Teamsters at a rally before a tentative agreement was reached between UPS and workers last week. Photograph: ShutterstockDon’t look now but Irish and, indeed, global trade appears to have narrowly avoided potentially significant disruption in the past week.
Workers at United Parcel Service in the US, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, are now voting on the terms of a deal with their employer over pay and conditions that would, if ratified, avert industrial action that could impact about a quarter of the world’s largest economy’s parcel deliveries, a whopping 5 or 6 per cent of US gross domestic product by some estimates.
But businesses and consumers on this side of the pond should perhaps be equally relieved. In the event of a strike, any Irish company connected with the US through the UPS network would face more supply chain ructions not dissimilar to the turmoil that roiled international trade during the first two years of the pandemic when public health restrictions disrupted capacity and shipping costs soared.
Speaking to The Irish Times before a tentative agreement was reached between the union and the company last week, David Warrick, executive vice-president at Irish-founded supply chain company Overhaul, said the prospect of even a brief spell of industrial action could have seriously upset the delicate balance of global freight transport.