UPS Workers Secure 5-Year Contract Approval, Resolving Tense Negotiations and Delivery Concerns

The 340,000 UPS employees’ union said on Tuesday that its members had approved the tentative contract agreement agreed last month, bringing an end to bitter labor disputes that had threatened to stymie package delivery to millions of businesses and families throughout the country.

86% of ballots cast, according to a statement from the Teamsters, were in favor of ratifying the federal labor agreement. They added that it was approved with the greatest margin of victory for a contract in UPS Teamsters history.

The union claimed that over 40 supplemental agreements had also been approved, with the exception of one that applied to about 170 members in Florida. As soon as that addendum is revised and approved, the national master agreement will take effect, it stated.

The business, which has cut its full-year sales projections by $4 billion, had previously stated that it anticipated new negotiations to begin if members rejected the offer. Yet, that result might have also left room for a strike with the potential to create significant disruption.

Full- and part-time union employees will receive $2.75 more per hour and $7.50 more overall by the end of the five-year contract under the tentative deal. Part-time workers’ starting hourly compensation was also increased to $21, but several employees claimed that wasn’t enough to live up to their expectations.

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UPS Driver Compensation Reaches New Highs

According to UPS, the average full-time UPS driver will earn nearly $170,000 annually in compensation and benefits by the end of the current contract. It’s unclear what percentage of that total benefits makeup.

In the run-up to the agreement, union members, who claim union leadership pushed them into a contract five years prior, claimed they shouldered the burden of UPS’s more than 140% profit gain as the epidemic increased delivery demand. Workers that are unionized stated that they wanted to fix the contract because it was flawed.

According to the international shipping and logistics company Pitney Bowes, the 24 million parcels that UPS ships every day make up nearly a fourth of the total volume of shipments sent within the United States. According to UPS, that equates to nearly 6% of the country’s GDP.

In a time of low union membership in the United States, labor analysts claim they regard the confrontation as a display of labor power. Hollywood authors and actresses have been picketing this summer in protest of salary concerns. The United Auto Workers are debating going on strike.

President Joseph Biden, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, business organizations, and labor leaders all praised the agreement.

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Source: ABC News