1. UPS CEO Carol Tomé stated in a statement: “We stood together to reach a win-win agreement on an issue that is important to the leadership of the National Teamsters union, UPS employees, UPS and customers.”. (Strictly speaking at present, there is a high probability that a strike will be avoided, and a strike is still possible. The union member approval process is expected to take a little more than three weeks. The result of the vote of the union members may still trigger a strike, but if the strike occurs at that time End of August, not the original Aug. 1 warning. There were concerns that a truck driver shortage could start as soon as next week and paralyze U.S. supply chains, costing the economy billions of dollars.)
2. Carol Tomé said: “This agreement will continue to provide UPS’s full-time and part-time employee truck drivers with industry-leading compensation and benefits, while retaining the flexibility we need to remain competitive, serve customers and maintain a strong business.”.
3. Sean M. O’Brien, general manager of Teamsters, a national fraternity of truckers, said in a statement that the tentative five-year contract “sets a new standard for the labor movement and raises the bar for all workers.” “We changed the game.” rules, fighting day and night to ensure our members win our ideal deal that pays high wages, rewards our members for their labor, and requires no concessions.”
4. Prior to this, UPS full-time small package delivery drivers earned an average of $145,000 a year in gross compensation. This includes payment of full health insurance premiums, up to seven weeks of paid vacation, plus paid statutory holidays, sick leave and optional holidays. In addition, there are pension and study expenses.
5. Teamsters stated that the newly negotiated tentative agreement will increase the wages of full-time and part-time Teamsters by $2.75/hour in 2023 and increase by $7.50/hour during the contract period, or more than $15,000 per year. The contract will set a part-time base wage of $21 an hour, with more senior part-time workers getting paid more. Average maximum wage for UPS full-time truck drivers will rise to $49 an hour! Teamsters said the deal would also eliminate the two-tier wage system for some workers and create 7,500 new full-time UPS jobs for union members.
5. American analysts said that the agreement “is great for UPS, the package transportation industry, the labor movement and cargo owners.” But then “shippers need to look for agreement details to understand how much this new contract will affect their own costs, and how it will ultimately affect UPS’s general rate increases in 2024.”.
6. UPS handled an average of 20.8 million packages a day last year, and while FedEx, the US Postal Service, and Amazon’s own delivery service have some excess capacity, few believe that all packages could be handled by these alternatives in the event of a strike. Issues in the contract negotiations included air conditioning for delivery vans, demands for significant wage increases, especially for part-time workers, and closing the wage gap between two different classes of workers at UPS.
7. According to union leader Sean M. O’Brien, the two sides had previously reached an agreement on about 95% of the contract, but the negotiations broke down on July 5 due to economic problems. During Tuesday’s talks, the focus was on pay and benefits for part-time drivers, who make up more than half of the company’s truck drivers. After negotiations resumed on Tuesday morning, the two sides quickly reached a preliminary agreement.
8. Even a short-lived strike could put UPS at risk of losing customers over the long term, as many major shippers may sign long-term contracts with UPS competitors like FedEx to keep packages flowing.
9. Strikes are still possible, and the threat of strikes is not over. Many truckers still have lingering anger that members could vote against the deal even with pay increases and other wins at the table.
10. Some Teamsters members are relieved they don’t have to go on strike. UPS hasn’t had a strike since 1997, so most of UPS’s 340,000 truck drivers never went on strike while they were with the company. Some UPS drivers such as Carl Morton were interviewed and said that he was very excited by the news of the deal. If it happened, he was prepared to strike, but hoped it would not happen. ”It was like an instant relief,” he told the media at a union hall in Philadelphia. ”It’s crazy. Well, just a few minutes ago, we thought it was going to strike, and now it’s basically settled.”
11. Although the agreement has the support of the union leadership, there are still many examples of members’ collective approval votes failing. One of those votes came this week when 57% of FedEx’s pilot union voted to reject a temporary contract agreement that would have boosted their pay by 30%. Due to labor laws that apply to airline pilots, the union is not allowed to strike in the short term despite the no vote. But those restrictions don’t apply to UPS truckers.
12. The union Teamsters said the deal would cost UPS about an additional $30 billion over the five-year term of the contract. UPS declined to comment on the estimate, but said it would detail its cost estimates when it reports second-quarter earnings on Aug. 8.
Post time: Aug-04-2023