NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
October 19, 2018 | PAGE 3
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Teamsters announce new 5-year contract at UPS,
despite member vote to reject it
The Teamsters union announced
Oct. 5 that a new five-year na-
tionwide contract at UPS has
been ratified covering 243,000
drivers, sorters and others — de-
spite the fact that the agreement
was rejected by a majority of the
92,604 members who voted on
it.
Teamsters at UPS voted by
54.2 percent to reject the com-
pany’s offer, but only 44 percent
of the unit’s 209,043 union
members cast ballots. Under a
provision in the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters con-
stitution, it takes a two-thirds
majority to reject a contract if
less than a majority of bargain-
ing unit members cast a vote.
“Not enough members cov-
ered by the National Master
UPS Agreement exercised their
right to vote,” the union ex-
plained in a statement.
The new agreement raises
wages $4.15 over five years, and
increases starting wages for part-
time workers from $10 to $13 an
hour. But it also sets up a two-
tier system in which a new clas-
sification of lower-paid full-time
drivers would do weekend deliv-
eries. Currently full time drivers
earn over $36 an hour, and earn
double time for Sunday work.
The new classification of drivers
would start at $20.50 and reach
$34.79 by Aug. 1, 2022.
The Teamsters UPS contract
is the largest collective bargain-
ing agreement in North America,
and comes at a time that UPS is
booming thanks to online shop-
ping. Last year, the company had
$5 billion profit, and paid its
CEO $14.6 million in total com-
pensation.
UPS workers in June voted by
more than a 90 percent margin to
give the union leaders authority
to call a strike after the contract
expired July 31. But the union
and UPS continued to negotiate
under a 60-day contract exten-
sion. The first set of wage in-
creases will be paid retroactively
to Aug. 1.
The new agreement runs
through July 31, 2023.