Editor’s Note – We are happy to republish this joint statement by New Day at UPS and New Day at Amazon which provides analysis and resolutions on the need to implement an active and class-conscious electoral boycott, not just for all workers in every sector, but in particular for the workers they organize in the logistics sector.

The total cash on hand for the UPS PAC as of January 1, 2024 was $2,212,437.70. From January 1 to April 30, UPS spent $995,760.04. (Note this does not include individual contributions made by UPS managers acting on their own behalf.) UPS includes among its political priorities: “Support local operational efficiencies and our Network of the Future; Improve surface transportation funding; Lower overall tax burden and secure tax incentives; Promote labor laws and rules that maintain equal treatment of similarly situated workers.” In other words, make the taxpayers pay for the infrastructure UPS uses, make sure labor laws aren’t wielded against UPS by either UPS workers or UPS’ competitors looking to undercut them, plus the usual handout-seeking in the form of “incentives”.

And who has UPS recruited in this endeavor? According to OpenSecrets, none other than Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who are listed as the top two recipients of UPS donations. (Amazon, on the other hand, has donated over a million dollars to the Harris campaign and other Democrat funds according to OpenSecrets, as well as $67k to Donald Trump.) But the relations actually go way deeper than donations. In a press release titled, “Ten Charts That Explain the U.S. Economy in 2023” the Biden administration made the following admission: “The rise and subsequent fall of inflation during the pandemic was overwhelmingly linked to supply-side forces, including the unsnarling of global supply chains and the rise in prime-age labor force participation. Our analysis finds that the unsnarling of supply chains, either by themselves or in tandem with cooling demand, explain 80 percent of the disinflation that has occurred thus far.” Thus the Biden administration has pursued a policy of consolidating (dishonestly framed as “unsnarling”) the logistics industry as a desperate attempt to walk back inflation. They even attribute the vast majority—80%!–of disinflation to consolidating supply chains. At UPS, this policy is called the Network of the Future, at USPS it is called Delivering for America, at Fedex it is Network 2.0. Even Amazon Air recently consolidated. (See Freightwaves, “Amazon concentrates parcel freighters at US air hubs, report says.”) Naturally, this “consolidation” is carried out at the expense of the workers in all of these firms, who will either be laid off or sped up.

The regulatory agencies cannot be counted on to defend the interests of organized labor. The Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board are tools for capitalist intervention in the trade union movement. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has allowed the logistics industry to become one of the most dangerous fields in the country, with Amazon, UPS, and USPS all ranking among the most dangerous companies to work for. OSHA has even deliberately ignored warrants against UPS for heat-related injuries. (See “OSHA’s Dropped UPS Safety Warrants Point to Long-Game Strategy” from Bloomberg Law.)

IF YOU VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS OR DEMOCRATS, YOU ARE OBJECTIVELY SUPPORTING THE POLITICAL PARTIES OF UPS AND AMAZON. The premise of trade-unionism is there is no identity of interests between labor and capital. Voting for UPS and Amazon—whether its done through the Democrats, Republicans, or any third party tailing their industrial policy—is a blatant violation of trade-union consciousness. Trade union consciousness is the understanding that it is necessary to combine in unions, fight the employers on behalf of the wage laborers, and compel the state to pass legal concessions to the workers. The Teamsters support these politicians because they are the enemies of trade-unionism. They are the privateers of the trade union movement employed directly by the state. The only consistent policy of the IBT over the last century is plundering dues money and collaborating with the worst people possible, from the mafia to Nixon. There is no basis whatsoever for believing they can organize the logistics industry or that this organization could serve anyone other than the logistics monopolies. Theoretically, the Teamsters renounce the ultimate aim of the labor movement, the dictatorship of the proletariat (a state governed by the workers for oppressing their class enemies), as well as the main vehicle of the labor movement, the unskilled wage laborers, and the most exploited section of them from the oppressed nations. There is no scientific content whatsoever, in the sense of studying the objective conditions and interests of the workers, to their organizing. Practically, the Teamsters are completely subordinated to the Democratic and Republican parties and through them to the logistics and energy monopolies. Through these political connections flow reactionary ideas of the worst sort, including fascism, national chauvinism, white supremacy, misogyny, transphobia, and homophobia among others.

In contrast to the Teamsters, we put forward the following resolution in the hopes that it might enhance trade union unity and our collective political intelligence, as we struggle to organize economic action against speedups and layoffs:

WHEREAS the interests of labor and capital are irreconcilable;

WHEREAS the Democratic and Republican parties represent the interests of finance and industrial capital;

WHEREAS the electoral college system, restrictions on voter and party registration, and the bureaucratic-military apparatus’ oversight render the elections a sham aimed at redistributing the spoils of American imperialism among participating parties;

BE IT RESOLVED that the workers and their allies boycott the 2024 general election.

Signed,

New Day at UPS

New Day at Amazon