After contract negotiations this summer, full-time drivers for UPS saw an uptick in salaries including benefits from $145,000 to $170,000 according to recent data from the shipping service company.
The largest union in the nation, Teamsters, recently bargained for a historical contract on behalf of UPS. While not every worker is getting that hefty salary, part-time workers also won a pay raise of around $21 hourly, and employees were finally able to have better conditions like air conditioning. “This contract sets a new standard in the labor movement and raises the bar for all workers,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien in a statement.
It’s a testament to collective efforts to boost the middle class for the first time in a generation or two, in accordance with the White House term Bidenomics, or “building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down.”
It’s also a sign that President Biden’s intention to invest heavily in the middle and lower class is having a real-life impact on wage gains in the U.S., and is in opposition to Republican heroes Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan who both slashed taxes for the wealthy in failing “trickle-down economics.” Following tax breaks to the rich, data mounted that wages stagnated and barely kept up with inflation. The upper echelon is now deeming the waning glory days of wealth as a “richsession.”
While actual union membership is at historic lows, favorable sentiment for unions is on the rise.
Multiple unions in the entertainment world have joined the fight for better wages, and the United Auto Workers (with brand new leadership) are looking to win a new contract with the Big Three auto makers, as an historic triple-strike in Detroit looms.
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