UPS workers ratify new five-year contract, eliminating strike risk

UPS workers on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted to ratify a new contract that includes higher wages for workers, effectively eliminating the risk of a strike that would have been the biggest in 60 years.

About 86% of voting members approved the contract, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a press release announcing the vote results. The agreement, which will also create more full-time jobs and will secure air-conditioning in new trucks, covers about 340,000 UPS workers in the U.S.

“Our members just ratified the most lucrative agreement the Teamsters have ever negotiated at UPS. This contract will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers,” Teamsters general president Sean M. O’Brien said in the Tuesday statement.

O’Brien said the new contract “raised the bar for pay, benefits, and working conditions in the package delivery industry.”

Teamsters general secretary-treasurer Fred Zuckerman called the new five-year contract the “richest” he’d seen in 40 years. 

Here’s some of what UPS workers are getting in the new contract:

• Both full- and part-time UPS workers who are union members will get $2.75 more per hour in wages in 2023
• New part-time hires at UPS will start at $21 per hour and advance to $23 per hour
• Protections including in-vehicle air conditioning and cargo ventilation
• Martin Luther King Day as a full holiday for the first time
• No forced overtime