BrownCafe

Citi upgraded UPS to ‘buy.’

Shares of United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) were up 0.6% to $112.53 in morning trading Tuesday after analysts at Citigroup upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral” due to a bullish outlook on the company’s holiday season surcharges.

UPS announced in June that it will be applying surcharges to residential and large packages shipped during specific weeks in November and December.

On the 20th anniversary of the UPS strike, Lee Sustar looks back on the Teamsters’ tremendous victory and its continuing significance for unions today.

IT WAS a risky strike that was bound to lose. That, at least, was the opinion of the bosses–and more than a few top union officials.

But when some 185,000 Teamsters union members took to the picket lines at United Parcel Service (UPS) on August 4, 1997, Corporate America was stunned, anti-union politicians were caught flat-footed, and working-class people across the U.S. embraced the struggle as their own.

“This isn’t just about money,” Mike, a part-time worker in Chicago, told Socialist Worker in an interview at a picket-line rally two days into the strike. “This is about taking care of your family, yourself, and making a better life for yourself and your family, and sending a message to these corporations that you cannot treat workers in America–and around the world–like this.”

Six workers were treated for respiratory problems on Tuesday after nitric acid leaked from a package at a United Parcel Service distribution facility in southern New Hampshire, a fire official said.

The facility, in Nashua, about 45 miles northwest of Boston, was evacuated following reports of a chemical leak just after 7 a.m. local time, said Nashua Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Karl Gerhard.

Chemical fumes from a package forced temporary evacuation of the facility, UPS said in a written statement. By late morning employees were allowed to return to the facility.