When last we saw our protagonists, both sides had stormed out of contract negotiations in a huff.

…UPS was making hopeful noises and the Teamsters’ head, Sean O’ Brien, was growling through clenched teeth.

The extra time got them nowhere. Both parties walked out, with each side waggling accusing fingers of “THEY did it!” at the other fellows as they stalked off.

In the meantime, the much smaller freight company the Teamsters are using to flex their muscle on (so UPS would be properly impressed that they meant business), Yellow, wasn’t looking so great over the weekend. They lost an attempt to avert a strike in court.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ruled Friday against less-than-truckload carrier Yellow Corp.’s request for an injunction, which would have kept its Teamsters employees from engaging in a work stoppage.

In her decision, Senior Judge Julie Robinson denied a motion for a temporary restraining order and injunction.

The decision allows the union to carry through with a planned strike, which could begin as soon as Monday. The final straw prompting the strike was Yellow’s missed benefits contribution payment to Central States Funds last week, which will leave workers without health insurance on Sunday.

The two parties have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over operational changes for the last nine months. The carrier has maintained that without the changes it wouldn’t survive while the union took the stance that it had given enough in the past in the form of wages, benefits and work rules concessions.

Yellow had also missed a $50M benefits contribution payment last week, which sent the Teamsters through the roof.

…The final straw prompting the strike was Yellow’s missed benefits contribution payment to Central States Funds last week, which will leave workers without health insurance on Sunday.

Central States Funds abruptly threw the Yellow employees out of the fund, and HOLY SMOKES. When a guy who’s worked for the same company for 30 years wakes up and finds out he suddenly has no pension?

STAND. BY. (NSFW language)

Yellow freight worker finds out he no longer has a pension after working for 30 years pic.twitter.com/82ld9CUw4d

— Fight Videos (@FightVideosTV) July 23, 2023

By the strike deadline this morning, it looked as if everyone had blinked. The Teamsters had called off the strike, Yellow was given 30 days to catch up on payments, and Central States Funds had reenrolled the Yellow employees in the pension and benefits funds.

ThIs may only extend Yellow’s life by a few weeks – the company was a precarious position before the Teamsters threatened to strike.

Over the past week, so much freight being pulled due to uncertainty, it’s in a far worse position. That freight is unlikely to come back. https://t.co/Sf59tc0AYI

— Craig Fuller 🛩🚛🚂⚓️ (@FreightAlley) July 23, 2023

But to insiders in the freight industry, it’s just a stay of execution. No one is going to ship with Yellow after this.

U.S. trucking firm Yellow (YELL.O) averted a threatened strike by 22,000 Teamsters-represented workers on Sunday, saying the company will pay the more than $50 million it owed in worker benefits and pension accruals.

“Agreement by the Central States at the urging of the Teamsters gives Yellow 30 days to pay its bills with the understanding the company will do so within the next two weeks,” Teamsters union said on Sunday.

Yellow is the third-biggest U.S. trucking company specializing in the less-than-truckload segment that combines shipments from different customers in the same trailer.

Its customers include large retailers like Walmart (WMT.N) and Home Depot (HD.N), manufacturers and Uber Freight, some of which have paused cargo shipments to the company for fear those goods could be lost or stranded if the carrier goes bankrupt.

The only thing this really does is allow the Teamsters to pretend they’ve saved the pensions of the people in the company they’ve put out of business. No hard feelings, right?

It sure appears the Teamsters must have been able to get their message through to UPS, because you’ll never guess what’s starting up tomorrow and one of the principles is suddenly in a generous mood.

Logistics major United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) is finally set to resume talks with the Teamsters Union tomorrow, according to Reuters.

…UPS is looking to reach a deal at the earliest and noted that it is ready to hike pay and benefits. The workers’ union, on its part, is seeking higher wages, full-time positions, and increased protections for workers.

People are making arrangements just in case this turns into a $7B snafu of epic proportions.

A potential UPS strike could have an impact on Veterans who get their prescriptions filled through SFVAHCS.

VA is doing all it can to mitigate delivery interruptions in the event of a strike.

Here is a list of actions to ensure prescriptions are delivered in a timely manner: pic.twitter.com/u8LrxFEj7B

— VA San Francisco (@SFVAMC) July 24, 2023

Interested parties are even calling for White House involvement. Good luck with that…

Wow, the US Chamber of Commerce is so concerned about what a looming UPS strike might do to their bottom lines that they’ve asked the White House to help!

Not a whiff of a concern for the UPS workers involved or their demands for better pay, of course…. pic.twitter.com/sYDGipcPnZ

— Patriotic Millionaires (@PatrioticMills) July 24, 2023

…as the guys calling Biden’s shots have asked him to stay out of it.

Teamsters president says he’s asked the White House not to intervene if UPS workers go on strike https://t.co/ZFjjXDwnQA

— POLITICO (@politico) July 17, 2023

We’ll see how tomorrow goes.