The head of the Teamsters union said that he asked the White House to not intervene in a potential strike of unionized UPS workers.

During a July 16 webcast with union members, Teamsters president Sean O’Brien said that he asked the White House to stay away on numerous occasions, according to the Associated Press.

“My neighborhood where I grew up in Boston if two people had a disagreement and you had nothing to do with it — you just kept walking,” O’Brien said. “We don’t need anybody getting involved in this fight.”

Prior to the webcast, UPS said that it would begin training non-union employees in the U.S. to step in and make sure operations continue if a strike were to take place. The company said that the training initiative is only a temporary plan that will have no impact on the organization’s current performance.

“While we have made great progress and are close to reaching an agreement, we have a responsibility as an essential service provider to take steps to help ensure we can deliver our customers’ packages if the Teamsters choose to strike,” UPS said.

Negotiations between UPS and the union representing 340,000 UPS workers have been at a standstill recently with the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire at the end of July 2023. The Teamsters union has threatened to go on strike if a new deal is not reached before the July 31 deadline.