Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said Tuesday the United Parcel Service (UPS) might be delaying the release of its latest earnings in order to maintain a better bargaining position amid its ongoing fight with his union.
Talks between UPS and the Teamsters broke down last week as the two sides remain at odds over the terms of a new contract. The current contract, which covers some 340,000 UPS workers, expires July 31, and UPS workers have already authorized a strike if a deal is not reached by the deadline.
“One thing to point out is that UPS has moved their earnings call twice already, and that moved to August 8, the midterm earnings, so I don’t know why they’re not releasing their earnings because maybe they’re trying to hopefully get a deal and not released the profits that they’ve made so far,” O’Brien told “Your World with Neil Cavuto.”
UPS announced earlier in the day that the release of its second-quarter results for 2023 would be pushed back to August 8, but made no mention of the labor negotiations as the reason for doing so.
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The shipping giant and the labor union have both accused the other side of walking away from the bargaining table.
O’Brien told host Neil Cavuto that UPS “walked out” on the talks July 5. UPS released a statement to “Your World” saying, “The teamsters have stopped negotiating despite historic proposals that build on our industry leading pay…We’re proud of what we put forward to these negotiations which deliver wins for our people…The Teamsters should return to the table to finalize this deal.”
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The two sides remain at odds over part-time worker pay, which the Teamsters have referred to as “poverty” wages in some parts of the country.
In its reaction to O’Brien’s interview with Cavuto, UPS told FOX Business part-time employees at the company currently make an average of $20 an after after their first 30 days of employment, and receive the same health benefits as full-time workers. The minimum starting wage of a UPS worker is $16.20 an hour.
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The company did not address O’Brien’s suggestion that the company was holding off on releasing its profit numbers as a negotiating tactic.
FOX Business’ Joe Toppe contributed to this report.