Teamsters, the union for the country’s largest delivery service, voted 97% in favor of a strike to start August 1 if no agreement can be reached. Conversations and contracts are in motion now between UPS and the union, making this the largest private-sector collective bargaining agreement in North America, with more than 350,000 union members working together.

But what would a strike mean for rural America? Already underserved, FedEx and USPS could not absorb the roughly 24 million packages UPS ships per day. UPS announced in early 2020 it was adding 1,500 Package Express Centers in rural cities and towns. The Access Points increased UPS services to more than 22,000 locations.

Read more on the UPS strike here and its impact on rural Americans here.