Peak season strike risk lifted! UPS's new contract with employees has been approved!

It is learned that according to foreign media reports, the International Teamsters Union, which represents 340,000 UPS employees, said on Tuesday that its members have approved the temporary contract agreement reached with UPS last month, which eliminates the risk of the largest strike in the United States in 60 years.

About 86 percent of voting members approved the contract, the Teamsters union said in a statement, adding that it was the highest percentage of UPS workers supporting a contract in its history.

In addition to the master agreement, UPS also approved more than 40 supplemental agreements. But an agreement involving about 170 Florida union members was not ratified. The Teamsters said the national master agreement will take effect after it is renegotiated and ratified.

"Our members just ratified the most lucrative deal the Teamsters have ever negotiated at UPS," Teamsters President Sean M. O'Brien said in a statement Tuesday. "This contract will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers."

"The new contract improves pay, benefits, and working conditions in the package delivery industry," said M. O'Brien. "It's a template for how workers should be paid and protected nationwide, and e-commerce giants like Amazon would do well to take note."

Fred Zuckerman, secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters union, called the new five-year contract the "richest" he's seen in 40 years.

UPS reached a tentative contract agreement with the Teamsters just days before the August 1 strike after negotiations between the two sides broke down in early July. Voting on the new five-year contract began on August 3 and ended on Tuesday (August 22).

Here are some of the new benefits UPS employees will get under the new contract:

• Both full-time and part-time UPS employees who are union members will see a $2.75 hourly pay increase by 2023.

• UPS's new part-time employees will start at $21 an hour, which will increase to $23 an hour. The wages will increase by $7.50 an hour over the life of the contract.

• Protection measures for truck drivers include installing air conditioning in the trucks and ventilation for cargo.

• For the first time, Martin Luther King Day was designated a full legal holiday.

• There is no forced overtime on rest days.

The agreement also shows that both full-time and part-time employees have received significant wage increases, with the maximum hourly wage for full-time employees rising to $49 per hour. An experienced freight driver will earn about $170,000 in total wages and benefits per year at the end of five years. In addition to the new hourly wage increase, current part-time UPS truck drivers will receive a long-term wage increase of up to $1.50 per hour.

Editor ✎ Nicole/

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