Rank-and-file members of the International Muslim Brotherhood voted yes to a new five-year collective bargaining agreement that would raise United Parcel Service wages (UPSDelivery and warehouse workers.
the agreement, I arrived in July, averting the largest single strike against a corporation in US history and hitting the US economy by an estimated $7 billion. The deal covers more than 300,000 employees.
The union’s previous contract with the delivery giant expired on August 1, and the Teamsters have threatened that the drivers will leave without an agreement.
Teamsters said in a statement Tuesday that 86% of workers voted in favor of the deal, calling it “the most lucrative agreement Teamsters have ever negotiated” at the company.
UPS said in its own statement that its employees representing the Teamsters voted “overwhelmingly” to ratify the new agreement.
However, there is still one final hurdle. Not one of the 44 supplemental agreements, covering 174 Florida workers, has been ratified. The Teamsters said the National Master Agreement will enter into force “once this supplement has been renegotiated and ratified.”
Union officials estimated the new contract to be worth $30 billion. They’ve also warned that they now plan to go after other companies in the shipping world, specifically Amazon (AMZN).
“Teamsters has set a new standard and raised the bar on pay, benefits and working conditions in the package delivery industry,” said Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien. “This is the model for how workers are paid and protected nationwide, and non-union companies like Amazon better pay attention.”
Veteran full-time UPS drivers will be making $49 an hour by the end of the contract, which means they could make roughly $175,000 annually. Part-time drivers earn a starting salary of $21 an hour.
UPS CEO Carroll Twomey He told analysts earlier this month that the new contract was a “win-win” for both parties. She also said that the company’s drawn-out negotiations with the union caused her to lose customers, and some of them returned.
The company reported sharp declines in revenue and earnings during the second quarter and trimmed its annual revenue forecast and operating margin, citing costs associated with the new business agreement.
“One thing that was very important to Teamster driving was to preload some wage inflation and we agreed to do that,” Tommy said earlier this month. “So that puts a little bit of pressure on the margin… We’ll have a little bit of pressure for next year, until August next year, but then inflation is very manageable.”
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