UPS-Teamsters Talks to Resume June 5

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With fewer than 60 days to go till the present labor contract expires, negotiations have been set to renew June 5 between Atlanta-based parcel supply large UPS and members of the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents an estimated 360,000 UPS drivers and different employees.

Union management, led by new Teamsters president Sean O’Brien, stays dedicated to some key points and maintains that they won’t prolong the present five-year contract previous its July 31 expiration date.

UPS CEO Carol Tomé throughout an April 25 earnings convention name indicated negotiations have been advancing.

“We’re aligned on a number of key points, like fixing the staffing wants for weekend deliveries and methods to mitigate the summer time warmth in our package deal supply autos,” she mentioned. “Whereas we count on to listen to quite a lot of noise throughout the negotiations, I stay assured {that a} win, win, win contract could be very achievable and that UPS and the Teamsters will attain an settlement by the tip of July.”

Teamsters members throughout a Could Day protest for employees’ rights in New York. (Paul Frangipane/Bloomberg Information)

One difficulty that seems resolved is a discount within the measurement of UPS SurePost packages which are eligible to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Per the union, a tentative settlement has been reached on the problem.

UPS describes the SurePost service as an financial system service for non-urgent, business-to-consumer deliveries. Underneath the prevailing contract, UPS makes the preliminary cargo pickup and USPS makes the ultimate supply, seven days every week. Packages dealt with by USPS should meet sure weight and measurement necessities to qualify as a SurePost package deal. If the parcel exceeds the boundaries, it may be redirected again into the ussystem for distribution by a union driver on a UPS truck.

“We’ve reached tentative settlement on the article, topic to ratification of the contract, to scale back the general measurement of packages eligible for SurePost supply, so extra present quantity goes again onto Teamster vans somewhat than coming off,” the union mentioned in a press release supplied to Transport Matters. “These tentative commitments from UPS would more and more redirect extra SurePost packages to bargaining unit common package deal automotive drivers over the lifetime of the contract.”

In the meantime, Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz instructed TT that the 2 sides are negotiating two supplemental contract agreements on native points for UPS employees on the firm’s Louisville Worldport hub and Northern California amenities.

In accordance with the union’s official Fb web page, the union and UPS stay at odds over compensation for employees throughout shuttle bus journeys to and from work areas, in addition to trip pay for part-timers. In all, 44 regional agreements, dietary supplements, riders and addenda are a part of the continued negotiations.

“We’ve got a whole lot of severe points we need to talk about,” Deniz mentioned, pointing particularly to an total wage hike, changes to additional time, and pay and profit scales for weekend drivers. The corporate and the union have each careworn the significance of negotiating on points associated to driver security and luxury, notably air con in supply vans.

The Teamsters preserve that the pandemic completely modified the U.S. financial system, growing the benefit of and client expectations for residence supply of products. UPS employees stress that they performed an element in that transformation, and in doing so made UPS a extra worthwhile firm.

The 24 million packages UPS ships on a mean day quantity to the equal of about 6% of the nation’s gross home product, per UPS. That’s good for about one quarter of the nation’s total U.S. parcel quantity, mentioned international delivery and logistics agency Pitney Bowes. The final time the union carried out a strike at UPS was in 1997 when employees walked out for 15 days.

In the meantime, UPS rival FedEx Corp. and the union representing its pilots on Could 31 introduced {that a} tentative settlement has been reached to maintain the pilots on the job and guarantee uninterrupted parcel and freight service. The deal was awaiting approval by the membership.

UPS Inc. ranks No. 1 on the Transport Matters Prime 100 listing of the biggest for-hire carriers in North America. FedEx ranks No. 2.