Dear Commons Community,
UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have reached a deal on a new labor contract to avert a massive strike.
The two sides announced the tentative agreement for a new five-year contract Monday night, just a week before the union’s strike deadline.
The Teamsters union said the new contract deal comes with higher wages, more full-time jobs and workplace protections. As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Rank-and-file UPS Teamsters sacrificed everything to get this country through a pandemic and enabled UPS to reap record-setting profits,” said Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a written statement. “UPS has put $30 billion in new money on the table as a direct result of these negotiations.”
UPS CEO Carol Tomé issued a statement saying “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.”
“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.
The Teamsters labor contract extends through July 31, and the union had threatened to strike Aug. 1 if it did not have a new contract agreement by that time.
Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman said in a written statement that UPS “came dangerously close” to a strike, “but we kept firm on our demands.”
The Teamsters have more than 340,000 members at UPS, making it the largest private collective bargaining agreement in North America. A strike would have crippled shipping across the country, affect millions of deliveries a day and damage UPS’s reputation with customers.
The next step is for the union’s 176 local leaders to meet July 31 to review the tentative agreement. If the recommend it for a ratification vote, UPS rank-and-file members will vote on the deal Aug. 3-22.
O’Brien has worked to maintain unity among members on the UPS negotiations, after years past in which the the Teamsters had divided into factions.
The Teamsters union had previously announced tentative agreements on a number of terms during negotiations that started in April, including equipping new trucks with air conditioning, ending a two-tier pay system, stopping required overtime on a day they aren’t scheduled to work and establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a full holiday.
Last month, the union’s members voted to authorize a strike in the event that negotiations fail to reach an agreement. Union leaders then ratcheted up pressure in the negotiations, pushing for faster progress in the talks.
UPS has been losing some business to competitors, including FedEx, as customers worried about how they would move their goods if there is a strike.
Tomé also said in April that the company had a pipeline of potential business worth more than $6 billion, but that it was “hard to sell into… because of that Teamsters negotiation.”
“But we are going to go hard at it once we have that handshake deal,” Tomé said. “We’ve got to win faster, and we will win faster when the uncertainty is behind us” of the Teamsters negotiations.
Congratulations to both sides for reaching an agreement and averting disruption to services in the country.
Tony
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