Employees of the local Lakewood UPS facility on Vassar Avenue have held a practice strike this morning ahead of a possible company-wide strike next month, as negotiations between UPS and its unionized workers broke down on Wednesday.
Speaking to TLS, a UPS employee said among the major issues they are still discussing are “higher raises, improved safety conditions and job security.”
The workers’ current contract expires July 31 and no additional negotiations are currently scheduled, the Teamsters Union, which represents over 340,000 UPS drivers and warehouse workers, said.
A strike could have a devastating impact on the both the U.S. economy, as well as the local economy, which is extremely reliant on the shipping behemoth.
A local strike could add an additional disruption to the Lakewood facility, which is still getting back on its feet following a serious fire last month.
UPS, which has not seen a strike since 1997, handles 20 million packages a day.
UPS Lakewood Employees Prepare To Strike As Labor Negotiations Break Down Without A Deal [VIDEO] https://t.co/fo8dtjac8Z pic.twitter.com/vWtt6nFSNw
— The Lakewood Scoop (@LakewoodScoop) July 7, 2023
As employees of the local Lakewood UPS facility held a practice strike this morning in advance of a possible company-wide strike next month, ordinary, every-day residents of Lakewood held a practice protest rally of their own planning for the possibly long stretch of time when they may not receive their urgently needed packages from the UPS.
“Oy vey iz mir!” one Lakewood resident could be heard, as he rehearsed his lines during the Lakewood residents’ practice protest in advance of the possible UPS strike. “My package still did not arrive! I’m doomed! My livelihood depends on that package! Someone please help me!”
After he finished delivering those lines, another Lakewood resident – who is supervising the practice rehearsals for the Lakewood residents’ protest rally – approached him and said: “Sorry, Steve, you didn’t put enough emotion into your lines. It it didn’t feel real; it felt like an act. Let’s rehearse those lines until we get it right. Okay? And, instead of saying ‘I’m doomed!’, I want you to say, ‘I’m cooked, help me! I’m in deep, deep trouble!’, okay?, and say it like you mean it.”
The rehearsal supervisor said he believes Lakewood residents will have all their lines perfected by the time the actual protest rallies begin.
“I’m not even sure we need to practice our lines,” the rehearsal supervisor said, “because when those packages stop arriving at our doorsteps, our expressions of doom will come out of our mouths naturally; we won’t even need to act out our frustrations or our feelings of helplessness and utter despair.”
personally i feel with the workers who are the ones delivering packages to our doors all the time they deserve our sympathy and our appreciation by the way they are also the ones stopping when a kid runs after a ball