Business View Magazine - Sept 2023

18 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 9 power during what’s been dubbed a “Hot Labor Summer.” Unionized TV and film writers, hotel and hospitality employees, and auto workers have been among those pushing employers for better pay, protections and working conditions. “The question is, is this a movement or a moment?” said Mark Gaston Pearce, executive director of the Workers’ Rights Institute at Georgetown University Law Center and former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. Pandemic’s long tail, economic growth empowers unions Brandy Harris, a part-time UPS employee in Seattle, recalls the around-the-clock work involved to keep packages flowing when volume surged in the pandemic’s early days. While other businesses shut down, UPS workers helped deliver vaccines and protective gear to fight against COVID-19’s spread. Three years after the pandemic first took hold, the Teamsters —which represent around 330,000 UPS employees —won a “historic” tentative contract agreement with UPS. Harris, part of the union’s negotiating committee for UPS contract discussions, endorsed the deal that came days before the existing five-year contract’s expiration. “It was something that we had been fighting for a long time,” Harris said of the tentative agreement, which averted a potential strike. “After COVID, we really wanted to see some respect from the company.” Other employer-union contract battles have emerged since 2022 as a flood of existing agreements have approached their expiration dates. These include talks on deals covering U.S. West Coast dockworkers, rail workers, FedEx Express pilots, TForce Freight workers, Sysco drivers, Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems and railroad equipment manufacturer Wabtec. The timing of these negotiations generally favors labor unions, according to Todd Vachon, an assistant professor at Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations. Despite challenges with inflation, the U.S. economy As mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency, all diesel-powered trucks must use DEF to reduce emissions. The engine mixes it with the fuel from a separate reservoir. Jet fuel trucks also have another reservoir for fuel system icing inhibitor (FSII), also known as PRIST.