(RepublicanPress.org) – On July 25, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, aka the Teamsters Union, reached a tentative agreement with officials from the United Parcel Service (UPS). The labor group’s National Negotiating Committee voted unanimously to endorse the proposed five-year contract to create additional full-time jobs and raise wages for workers nationwide.
Six days later, the Teamster’s local unions followed suit and endorsed the proposal by a vote of 161 to 1 and recommended its passage by the organization’s roughly 340,000 members. Only 14 of the Teamster Union’s 176 local chapters didn’t attend the Washington, DC, meeting to vote on the issue.
The organization recently announced it finally approved the tentative agreement.
Teamsters Union Reached Historic Agreement With UPS
On August 22, the Teamsters Union issued a press release announcing its full membership passed the agreement. “[A]n overwhelming 86.3%” of its members voted to approve the measure. The statement noted that members agreed to pass it by the highest vote percentage for a contract in the union’s history of representing UPS workers.
Likewise, the Teamsters reported that the new five-year contract represented the “most historic collective bargaining agreement” since UPS’ launch as the American Messenger Company in 1907.
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien stressed that the union’s members “ratified the most lucrative agreement… ever negotiated [with] UPS.” He also noted that the union “set a new standard and raised the bar” for the delivery industry’s working conditions, benefits, and compensation nationwide.
Fred Zuckerman, the organization’s general secretary-treasurer, echoed that sentiment. He said the agreement was the “richest national contract” he’d seen in his 40+ years representing Teamsters members working for UPS.
Highlights From the UPS Teamsters Negotiated Agreement
The approved contract included several important measures benefitting workers. UPS agreed to:
- Create 7,500 new full-time jobs and establish increased opportunities for part-timers;
- Increase wages for full-timers to an average top rate of $49 per hour, guaranteeing them the nation’s highest pay for delivery drivers;
- Hire part-time workers at $21 per hour and advance them to $23/hour;
- Give full and part-time UPS Teamsters $2.75 per hour with wage increases totaling $750/hour over the contract’s five-year term;
- Increase existing part-timers’ wages by an average of 48% over the next five years, roughly double the amount negotiated in the last UPS Teamsters contract, and;
- Increase health and safety protections, including cargo ventilation and vehicle air conditioning. All larger delivery vehicles, package cars, and sprinter vans will have in-cab A/C units installed by January 1, 2024.
There is one slight delay regarding the measure. Although Teamster and UPS officials agreed to 44 supplemental agreements as part of the package, the one covering the 174 members of Florida’s Local 769 Chapter remains unresolved. Once the two sides agree to terms, the “Respective UPS Teamsters in-person” will vote on the measure. Once that happens, the national master agreement will immediately go into effect.
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