Teamsters and UPS Set to Continue Discussions This Week
We anticipate negotiations to continue this week as we approach the end of the contract currently set by UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The current contract ends in less than 60 days and will affect approximately 360,000 UPS drivers that are represented by the Teamsters Union. Sean O’Brien, the new President of the Teamsters, has expressed that they have no plan to extend the current contract and will only sign if certain needs are met. This comes after the CEO of UPS, Carol Tomé stated back in April that they are moving forward with negotiations. In a statement released by Tomé, she suggested that the two parties agree on some of the tabled issues, such as weekend delivery staffing issues and navigating heat in the UPS trucks during the summer months.
She expressed her belief that they will in fact reach a point of agreement where both parties will feel like they won with the contract they end up signing.
One major point of contention appears to have been agreed upon now: the amount of USPS deliveries of UPS SurePost packages. The union was wanting the number of packages that qualify for this shipping technique to decrease so that more Teamster drivers were doing the deliveries. It is rumored that there is an agreement on this matter in which the qualifications for packages to be shipped through SurePost will be changed in a way that will reduce the number of packages shipped this way.
The Teamster’s spokesperson, Kara Deniz, released a statement stating there are negotiations happening for company-wide issues, as well as local issues.
The Teamster’s official Facebook page announced that they are still waiting for an agreement with regard to a few issues. One such issue is compensation for bus trips to and from work. Another issue still being fought over is paid vacation for part-time employees. Deniz has gone on record to say “We have a lot of serious issues we want to discuss” speaking about the above-mentioned issues, in addition to several others. While other specific details have not quite been released, we have a rough idea of what many of the issues are connected to. Primarily, much of the negotiations are about pay, benefits, driver safety, and air conditioning in UPS trucks. The Teamsters are pushing for more in their contract now as their jobs have been completely changed post the Covid-19 pandemic. As we were all stuck at home, we all got used to everything simply coming right to our door, meaning demand for delivery has increased exponentially.