National Master contract approved by UPS

While Teamsters at UPS Freight, the less-than-truckload subsidiary of UPS, recently rejected a proposed labor contract, UPS said today that its employees represented by the Teamsters have voted to approve a new National Master contract, which covers roughly 235,000 full- and part-time employees in the United States.

This development comes well ahead of the July 31 deadline and will extend coverage through July 31, 2018, according to UPS.

On its Website, the Teamsters reported that UPS Freight Teamsters members rejected the deal by a 4,244-1,897 margin. As reported yesterday, Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) said that the two-tier deal to create “Line Haul” drivers at essential nonunion wages and conditions has been rejected, stating that the inadequate wages and pension improvements have been rejected

In late April, UPS said it had reached a tentative agreement with the Teamsters on two, new five-year contracts for UPS’s small package and freight (less-than-truckload) business units.

UPS officials said that the agreement covering UPS Freight employees and some local agreements will require additional negotiation.

“It will be ‘business as usual’ while UPS and the IBT resolve remaining issues and Teamster represented employees ratify new agreements,” said John McDevitt, UPS Sr. Vice President, Human Resources and Labor Relations, said in a statement.

UPS added that it is committed to quickly resolving remaining issues on UPS Freight and supplemental agreements, which it said is “part of the normal negotiating process and UPS is confident that these contracts will be resolved soon.”