The Teamsters joined the United Autoworkers (UAW) and five other international unions representing members at the largest U.S. defense contracts in a letter calling on Congress to ban defense contractors from funneling money to Wall Street investors through stock buybacks and dividends instead of investing in jobs and infrastructure.

Since 2020, the “Big Five” prime defense contractors have spent twice as much on stock buybacks and dividends than investments in business infrastructure known as capital expenditures. In the meantime, defense workers fall further behind. 

Despite defense spending increasing by 22% from 1985 to 2020, employment at defense contractors has been cut by more than half. Salaries from the jobs that remain have fallen by 15% over the last 30 years when adjusted for inflations. 

Excessive payouts to Wall Street investors in stock buybacks and dividends plagues Teamsters in other industries too.

Over the last three years, UPS has spent $17.79 billion in stock buybacks and dividends compared to $12.75 billion in capital investments in the business. 

UPS has paid more in stock buybacks and dividends than it has made in operating profits over the same period. 

Unions Join Forces

The letter signed by seven unions representing more than three million workers calls for Congress to enshrine Section 815 of the National Defense Authorization Act into law. 

The bipartisan legislation introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) would impose a blanket ban on Wall Street payouts to incentivize investment in the facilities and workers that make the defense industry run.

The letter was signed by the Teamsters, United Autoworkers (UAW), United Steelworkers, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), Communications Workers of America (CWA), International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART).