UPS driver James Holden participated in a 15-day walkout by 185,000 workers in 1997, and will participate again until UPS delivers a fair contract to its employees.

East Texan James Holden has been delivering parcels as a UPS driver for 36 years. Holden participated in a 15-day walkout by 185,000 workers in 1997 — and said he will again, if it comes to that.

UPS workers nationwide are prepared to strike unless the company agrees on a five-year Collective Bargaining Agreement before the unionized workers’ contract expires on July 31.

If a strike occurs, it would be the first since 1997.

In the meantime, Teamsters Local 767, a labor union that includes Tyler, Longview, Sulphur Springs and Sherman, held a “practice picket” on Thursday at the UPS facility on Lyons Avenue in Tyler.

“We’re just trying to get the point across. We want the contract to be ratified and to get it over with, and we’ll continue working,” Holden said. “We just want what’s fair and equal.”

UPS negotiators and the union, representing 340,000 of the company’s workers, are at a stalemate, said Scott Sexton, a 39-year UPS employee, union leader and business agent who represents Teamsters Local 767.

According to the Associated Press, the two sides were moving forward until earlier this week when both accused the other of refusing to negotiate.

A union press release said UPS walked away from the bargaining table on Wednesday after presenting an offer that did not address members’ needs, which the UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee unanimously rejected.

The AP reported that UPS said in a prepared statement, “We have not walked away, and the union has a responsibility to remain at the table.”

Regardless, negotiations appear to be at a stalemate as the contract’s end on July 31 approaches.

“Negotiations will start again, I assume, whenever UPS decides to come back with a serious offer,” Sexton said on Thursday. “Being at the table just staring at each other accomplishes nothing. You have to have dialogue. It’s a negotiation, and they want to throw down the gauntlet. Here in Tyler and across the country, you’ll find that the Teamsters at UPS are eager to strike if that is what the company forces.”

The practice picket — one of many being held across the country — is to grow awareness for the issues and show UPS that workers are ready to take a stand, Sexton said. Tyler drivers slowed their vehicles as they drove past the spectacle; some honked their car horns in support, and others stopped to ask questions.

Sexton said UPS made billions of dollars, a record-level profit, last year riding the coattails of the pandemic, and not a single part-time employee received hazard pay.

“They delivered record profits to the company,” Sexton said. “When it’s time to negotiate a contract, we expect a record contract. We’re expecting fair wages for these part-timers. I understand that one of the big hang-ups is that they don’t want to treat these guys fairly.”

Since April, UPS has tentatively agreed to discard the two-tier wage systems for drivers who work weekends and earn less money, establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an entire holiday, ending unwanted overtime on drivers’ days off, and equipping more trucks with air conditioning equipment.

UPS said it would add air conditioning to small delivery vehicles purchased after Jan. 1, 2024. Existing vehicles wouldn’t get that upgrade but will have other additions like two fans and air vents.

“The customers are who we see, they see us…they see brown [shirts], and they’re excited about getting their package,” Holden said. “We’re just trying to get the package safely to the customer and make them happy.”

UPS is a multibillion-dollar corporation that has plenty to give American workers — but they don’t want to, said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien.

“UPS had a choice to make, and they have chosen to go down the wrong road,” O’Brien said in a press release.