Leaders of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 340 are hailing the new tentative agreement struck with the United Parcel Service today as an historic victory for working people. On Tuesday, the Teamsters reached a tentative agreement with UPS that protects and rewards more than 340,000 UPS Teamsters nationwide, including 1400 unionized UPS workers in Maine. The economically strong contract raises wages for all workers, creates more full-time jobs, and includes dozens of workplace protections and improvements. The UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee unanimously endorsed the five-year tentative agreement.
“This is an historic victory for UPS workers and will raise standards for all working Americans,” said Brett Miller, President and Business Agent for Teamsters Local 340. “This agreement includes excellent raises, an end to forced overtime, the installation of air conditioning to all delivery vehicles and an end to a discriminatory two-tier wage system that disadvantaged certain workers. I think this contract is going to provide a huge boost for union organizing because it shows how collective action is the most effective way to improve wages and working conditions. Once we ratify this contract we can use this as a template to show workers at Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot and other big box chains and say, ‘you deserve this and you too can win these improvements if you get organized.’”
Teamsters across the country overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike by 97 percent and made it clear that the 340,000 full-and part-time UPS workers wouldn’t hesitate to strike for the first time since a fifteen-day strike in 1997. Local 340 members have held “practice pickets” at nine UPS facilities throughout Maine from Wells and Portland to Bangor, Houlton and Calais in June and July to show their solidarity and willingness to withhold their labor for a fair contract if necessary.
One the major issues for Local 340 members are wages for part-time employees. Part-timers technically start at $15.50 per hour, but UPS was forced to make wage adjustments due to the tight labor market during the pandemic to attract workers. As a result, many part-timers began earning $18, $21 or even $23 per hour, but then had their wages cut by several dollars an hour last year as the company hauled in a record $100 billion in profits. Under the new agreement, both full and part-time workers would receive historic wage increases, including:
- Existing full- and part-time UPS Teamsters will get $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more per hour over the length of the contract.
- Existing part-timers will be raised up to no less than $21 per hour immediately, and part-time seniority workers earning more under a market rate adjustment would still receive all new general wage increases.
- General wage increases for part-time workers will be double the amount obtained in the previous UPS Teamsters contract — and existing part-time workers will receive a 48 percent average total wage increase over the next five years.
- Current UPS Teamsters working part-time would receive longevity wage increases of up to $1.50 per hour on top of new hourly raises, compounding their earnings.
- Wage increases for full-timers will keep UPS Teamsters the highest paid delivery drivers in the nation, improving their average top rate to $49 per hour.
- All UPS Teamster drivers classified as 22.4s would be reclassified immediately to Regular Package Car Drivers and placed into seniority, ending the unfair two-tier wage system at UPS.
Local 340 members in Maine have also complained that they’ve been working up to 13 or 14-hours a day due to a lack of staffing to handle the massive volume of parcels that surged during the pandemic and hasn’t let up since. Although there are disincentives in the current contract for forcing drivers to do excessive overtime, the company has chosen instead to continue to mandate forced overtime in violation of the contract and pay the penalties as a cost of doing business. Under the new agreement, the company has agreed to end forced overtime on Teamster drivers’ days off. Drivers would keep one of two workweek schedules and could not be forced into overtime on scheduled off-days. In addition the agreement includes:
- Safety and health protections, including vehicle air conditioning and cargo ventilation. UPS will equip in-cab A/C in all larger delivery vehicles, sprinter vans, and package cars purchased after Jan. 1, 2024. All cars get two fans and air induction vents in the cargo compartments.
- All UPS Teamsters would receive Martin Luther King Day as a full holiday for the first time.
- UPS Teamster part-timers will have priority to perform all seasonal support work using their own vehicles with a locked-in eight-hour guarantee. For the first time, seasonal work will be contained to five weeks only from November-December.
- More than 60 total changes and improvements to the National Master Agreement — more than any other time in Teamsters history — and zero concessions from the rank-and-file.
Miller said he is particularly encouraged that the company has agreed to create 7,500 new full-time Teamster jobs at UPS and the fulfillment of 22,500 open positions, establishing more opportunities through the life of the agreement for part-timers to transition to full-time work.
“I am hoping to add 200 or 300 jobs in Maine,” Miller added. “I believe to adequately address contractual language that allows workers to take single days off and holidays, we need the staffing to do it. Our number one goal once this contract is ratified is to ensure the company fills every vacant position so our people can have the quality of life balance they deserve.”
On July 31, representatives of the 176 UPS Teamster locals in the U.S. and Puerto Rico will meet to review and recommend the tentative agreement. All UPS rank-and-file members will receive a list of improvements in the contract. Locals will conduct member meetings and Teamsters will have several weeks to vote on the offer electronically. Member voting begins August 3 and concludes August 22.
The UPS Teamsters National Master Agreement is the single largest private-sector collective bargaining agreement in North America. Teamsters Local 340 represents 4,000 union members, including UPS workers, freight drivers, University of Maine staff, firefighters, municipal employees in Maine.