The union representing some 340,000 workers at UPS said shortly after midnight Tuesday that it called off a strike at the global air sortation hub in Louisville, Kentucky, and package terminals in six other states after the company agreed to resolve several outstanding grievances and a local contract dispute.
The resolution, however, did little to resolve testy relations as the Teamsters remain upset with UPS (NYSE: UPS) for offering drivers a buyout package to reduce labor costs, not hiring the promised number of full-time employees and allegedly not complying with a commitment to purchase more package vans equipped with air conditioning. UPS is in the processing of streamlining its delivery network to align with lower parcel volumes, especially as it moves to unload 50% of its business with Amazon, and trying to cut 20,000 jobs.
The Teamsters claimed in a news release that they were prepared to set up strike lines Tuesday morning at the Worldport, across the Chicago area and in California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Ohio before the last-minute settlement.
“The Teamsters have lost all patience with UPS’s ongoing attacks on our members’ rights and our contracts. The gloves are off,” General President Sean O’Brien said. “Since the ratification of our National Master Agreement in 2023, UPS has displayed disdain and shameless disrespect for the workforce. They have refused to settle grievances, they are overworking drivers and our part-time members, they have failed miserably to deliver heat relief, and they are illegally trying to pay our members off. Our union’s actions Monday and Tuesday are just the beginning of an aggressive new chapter for the Teamsters at UPS. We will be UPS’s conscience.”
According to the Teamsters, UPS agreed to stop giving assignments at the Worldport’s Aircraft Maintenance Distribution Center to workers paid a lower rate. After more than a year of complaints, UPS will honor the right of Teamsters Local 89 members to conduct the work. The Aircraft Maintenance Distribution Center is responsible for ordering, receiving, storing, delivering and returning parts to Local 2727 aircraft mechanics. The grievance appears to stem from a union jurisdictional dispute in which UPS sided with Local 2727’s attempt to control the warehouse functions at the new North Hanger, which opened in 2024.
In Chicago, Teamsters Local 705 achieved a first contract for administrative and specialist workers after protracted negotiations. The new classification of workers will be elevated to earn the top wage rate for their respective job duties, the union said.
UPS also agreed to setting grievances regarding seniority and workplace safety at Teamsters Local 20 in Toledo, Ohio, and Teamsters Local 455 in Denver.
“There’s only one thing that UPS cares about and that’s money. Their behavior at the corporate level as of late proves it. Executive bonuses. Stock buybacks. These things are far more important to CEO Carol Tomé than the rights and livelihood of the men and women who deliver all those packages,” said Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman. “Let this be a warning to UPS that in any state, at any facility, the Teamsters are prepared to fight back against continued abuse of our members.”
UPS had not issued any public response as of 3:30 a.m. ET.
The Teamsters have aggressively called out UPS in recent weeks for alleged violations of the master contract in a tone usually reserved for stalemated contract talks. It has called the voluntary separation offer for drivers a “bribe” and “illegal” because the changes to employment terms weren’t negotiated with the union. FreightWaves reported Saturday that UPS has extended the deadline to accept the offer until Aug. 14 because of low participation so far.
The union in late June challenged UPS to explain why it has only provided less than 10% of the 28,000 vehicles equipped with air conditioning at the midway point of the contract. It says drivers are routinely exposed to unsafe heat conditions this summer in large swaths of the country, especially in the South and along the eastern seaboard.
The Teamsters also say UPS is violating rules on overtime work. Frontline workers are protected from being forced to work more than 9.5 hours per day — or UPS is required to pay significant penalties to compensate workers for the additional hazard and time. In the first six months of the year, UPS has had to pay tens of millions of dollars in penalty wages to workers, according to the union.
UPS is also dragging its feet on creating at least 22,500 full-time positions, as required under the contract, according to the Teamsters.
“The enforcement of our national contract must now only heat up. We need all members ready to punch back at a moment’s notice,” O’Brien said. “The Teamsters demand that UPS make good, now, on delivering thousands of additional vehicles with air conditioning to our local unions in Zone 1, the hottest working environments for delivery drivers in the nation. UPS is fully and finally out of time to do right by our members. No more excuses, no more delays.”
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
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