The econ 101 explanation of how wages and benefits work goes something like this: when times are tough and companies are losing money, they have to limit workers’ compensation and hire less. When they’re flush with cash, companies bump up workers’ pay and hire more.

We should all be rooting for high profits and bull markets, since those are the conditions that lead to the invisible hand delivering better conditions for workers. Yet for some reason, that hand is nowhere to be found at United Parcel Service (UPS).

Dave Jamieson has an excellent piece in the Huffington Post on the proposed new union contract for UPS drivers. The contract (which is at the tentative agreement (TA) stage between UPS and the Teamsters, meaning that they are close to sending it to the union’s membership for approval), will cover more than a quarter million workers. It’s a massive workforce for one of the most important logistics companies in the United States and the world, so what’s in the contract matters a lot.