We can see that part-timers' low wages and brutal jobs were part of the many retreats of the Teamsters from the 1980s onward. The 1982 Teamster-UPS National Master contract cut start pay for part time wages by four dollars to $8.00 an hour. It remained at $8 or $8.50 an hour for the next three decades. As I wrote in my book The Package King: A Rank and File History of UPS, “The ‘savings’ in part-timers’ wages was an important factor in subsidizing the company’s massive expansion.”
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