United Parcel Service Inc. investors will wait longer than usual to hear from Chief Executive Officer Carol Tomé this quarter as the company works to avoid a harmful worker strike.
(Bloomberg) — United Parcel Service Inc. investors will wait longer than usual to hear from Chief Executive Officer Carol Tomé this quarter as the company works to avoid a harmful worker strike.
The courier plans to report financial results for the second quarter on Aug. 8, the latest date it has ever posted midyear earnings. Since going public in 1999, UPS has released the report in the last week of July or earlier.
UPS is negotiating a new five-year labor agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters before the current contract expires at the end of this month. The talks have become contentious, with the union, which represents about 340,000 UPS workers, threatening a strike on Aug. 1 if a deal isn’t reached.
The company didn’t say whether labor talks were a factor in the late earnings date.
The biggest sticking point in the negotiations is around part-time wages, which under the current contract start at $15.50 an hour plus health and pension benefits. That part-time starting pay has increased to $16.20 an hour to match new federal minimum wage requirements for government contractors, according to the company.
Tomé said on an earnings conference call in April that she was confident a deal would be reached. If that doesn’t happen by July 31, a strike could halt about 19 million packages daily that analysts expect UPS to deliver in the US during the third quarter. The last time UPS workers went on strike was in 1997.
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