Logistics’ Two Fronts - Jacobin
The modern economy revolves around the sprawling logistics industry. Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the current situation at Amazon and UPS. If Amazon makes good on its recent pledge, it will add another 100,000 workers to its US workforce by 2018, making it one of the country’s largest — and one of the largest nonunion — employers.
The US labor movement faces several existential threats right now, but Amazon’s is a special kind. The company’s breakneck expansion has revolutionized the logistics industry. Its impact is most deeply felt at United Parcel Service (UPS), the country’s largest private-sector, unionized employer, with nearly 250,000 of its workers represented by the Teamsters.
The modern economy revolves around the sprawling logistics industry. Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the current situation at Amazon and UPS. If Amazon makes good on its recent pledge, it will add another 100,000 workers to its US workforce by 2018, making it one of the country’s largest — and one of the largest nonunion — employers.
The US labor movement faces several existential threats right now, but Amazon’s is a special kind. The company’s breakneck expansion has revolutionized the logistics industry. Its impact is most deeply felt at United Parcel Service (UPS), the country’s largest private-sector, unionized employer, with nearly 250,000 of its workers represented by the Teamsters.
