Via the NYT: UPS Reaches Tentative Deal With Teamsters to Head Off Strike.
The company said it could not comment on the dollar value of the deal ahead of its second-quarter earnings call in early August.
The Teamsters said that under the tentative agreement, current full- and part-time UPS employees represented by the union would receive a $2.75-an-hour raise this year, and $7.50 an hour in raises over the course of the contract.
The minimum pay for part-timers will rise to $21 an hour — far above the current minimum starting pay of $16.20 — and the top rate for full-time delivery drivers will rise to $49 an hour. Full-time drivers currently make $42 an hour on average after four years.
The company has also pledged to create 7,500 new full-time union jobs and to fill 22,500 open positions, for which part-time workers will be eligible. The company has said that part-time workers are essential to navigating bursts of activity over the course of a day and during busy months, and that many part-timers graduate to full-time jobs.
This is good news for the general economy, given that a strike affecting roughly 25% of all shipping would have definitely had economic effects.
There are additional elements of the agreement detailed in the NYT piece, including the following that is especially relevant, given recent weather patterns:
The two sides also agreed on several key noneconomic issues, such as heat safety. Under the proposed deal, new trucks must have air-conditioning beginning in January, while existing trucks will be outfitted with additional fans and venting.
More from the Teamsters, who seem pretty pleased.
