Teamsters ratify UPS agreement
The Teamsters voted to ratify “the most historic collective bargaining agreement in the history of UPS,” according to a Teamsters news release.
Passed by an 86.3% vote, the five-year agreement affects more than 340,000 UPS Teamsters across the nation. The agreement passed by the highest vote for a contract in the history of the Teamsters at UPS.
Some features of the 2023-28 UPS Teamsters National Master Agreement include:
- Wage increases. Existing full- and part-time UPS Teamsters will get $2.75 more per hour in 2023. Over the length of the contract, wage increases will total $7.50 per hour.
- Existing part-timers will be raised to no less than $21 per hour immediately, and part-time seniority workers earning more under a market-rate adjustment will still receive all new general wage increases.
- General wage increases for part-time workers will be double the amount obtained in the previous UPS Teamsters contract. Existing part-time workers will receive a 48% average total wage increase over the next five years.
- 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.
- Current UPS Teamsters working part-time will receive longevity wage increases of up to $1.50 per hour on top of new hourly raises, compounding their earnings.
- New part-time hires at UPS will start at $21 per hour and advance to $23 per hour.
- Safety and health protections, including vehicle air conditioning and cargo ventilation. UPS will equip in-cab A/C in all larger delivery vehicles, sprinter vans and package cars purchased after Jan. 1, 2024. Two fans, heat exhaust shields and air induction vents in the cargo compartments will be retrofitted into all cars.
- All UPS Teamsters will receive Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a full holiday for the first time.
- No more forced overtime on Teamster drivers’ days off. Drivers will keep one of two workweek schedules and cannot be forced into overtime on scheduled off-days.
- UPS Teamster part-timers will have priority to perform all seasonal support work using their own vehicles with a locked-in eight-hour guarantee. For the first time, seasonal work will be contained to five weeks only from November through December.
- The creation of 7,500 new full-time Teamster jobs at UPS and the fulfillment of 22,500 open positions, establishing more opportunities through the life of the agreement for part-timers to transition to full-time work.
“Our members just ratified the most lucrative agreement the Teamsters have ever negotiated at UPS,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement. “This contract will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers. Teamsters have set a new standard and raised the bar for pay, benefits and working conditions in the package delivery industry. This is the template for how workers should be paid and protected nationwide, and nonunion companies like Amazon better pay attention.”
The UPS Teamsters National Master Agreement is the single largest private-sector collective bargaining agreement in North America, according to the Teamsters. LL
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