The Teamsters union and United Parcel Service are beginning talks this week on the largest collective bargaining agreement in the U.S. as labor tensions are high and package-delivery demand is faltering. Part-timers and weekend drivers are expected to be among the key points of debate in the talks, the WSJ’s Esther Fung reports, with UPS looking for more flexibility from its workforce to meet customer demands for more delivery options. The new UPS contract will map out the delivery giant’s cost structure at a time when the parcel market is changing after three years of pandemic-driven upheaval. Online sales have pulled back in recent months, but e-commerce orders that are more costly to deliver remain a strong market driver. Teamsters leaders say they realize the significance of the next UPS contract, which is expected to cover about 330,000 employees in a five-year deal that will go through 2028.

• Unionized pilots at FedEx Express plan to start strike authorization balloting today. (Air Cargo News)

The U.S. and its allies are grappling with how to pare their economic relationships with China to limit ties in certain sectors while preserving broader trade and investment flows with the world’s second-largest economy. The efforts are aimed at resetting supply chains in areas they view as strategic, the WSJ’s Andrew Duehren and Greg Ip write, and to ease concerns that China could cut off the supply of key exports in the event of a conflict or another pandemic. That concern has grown since Russia has throttled its natural-gas exports following the invasion of Ukraine. The efforts to address China ties advanced last week when the Group of Seven advanced democracies agreed to new initiatives to bolster supply chains. They’re undertaking a balancing act, with the allies looking to enhance the security of supplies while trying to avoid dividing the world into separate trade blocs based on geopolitical interests.

• China’s economy rebounded from Covid lockdowns with 4.5% growth in the first quarter over the same period a year ago. (WSJ)
• Germany will press for a trade agreement between the European Union and Indonesia in an effort to reduce reliance on China for crucial raw materials. (Associated Press)

The parking fees are adding up in Toronto. A stranded Russian Antonov An-124 freighter has piled up more than $330,000 in charges while sitting at Canada’s Toronto Pearson Airport, the WSJ’s Vipal Monga reports, in a stark sign of the holding pattern that sanctions on Moscow have imposed on Russia’s international aviation business. The behemoth is one of several owned by Russian airline Volga-Dnepr, which was hit by restrictions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine last year. The An-124 has a unique niche in air cargo, with its hulking frame serving the project cargo market for oversized shipments like satellites and wind turbines. A handful are flying for United Arab Emirates-based Maximus Air and Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines, but some remain grounded at Western airports. Canada won’t even grant permission for Volga-Dnepr mechanics to service the aircraft, which one aviation attorney says is “going to become a giant paperweight.”

• Air France and Airbus were cleared of charges over the 2009 crash of a flight from Brazil that killed all 228 people on board. (WSJ)

First-quarter profit at J.B. Hunt Transport Services dropped 18% to $198 million as truckload revenue per mile fell 17%. (Dow Jones Newswires)

David’s Bridal filed for bankruptcy and plans to shut down all its stores if it doesn’t quickly find a buyer for the country’s largest bridal retail business. (WSJ)

Companies are increasingly creating new C-suite roles with a focus on data, analytics or artificial intelligence. (WSJ)

The U.S. will limit tax breaks for buyers of electric cars to those purchasing American brands. (WSJ)

Thailand and Indonesia have become two of the hottest Asian destinations for investment in electric-vehicles supply chains. (Nikkei Asia)

Chinese EV maker Xpeng plans to fine-tune designs and enhance efficiency to cut production costs by 25%. (South China Morning Post)

Truckers in a survey say they believe a rough patch for demand and freight rates may have bottomed out. (Bloomberg)

Environmental regulators will hold a hearing May 2-3 on proposed new emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks. (Commercial Carrier Journal)

Container shipping lines led by Mediterranean Shipping and CMA CGM are scouring charter and secondhand markets for capacity to boost their market share. (The Loadstar)

The orderbook for liquefied natural gas carriers has reached 50% of the existing fleet. (Splash 247)

Container exports through Port Houston expanded 26% in the first quarter over last year. (DC Velocity)

A failure of Kenya’s electronic customs portal left cargo stranded at the Port of Mombasa. (Maritime Executive)

The WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum on May 9 will include an interview with Matthew Axelrod, assistant secretary for export enforcement at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, and the official leading efforts to enforce export controls on Russia and China. You can register here.
 

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @bylizyoung and @pdberger. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.