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UPS, Teamster union agree on a tentative five-year contract that is likely to avert a strike
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The package includes US$30 billion of new money over the deal’s lifespan
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Union members will vote on the agreement electronically from August 3 to 22
United Parcel Service and its employees’ union have agreed on a tentative deal on pay and several key concessions in a five-year contract that is likely to avert a strike that would cripple package deliveries across the United States and beyond.
The agreement was announced Tuesday, July 25, the first day that UPS and the Teamsters returned to the table after contentious negotiations broke down earlier this month.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represented the UPS union in the negotiations, hailed the agreement as “historic.” The union estimates that the contract includes US$30 billion of new money over its five-year span.
The courier agreed to eliminate a class of drivers who earned less, put air conditioning in new vehicles and allow an additional paid holiday, the union says. But the union’s 340,000 members need to ratify the provisional deal.
UPS and union negotiators had tentatively agreed on several issues in the previous meetings but remained stuck on pay for part-time workers, who comprise more than half of the UPS employees represented by Teamsters.
“Together we reached a win-win-win agreement on the issues that are important to Teamsters leadership, our employees and to UPS and our customers,” said UPS chief executive Carol Tomé in a statement.
“This agreement continues to reward UPS’s full- and part-time employees with industry-leading pay and benefits while retaining the flexibility we need to stay competitive, serve our customers and keep our business strong.”
Teamsters president Sean O’Brien hailed the deal, calling it the best ever wrung from UPS. The labor leader has sought to prove his negotiating skills ahead of talks with other corporate behemoths – including Amazon – reported Bloomberg.
Under the tentative agreement, full- and part-time union workers will get $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more by the end of the five-year contract. The agreement includes a provision to increase starting pay for part-time workers – whom the union says are the most at risk of exploitation – from $16.20 per hour to $21. The average pay for part-timers had been $20.
Teamsters said in a statement on its website that it had reached the most historic tentative deal on pay and other perks for workers in the history of UPS, protecting and rewarding more than 340,000 UPS Teamsters nationwide.
The union said the overwhelmingly lucrative contract raises wages for all workers, creates more full-time jobs, and includes dozens of workplace protections and improvements. It said the UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee unanimously endorsed the five-year tentative agreement.
“The union went into this fight committed to winning for our members. We demanded the best contract in the history of UPS, and we got it,” said O’Brien.
“UPS has put $30 billion in new money on the table as a direct result of these negotiations. We’ve changed the game, battling it out day and night to make sure our members won an agreement that pays strong wages, rewards their labor, and doesn’t require a single concession. This contract sets a new standard in the labor movement and raises the bar for all workers.”
General secretary-treasurer Fred Zuckerman said “UPS came dangerously close to putting itself on strike, but we kept firm on our demands.”
“In my more than 40 years in Louisville representing members at Worldport – the largest UPS hub in the country – I have never seen a national contract that levels the playing field for workers so dramatically as this one. The agreement puts more money in our members’ pockets and establishes a full range of new protections for them on the job,” said Zuckerman.
The new contract has more than 60 total changes and improvements to the National Master Agreement – more than any other time in Teamsters history – and zero concessions from the rank-and-file, Teamsters said. UPS and its union
Representatives of the 176 UPS Teamster locals in the US and Puerto Rico will meet to review and recommend the tentative agreement. Members will vote electronically on the agreement beginning August 3 and ending August 22.
CNN’s senior business reporter Chris Isidore, who’s been covering all the latest developments in ongoing strikes and potential strikes, said in an interview on the station’s “Nightcap” on July 25 that a union vote for the agreement is not yet certain.
“I’m not done watching UPS. The contract still needs to be ratified by the rank-and-file members. That vote is by no means certain,” Isidore told Nightcap’s Elisabeth Buchwald, newly hired economy explainer reporter on CNN.
“There is a lot of anger by some of the rank-and-file Teamsters over the fact a majority voted against the current contract five years ago (that expires on July 31), but it was still put in place. Many feel they weren’t properly compensated for helping UPS make record profits in recent years.”
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