UPS will train non-union employees ahead of looming strike

NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) - Amid negotiations with UPS union employees, the company is taking preemptive actions to keep the packages moving. It's planning to train non-union employees in case driver's go on strike to make sure deliveries on goods and medications are not impacted.

In a statement, the company insists the move is a temporary solution and not an effort to walk away from negotiations or permanently sweep out union workers—97% of which voted in favor of a strike if a deal isn't reached by July 31. 

UPS Teamsters make up half of the company's work force. Drivers are demanding better benefits and working conditions. Several items have already been agreed upon, but the union is still looking for pay increases for both full and part-time workers.

"If it wasn't for the part-timers, if it wasn't for the full-timers, this country wouldn't have ran through the pandemic. Ups made $100 billion. So they certainly can afford to reward the people that made them a tremendous success," said Sean O'Brien, who is the general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

This would be the largest U.S. Labor strike in more than 60 years. The last time that UPS workers, specifically, went on strike was 1997. Those employees were gone for so long that that meant there was a shutdown for operations for over two weeks.