By Rip Watson, Senior Reporter This story appears in the Jan. 20 print edition of Transport Topics
UPS Inc. finished another part of its Teamsters contract last week when Freight unit workers approved by a wide margin a five-year agreement, making them the best-paid drivers in the less-than-truckload industry, the union said.
The vote by more than a 2-1 margin was announced late Jan. 12, six days after the union said it had a tentative contract for 13,000 workers.
The contract offers wage increases of $2.50 per hour in an agreement that extends through July 2018 and is taking effect seven months after an earlier deal was rejected.
“We are pleased that the UPS Freight agreement has been approved. UPS and the Teamsters will implement the contract provisions as soon as possible,” UPS spokesman Andy McGowan told Transport Topics.
“UPS Freight members told us their top concerns were pensions and protecting their work, and this new contract addresses those issues head on,” said Ken Hall, Teamsters general secretary-treasurer.
With the latest announcement, the company — No. 1 of the Transport Topics Top 100 For-Hire Carriers in the United States and Canada — still has to win union approval of five remaining side agreements on its larger UPS Package agreement. That national deal, covering at least 235,000 workers, cannot take effect until ratification of the local agreements, known as riders and supplements. The UPS Package agreement with a $3.90 increase over five years was approved at a national level in June.
The new top wage for UPS Freight Teamsters is $26.65 an hour for local drivers.
Teamsters at YRC Worldwide Inc. and ABF Freight System are working at reduced wages agreed to in separate contracts between the union and those carriers.
Other UPS Freight contract features are lower retiree health-care costs and options for more part-time workers to advance to full-time status.
In addition, the Freight agreement puts laid-off drivers back to work and preserves vacation benefits for workers while they are in military service.
In June, nearly 70% of voters turned down the initial proposal, prompting the parties to return to the bargaining table. The union said the deal approved last week included new pension benefits as well as enhancements in medical benefits.
The turnout for the vote was 69% of those eligible, exceeding the 58% who voted in June on the first tentative agreement.
Last week’s vote was done at union halls, instead of by mail, an approach that raised concern among the activist group Teamsters for a Democratic Union that participation would drop because the tentative deal was announced just before the voting began.
