Teamsters, UPS reach contract agreement to avoid strike

The Teamsters Union and UPS reached a contract agreement Tuesday to avoid a potentially disastrous strike that would have had wide-ranging effects on the economy.

“Today, the Teamsters reached the most historic tentative agreement for workers in the history of UPS, protecting and rewarding more than 340,000 UPS Teamsters nationwide,” the labor union said in a statement.

The five-year contract calls for raises and more full-time jobs, as well as “dozens of workplace protections and improvements.”

“Rank-and-file UPS Teamsters sacrificed everything to get this country through a pandemic and enabled UPS to reap record-setting profits,” union president Sean M. O’Brien said.

“We’ve changed the game, battling it out day and night to make sure our members won an agreement that pays strong wages, rewards their labor, and doesn’t require a single concession. This contract sets a new standard in the labor movement and raises the bar for all workers.”

“Together we reached a win-win-win agreement on the issues that are important to Teamsters leadership, our employees and to UPS and our customers,” UPS chief executive officer Carol Tomé said in a statement. “This agreement continues to reward UPS’s full- and part-time employees with industry-leading pay and benefits while retaining the flexibility we need to stay competitive, serve our customers and keep our business strong.”

This is a developing story.