Teamsters Score “Historic” Agreement With UPS To Avoid Strike
Peter White
Tue, July 25, 2023
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has landed a “historic” tentative agreement with UPS to avert a major labor strike.
The Teamsters, who have been in solidarity with the striking writers and actors for the last few months, have secured a deal for its more than 340,000 UPS employees that includes “lucrative” contract raises for all workers, creates more full-time jobs and includes a slew of other workplace protections and improvements.
More from Deadline
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The five-year agreement still needs to be ratified but comes with the unanimous endorsement of the UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee.
In fact, Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien told Deadline last week that UPS had called him to talk after he and many of his members turned up to an Amazon picket line for the WGA and SAG-AFTRA that followed their own multi-union rally for UPS drivers in DTLA.
O’Brien said that the delivery company has put $30B of “new money” on the table as a direct result of the negotiations.
The deal includes existing full- and part-time UPS Teamsters getting $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more per hour over the length of the contract, existing part-timers will be raised up to no less than $21 per hour immediately, safety and health protections, including vehicle air conditioning and cargo ventilation, all UPS Teamsters would receive Martin Luther King Day as a full holiday for the first time and the creation of 7,500 new full-time Teamster jobs at UPS and the fulfillment of 22,500 open positions, establishing more opportunities through the life of the agreement for part-timers to transition to full-time work.
“Rank-and-file UPS Teamsters sacrificed everything to get this country through a pandemic and enabled UPS to reap record-setting profits. Teamster labor moves America. 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 Teamsters General President Sean M. 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.”
“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 Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman. “We stayed focused on our members and fought like hell to get everything that full-time and part-time UPS Teamsters deserve.”
“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 Carol Tomé, UPS chief executive officer. “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.”
Peter White
Tue, July 25, 2023
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has landed a “historic” tentative agreement with UPS to avert a major labor strike.
The Teamsters, who have been in solidarity with the striking writers and actors for the last few months, have secured a deal for its more than 340,000 UPS employees that includes “lucrative” contract raises for all workers, creates more full-time jobs and includes a slew of other workplace protections and improvements.
More from Deadline
Teamsters Leaders Slam Hollywood & Wall Street At Amazon Picket Line: “They Don’t Care About People”
Documentary In The Works About UPS And Its Union Workers As Company Braces For Potentially Devastating Strike
Strike Solidarity: WGA Turns Out For Teamsters Picket Line At Amazon In Santa Clarita
The five-year agreement still needs to be ratified but comes with the unanimous endorsement of the UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee.
In fact, Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien told Deadline last week that UPS had called him to talk after he and many of his members turned up to an Amazon picket line for the WGA and SAG-AFTRA that followed their own multi-union rally for UPS drivers in DTLA.
O’Brien said that the delivery company has put $30B of “new money” on the table as a direct result of the negotiations.
The deal includes existing full- and part-time UPS Teamsters getting $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more per hour over the length of the contract, existing part-timers will be raised up to no less than $21 per hour immediately, safety and health protections, including vehicle air conditioning and cargo ventilation, all UPS Teamsters would receive Martin Luther King Day as a full holiday for the first time and the creation of 7,500 new full-time Teamster jobs at UPS and the fulfillment of 22,500 open positions, establishing more opportunities through the life of the agreement for part-timers to transition to full-time work.
“Rank-and-file UPS Teamsters sacrificed everything to get this country through a pandemic and enabled UPS to reap record-setting profits. Teamster labor moves America. 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 Teamsters General President Sean M. 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.”
“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 Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman. “We stayed focused on our members and fought like hell to get everything that full-time and part-time UPS Teamsters deserve.”
“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 Carol Tomé, UPS chief executive officer. “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.”
Olivia Evans and Matthew Glowicki, Louisville Courier Journal
Tue, July 25, 2023
LOUISVILLE, Ky. − Just hours after resuming talks Tuesday, UPS and the Teamsters, the union representing roughly 340,000 UPS workers, have reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract.
This tentative contract consensus between the union and the company, which UPS CEO Carol Tomé described as a "win-win-win agreement," helped the company and the U.S. economy avoid a potentially crippling blow to the nation’s logistics network.
The tentative agreement features "more than 60 total changes and improvements to the National Master Agreement," Teamsters stated in a release. The union said there were "zero concessions from the rank-and-file."
The tentative agreement comes after months of intense negotiations and Teamsters threatening to enact what would have been the largest single employer strike in U.S. history.
What Teamsters, UPS are saying
"Teamster labor moves America. 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 International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien.
UPS is also enamored with the tentative agreement.
"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,” Tomé said.
Teamsters hailed the tentative five-year contract as “overwhelmingly lucrative” and filled with dozens of workplace protections and improvements. Here are some of the highlights for union workers from the new national UPS Teamsters contract:
Wage increases for UPS employees
UPS workers rallied in front of the UPS Centennial Hub ahead of a potential strike on Aug. 1 on July 18. The strike has been averted.
Existing full- and part-time UPS Teamsters will get $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more per hour over the length of the contract, Teamsters shared in a news release.
Existing part-timers will be raised up to no less than $21 per hour immediately. Existing part-time workers will also receive a 48% average total wage increase over the next five years. Part-time seniority workers making more than this new base rate will also see general wage increases.
New part-time employees will start at $21 per hour and move up to $23 hourly.
Teamsters shared that part-time general wage increases will be double what they were in the previous contract. The 2022 general wage increase was $1 according to the previous national contract, under the new tentative agreement, this rate would jump to $2.
Wage bumps for full-time employees will bring the average top rate to $49 hourly.
Driver classification changes
Fred Zuckerman, General Secretary-Treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, talked to UPS workers at rally on July 18 at UPS Worldport ahead of a potential strike on Aug. 1.
Drivers classified as “22.4s” − flexible drivers who do not work traditional Monday-Friday shifts − will be immediately reclassified as regular package car drivers and placed into seniority, ending what Teamsters said was an “unfair two-tier wage system.”
Days off and seasonal work
A UPS driver reaches to blow his truck's horn in support as fellow UPS union members hold a practice strike outside Worldport, the largest sorting and logistics facility in America on June 28 in Louisville, Ky. The Teamsters Local 89 represents around 10,000 members in Louisville. Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien called for practice pickets nationwide after claiming UPS presented an "appalling economic counterproposal" to the Teamsters during national negotiations for a new labor contract.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day becomes a full holiday for all Teamsters, a first for the union. Also, Teamster drivers won’t be forced to work overtime on their days off and will have a set driving schedule of one of two options.
Seasonal work will be limited to five weeks in November and December. Union part-time employees will have priority for seasonal work with a guaranteed eight hours of work.
Heat safety in vehicles
UPS worker Chris Wallace, right, waves at drivers as he and members of Teamsters Local 89 began a practice strike outside Worldport, the largest sorting and logistics facility in America on June 28 in Louisville, Ky. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says UPS presented "an appalling economic counterproposal" during national negotiations for a new labor contract.
UPS will add air conditioning to all larger delivery vehicles, sprinter vans and package cars purchased after Jan. 1, 2024. All cars will get two fans and air induction vents.
UPS to add more jobs, fill open positions
UPS will add 7,500 new union jobs and fill 22,500 open positions.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What's in UPS, Teamsters tentative contract? Here's what workers get
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