in decades in the 1997 UPS strike. What are the lessons for today?

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Teamsters across the country have been thrust into an unexpected crisis of unforeseeable proportions. At UPS, no sooner did many of us find out that we were a part of the “essential workforce” than we were fighting on the shop floor to protect ourselves from the virus.  

On a Teamster podcast, Package Division Director Denis Taylor claims he’s negotiated an agreement for Teamster drivers to get a UPS purchase order so they can buy PPE and critical safety supplies out on their routes. Is this a real agreement or another empty promise from the Hoffa administration?