Will Corporate Media Undermine The UPS Strikers?

UPS workers might revitalize labor—if corporate media skip the script.

by Teddy Ostrow, FAIR

Over 340,000 workers at United Parcel Service (UPS) could launch the largest strike against a single company in US history this August, when their collective bargaining agreement expires.

The clock is ticking as the top package courier in the world, which has seen two straight years of record-breaking profits, considers whether it will hold much of the country’s logistics infrastructure hostage by refusing workers’ demands: raising the poverty pay of part-time warehouse workers, re-establishing “equal pay for equal work” among delivery drivers, and introducing extreme heat–related and other safety protections, among others.

PS or United Parcel Service electric delivery van parked in the streets of central London. An American multinational package delivery company

National negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters union, which represents the workers, begin on April 17. At that point, we can expect to see media coverage start to trickle in, and eventually reach a fever pitch, should bargaining break down and the Teamsters call a strike—something union leadership has explicitly said they’re willing to do.

Corporate media will have an outsized hand in shaping the narrative of this unprecedented moment, which presents the broader labor movement a catalyst for revival. So, four months out from the end of the bargaining agreement and a potential strike, it’s worth asking: What should we expect from establishment reporting? What have we seen in the past, and what have we seen so far this time?