A catastrophic strike was averted when rank-and-file Teamsters union members decisively approved a five-year agreement with UPS.
According to the union, 86% of members voted in favor of the five-year deal. Which will now take effect as of August 1 and be retroactive. According to the Teamsters, it was the biggest contract support the business has ever seen. Additionally, the organization said that a record 58% of members cast ballots.
On July 25, one week before the union was scheduled to go on strike, an agreement was negotiated. Since then, the ratification procedure has taken four weeks.
The union hierarchy overwhelmingly supported the agreement, voting 161-1 in favor of it. The contract was dubbed “the best contract in UPS history” by Teamsters President Sean O’Brien.
O’Brien said in a statement on Tuesday that nonunion businesses like Amazon should take note because “this is the model for how workers should be paid and protected in every country.”
UPS
However, several UPS employees who work part-time criticized the agreement. The part-time workers’ opponents, who were irate because they were still paid less than full-time employees doing the same task, had cast doubt on the vote’s outcome. The findings, however, revealed that the agreement enjoyed broad support from all classes of employees, despite the criticism expressed by some members.
What’s the catch?
Nevertheless, the union was successful in achieving several of its major bargaining objectives. Including raises in all areas of compensation of $2.75 per hour, retroactive to August 1. Overall raises of at least $7.50 per hour, or more than $15,000 per year for full-time employees, for the duration of the contract.
And because the business decided to eliminate a lesser pay scale for many of the employees employed since 2018, some workers received even higher raises.
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