During Covid, most businesses and many people relied heavily on goods shipped to the office and home via FedEx, Amazon and especially UPS. Just how reliant we’ve become on UPS in particular may soon become evident. This past week, UPS workers voted to authorize the union representing them to go on strike on July 31 if their demands were not met.
One in four parcels shipped in the U.S. is handled by UPS, which process 24 million packages on an average day. The impact of a strike may be far greater than UPS’ last work stoppage in 1997 when its workforce was half the size it is today.
Whatever the outcome of the strike, I hope you take a few minutes for a short article from the American Business History Center to learn the story of UPS from its beginnings as a pre-telephone messenger service in 1907 to the world’s largest transportation company. You’ll meet Jim Casey: The Unknown Entrepreneur Who Built the Great UPS , and why UPS Trucks are brown. (Full disclosure: I ran this story several years ago; but it seems timely to share again, especially for new readers).
