UPS and the Teamsters union said contract negotiations will continue next week. If a deal isn’t made by the last day of this month, and a strike happens, that could have a huge impact on businesses.
“That would be a huge economic blow to us if we had to switch to a different shipping company,” said Nicole Shaw, co-owner of the Made in Virginia Store in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Shaw and co-owner Natalie Booren said the store, which sells items made in the Commonwealth, from wine to peanuts, relies on UPS to get its online shipments out.
“We are a small business and we use a shipping station that actually has a contract with UPS, which saves us money and, therefore, we use UPS almost exclusively,” Shaw said.
On a typical day, about a dozen packages are shipped from the store and many more come in from vendors across the state. So, keeping the store stocked would also become a challenge.
“All of the products that we get come from local Virginians also, and so they obviously shipped to us using UPS also. So it would impact us getting the products that we then in turn get to our customers,” said Booren.
While both sides reached a tentative deal on certain matters, such as getting rid of a two-tiered wage system, one sticking point that remains is whether wages should increase for part-time workers. UPS announced earlier this month that it would begin training nonunion workers to fill in if a strike occurs.
Booren said while there is never a good time for something like this to happen, she did say the summer months are typically slower.
“If the strike is looming now, it’s actually better for us than at Christmastime,” Booren said.
During Christmastime, the store can see 150 to 200 packages going out each day.
For the store, if UPS is not an option, the U.S. Postal Service can be used, but their concern is that will slow down deliveries to their customers.
Both Boolen and Shaw hope both sides can come to an agreement in time because the carrier is important to their store.
