Representatives from the United Parcel Service and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union representing 330,000 UPS delivery drivers across the United States, reached a tentative agreement on Tuesday following collective bargaining on several labor rights issues.
This move, according to the Washington Post, is a “crucial step toward averting a nationwide strike slated for Aug. 1, in a victory for organized labor and part-time workers struggling with inflation.”
According to the negotiations page of the UPS website, the union’s current contract, known as the National Master Agreement, is set to expire on Aug. 1. This contract set guidelines for terms of employment including wages, pensions and healthcare as well as working conditions and paid time off.
The new five-year agreement with the Teamsters notably includes pay raises for all UPS employees, a pledge to install air conditioning units in new delivery vans for the first time, a plan for increased wages over the course of the following five years and the elimination of a lower-paid class of delivery driver jobs.
“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 in a statement regarding the news on the UPS website. “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.”
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Tuesday’s agreement comes after over three months of collective bargaining between the Teamsters and UPS.
The union has celebrated the finalized contract on their website and social media profiles, with President Sean O’Brien expressing that the union negotiations have directly influenced UPS to put “$30 billion in new money on the table.”
“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.”
