(CNN) ”” UPS and the Teamsters have reached a tentative deal on a new contract. That could potentially avoid a strike, which could have started as soon as next week and crippled US supply chains.
“UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union representing about 330,000 UPS employees in the U.S., have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement,” the company said in a statement.
The deal comes as the American labor movement has grown increasingly energized and empowered. The pandemic sent lower- and middle-class US workers”™ pay surging for the first time in decades, but contract workers missed out on much of those gains. That”™s why unionized actors, writers, nurses and teachers have recently gone on strike, and UPS workers and autoworkers have threatened walkouts.
“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,” said Carol Tomé, UPS chief executive officer, in the 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.”
The current five-year contract expires on July 31. Among the issues in the contract negotiations were air conditioning for delivery vans, demands for significantly greater pay, and the closing of pay gaps between different classes of UPS workers.
Terms of the tentative agreement are not yet known.
“UPS has put $30 billion in new money on the table as a direct result of these negotiations,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O”™Brien in a statement. “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.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
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