COMP NEWS – Teamsters, UPS’s largest union, have reached a last-minute agreement that will avert an impending strike.
After months of negotiations, strike threats and walkout talks, UPS and Teamsters, the union representing 340,000 UPS workers, have reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year labor contract.
The agreement avoided what would have been the largest single employer strike in U.S. history and came after the groups resumed talks earlier this week.
The five-year agreement covers U.S. Teamsters-represented employees in small-package roles and is subject to voting and ratification by union members, Jim Mayer, a UPS spokesperson, told the Courier Journal. Ratifying the contract could take about three weeks, according to previous statements from O’Brien, and Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman.
Some of the major wins for workers include pay raises, extra holidays, and guaranteed air conditioning for delivery vehicles.
After months of negotiations, the sides agreed to a new tentative five-year contract that the Teamsters said was “overwhelmingly lucrative,” securing over 60 changes and improvements — more than any in the union’s history — with no concessions from rank-and-file workers.
Big wins include part-time pay rising to $21 per hour (current part-time workers will see an immediate pay bump) and an across-the-board hourly raise of $2.75 this year and $7.50 over the contract period, according to a Teamsters news release.
UPS did not immediately detail the contents of the tentative agreement Tuesday.
The Teamsters had demanded, and now secured, the end of a two-tier wage system it had said was unfair for drivers who weren’t classified as full-time.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day will also now be a holiday for union members.
UPS also committed to adding air conditioning to delivery vehicles purchased starting next year. The shipping and logistics giant also agreed to add 7,500 union jobs and fill 22,500 open positions.
To read more about the tentative agreement between UPS and Teamsters, click here.
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