(WWJ) – After months of negotiations and strike threats, UPS and the Teamsters -- the union representing some 340,000 UPS workers nationally -- have reached a tentative deal on a new contract.
The parties tentatively agreed to a five-year deal that averts a potential work stoppage planned for Aug. 1, which would have been the largest single-employer strike in U.S. history.
Scott Quenneville, President of Teamsters Local 243, represents some 10,000 Michigan UPS workers. He tells WWJ the agreement is “probably the biggest labor contract that’s ever happened.”
“Once the members get to see it, they’re gonna be very happy, I believe. And I believe that we will be ratifying this contract,” Quenneville said, noting the ratification vote is expected to happen next week.
While Quenneville couldn’t discuss specific figures of the contract, the Associated Press reports under the proposed deal, full- and part-time pay will see an increase of $2.75 this year and a total increase of $7.50 over the contract period. Starting pay for part-time workers will also increase nearly $5 to $21 an hour, according to the AP.
The Teamsters also demanded an end to a two-tiered wage system, Quenneville said.
Other highlights of the tentative deal include air conditioning in all new UPS trucks, while existing trucks will have heat shields installed on the floor and heat scoops in the back in an attempt to make the trucks cooler.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day will also be a paid holiday for UPS workers, Quenneville said.
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