(NewsNation) — UPS and the union representing more than 300,000 of its employees have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement, potentially averting a strike, the company announced Tuesday.
Tuesday marked the first that UPS and the Teamsters had returned to the table after contentious negotiations broke down earlier this month over part-time employee wages.
“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,” UPS CEO Carol Tomé said 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.”
The Teamsters on Twitter also lauded what they called a “historic” contract that raises wages, creates more full-time jobs, and “includes dozens of workplace protections and improvements.”
Teamsters’ National Negotiating Committee unanimously endorsed the tentative five-year deal.
“The union went into this fight committed to winning for our members. We demanded the best contract in the history of UPS, & we got it,” Teamsters General Pres. Sean M. O’Brien said. “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,” O’Brien added. “This contract sets a new standard in the labor movement and raises the bar for all workers.”
The union in a news release detailed a number of provisions part of the potential contract, including:
- Existing full- and part-time union members getting $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more per hour over the five-year contract
- New part-time hires at UPS starting at $21 per hour, and advancing to $23 per hour
- Vehicle air conditioning
- Cargo Ventilation
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a full holiday
- Drivers cannot be forced into overtime on scheduled off days — they would keep one of two workweek schedules
- Seasonal work to be five weeks only from November-December, with Teamster part-timers getting priority to perform all seasonal support work using their own vehicles and a locked-in, eight-hour guarantee
- 7,500 new full-time Teamster jobs at UPS and the fulfillment of 22,500 open positions
Representatives from the 176 Teamster locals in the United States and Puerto Rico are set to review the agreement on July 31, with member voting beginning Aug. 3 and ending Aug. 22.
UPS profits grew more than 140% since its last contract was signed. This was spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to more Americans using delivery services to get good they needed.
The company ships about 24 million packages on an average day — which amounts to a quarter of all U.S. parcel volume, global shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes says. According to UPS, that’s about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product.
Because of this, logistics experts had warned that other shipping companies, even combined, would not have been able to handle the packages coming their way during a UPS work stoppage.
The Retail Industry Leaders Association, after the deal was announced, called the tentative pact “an enormous relief to retailers, who have been navigating the possibility of a strike and the associated uncertainty for weeks.”
“We’ve learned all too well over the last several years the impact supply chain disruptions can have,” the group said in a statement. ”We’re grateful that this challenge, which would have had a price tag in the billions of dollars and a long runway for recovery, was avoided.”
President Joe Biden called the agreement a “testament to the power of employers and employees coming together to work out their differences at the bargaining table.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
