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UPS The International Brotherhood of Teamsters agreed that the workers ratified a massive five-year deal that includes big wage increases and other improvements to work rules and schedules said Tuesday.
According to the union, the deal passed with 86.3% of the vote, the highest contract vote in Teamsters history at UPS.
“Teamsters has set a new standard and raised the bar for pay, benefits and working conditions in the parcel delivery industry. This is the blueprint for how workers should be paid and protected across the country, and non-union companies like Amazon had better watch out for it,” Teamster's General President Sean O'Brien said in a statement.
UPS and the Teamsters union, which represents some 340,000 workers at the delivery giant, reached a tentative agreement last month, narrowly averting a strike that could have impacted the entire US economy when the previous deal was signed on July 31 expired.
According to the US Chamber of Commerce, UPS moves $3.8 billion worth of goods every day, about 5% of the country's gross domestic product.
The parties had until July 31, when the previous employment contract expired, to reach an agreement and avoid a work stoppage. Workers began voting on the new contract on August 2. According to the union, this is the largest collective agreement ever reached in the private sector.
According to the union, part-time workers will earn as much as $21 an hour, up from $15.50 currently. Part-time pay was a sticking point in collective bargaining. Full-time employees pay an average of $49 per hour. Current employees will be paid $2.75 more per hour this year and $7.50 more per hour during the five-year contract.
UPS drivers will earn an average of $170,000 in salary and benefits at the end of the five-year contract, CEO Carol Tomé said on a conference call earlier this month.
The company lowered its full-year revenue and margin guidance, citing the “volume impact of collective bargaining and the costs associated with the tentative agreement.”
The union is the latest union to push a major US company for better wages, hours and other labor rules in the wake of the pandemic and decades of inflation.
On Monday, American Airlines The pilots ratified a four-year deal that includes about 46% higher compensation, including 401(k) contributions, a deal the airline sweetened after the competition United Airlines reached a broader agreement with his pilots' union. Delta Airlines“The pilots approved their deal, which includes more than 30% increases, earlier this year.
Southwest Airlines has yet to reach an agreement with its pilots' union, which has laid the groundwork for a possible strike, even though such shutdowns are exceedingly rare in the airline industry under US law.
FedEx The pilots rejected a tentative agreement on a new employment contract earlier this summer.
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