April 27, 2013: TDU has obtained more initial details on the UPS tentative agreement, including some information on wages, pensions and health benefits. Wages: Wage increases are as follows. $.70/hour on August 1, 2013 $.70/hour hour on August 1, 2014 $.70/hour hour on August 1, 2015 $.40/hour on August 1, 2016 and $.40/hour on Feb. 1, 2017 $.50/hour on August 1, 2017 and $.50/hour on Feb. 1, 2018 The progression has been increased from three-years to four-years so new full-timers will have to wait longer to reach full union scale.
There will be a meeting for representatives from every local to review the proposed tentative agreement on May 7. Due to past legal victories, TDU will receive and make available to the members the national agreement and all supplements and riders at that time.
The International Union has claimed a “substantial increase” in starting pay for part-timers. It will reportedly be $10 an hour in the tentative five-year deal, an amount that could again drop below minimum wage in some areas by August 2018.
Health Benefits: Many members are asking about the deal to move all full-time and part-time Teamsters out of company-provided health insurance and into the Central States Health and Welfare Plan and other Teamster plans. The benefits currently provided by the Central States Plan, available here, will reportedly be enhanced to make them equal with members’ current benefits.
Pensions: An important issue for UPSers in the Central and Southern Regions, and the Carolinas is a substantial increase in the IBT-UPS pension plan, where 44,000 full-time Teamsters receive the lowest retirement benefits in the country.
The 30-year pension in the IBT-UPS plan will reportedly go to $3,200/month in 2014, with a second increase to $3,400/month that does not take effect until 2017.
For all other Teamster funds, UPS will increase pension and Health and Welfare contributions by $1/hour more each year. With inflation, this is actually a savings to UPS of 10¢ an hour each year over the last contract.
Contract Language: As previously reported by TDU, the new agreement reportedly has language changes on harassment and excessive overtime.
Questions about the language filling and protecting all 20,000 full-time 22.3 jobs and winning additional 22.3 jobs remain. Technology, discipline over “dishonesty” and subcontracting are other critical areas where language needs to be carefully reviewed.
UPS Teamsters will get to review all language changes and vote separately on the national contract and their supplement (and in some cases a third vote on their local rider).
Some supplements and riders are still not settled, including Northern and Central California, the Louisville Local 89 Air Rider, New York Local 804 and New Jersey Local 177. The bargaining committees for these groups will be in negotiations next week.
So will the negotiating committees for Locals 705 and 710 which cover all of Illinois and parts of Indiana and Iowa. These are separate agreements from the national contract, not supplements, but the International Union is pressing them to settle soon.
TDU and Make UPS Deliver will provide detailed contract information as it becomes available. We urge all UPS Teamsters to carefully review the proposed agreements, attend local union contract meetings, ask questions, and cast an informed vote.
