If you have something that needs to ship via UPS, it’s best to get that out the door within the next two weeks.

Ditto if you want to order a package from Amazon or other online retailers. Order it now.

That’s because the branch of the Teamsters that represents some 340,000 UPS workers has authorized a strike to happen July 31 if the union can’t reach a deal with management.

The exact impact on Northeast Michigan isn’t clear. A local Teamsters representative couldn’t tell News staff writer Temi Fadayomi how many packages ship in and out of the Alpena UPS depot or how many unionized workers UPS has in the Alpena area. Some 4,000 workers are part of the union in the chunk of Michigan that covers Northeast Michigan, the Teamsters official said.

We, like the rest of the country, could expect a delay in packages coming and going. Many businesses rely on UPS for shipping goods into and out of the store, so businesses could feel the pinch, too. Shoppers could find some items missing from local store shelves.

Amazon told USA Today it doesn’t expect a significant impact from a UPS strike because it uses the company less and less and instead has its own delivery network. But some stuff ordered online could come late or not at all.

Still, it’s important to prepare for the strike and to continue to support small local businesses who might be hurt by a lack of deliveries.