UPS and IBT reach agreement: After several months of negotiating, UPS and International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) have reached a new agreement just in time for the July 31 deadline of their current contract. The five-year agreement, which will go into effect on August 1, 2018, will cover the Teamsters employees that work for UPS. Negotiations will continue on a few supplemental agreements for local work, and a separate agreement that covers 11,000 UPS Freight Teamsters employees.
During the negotiations, UPS stressed the need to remain flexible in order to service its customers, while ensuring employees were properly compensated for their contribution to the success of the company.
According to the IBT website, the new contract will raise the minimum wage for part-time workers from $10 to $13 starting August 1, with another raise to $15.50 to go into effect by August 1, 2022. Full-time workers will see increases of $4.15 more per hour, spread out over five years. A newly-created full-time combination driver position, with a starting rate of $20.50 per hour and capping at $34.79 per hour, will resolve the issues of the much-debated Saturday and Sunday delivery, excessive overtime, and time off. In addition, the negotiations have resulted in increases in contributions to pension benefits for part-time and full-time IBT employees.
For more details on the agreement see this article on the IBT website:
Teamsters UPS National Negotiating Committee Reaches Settlement in Principle on National Master UPS Agreement
Also, from the article:
There is a meeting scheduled for July 9–12 for any Supplemental Agreements to the NMA that remain unresolved. As of this update, there are several supplements that need to be finalized.
Once these Supplements are resolved there will be a meeting of all local unions known as the “two-person committee” (two officers and/or agents from each Local Union representing UPS) to review the tentative agreement.
The specific language on all proposed changes to the NMA and the supplements will then be sent to the membership for review and vote. Voting will be by electronic balloting, using the same procedure as the strike authorization vote. Members should also take the time to review the previous nine weekly updates for information on non-economic language improvements.
“I am confident that once the membership has reviewed and understood the changes, they will see that this agreement is among the very best ever negotiated for UPS members,” said Denis Taylor, co-chairman of the Teamsters UPS National Negotiating committee. “I realize that the membership is anxious to see the improvements, but as I explained at the beginning of this process, the specifics must be held until the Supplements have been settled and the entire proposed contract has been reviewed by the two-person committee.”
While the contract is still subject to a vote by members, UPS feels they are now set to better serve the ever-changing delivery industry with the new agreement.
