A tentative agreement has been reached between the Teamsters and UPS, affecting about 340,000 workers.
A tentative deal was reached on Tuesday between UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, affecting more than 340,000 of the company’s U.S. employees as part of a proposed five-year contract that could avoid economic catastrophe.
Negotiations have taken place since April, with talks heating up in the past month as the current contract was set to expire July 31. The deal still needs to be voted on.
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien, who previously requested that the White House and members of Congress not intervene in the collective bargaining process, said the proposed deal “changes the game.”
“Rank-and-file UPS Teamsters sacrificed everything to get this country through a pandemic and enabled UPS to reap record-setting profits,” O’Brien said in a statement. “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.”
The new agreement would put $30 billion in “new money” on the table on behalf of UPS workers, he added. The only UPS strike took place in 1997.
Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman said in a statement that this is the most “dramatic” national contract he has ever seen agreed to in his 40-plus years of negotiations.
Here are some details of the tentative agreement:
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.
New part-time hires at UPS would start at $21 per hour and advance to $23 per hour.
Wage increases for full-timers will keep UPS Teamsters the highest-paid delivery drivers in the nation, improving their average top rate to $49 per hour.
General wage increases for part-time workers will be double the amount obtained in the previous UPS Teamsters contract ratified in 2018, while existing part-time workers will receive a 48 percent average total wage increase over the next five years.
