UPS Teamsters hold a practice picket outside of a UPC Customer Center in Orlando on July 13, 2023 ahead of a looming nationwide strike. Credit: photo by McKenna Schueler

After months of contract negotiations and a major strike threat, UPS and the Teamsters labor union have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract, averting what would have been the largest labor strike against a single employer in decades.

This new tentative agreement puts to rest a strike threat that would have cost an estimated $7 billion in losses for a 10-day work stoppage. UPS is the nation’s second-largest courier, behind the United States Postal Service, and made a record $13.1 billion in profits last year.

But it’s not all squared away just yet: the deal reached Tuesday is still subject to the approval of union membership, who will have three weeks to approve or reject it.

The tentative agreement, described by the union Tuesday as “the most historic agreement for workers in the history of UPS,” covers over 340,000 UPS delivery drivers and warehouse workers across the United States, including 3,000 in Central Florida alone.

According to the union, the deal offers concessions from the company on several previous sticking points including higher wages and 7,500 more full-time job opportunities for new and existing part-timers, whom union leadership often describes as the “unsung heroes” of UPS.

Part-time UPS-ers, who sort and load packages into UPS delivery trucks, would make a minimum $21 per hour immediately under the deal (up from $16.20 in Orlando), as well as longevity wage increases of $1.50 on top of that.

Meanwhile, both part-time and full-time workers who already earn more than that minimum would get $2.75 per hour in pay this year, and $7.50 more per hour over the life of the five-year contract.

But the Teamsters have stressed that it’s not just about the money: Workers would also see an end to forced overtime on days off, for example. And Martin Luther King Jr. Day would be established as an official holiday for all UPS workers.

Previously, UPS had also already agreed to other demands important to workers, such as the end of a divisive two-tier system for package car drivers (established under different union leadership in 2018, much to the chagrin of union members), and agreements on heat safety protections, such as cargo ventilation and in-unit air conditioning in UPS vehicles purchased after Jan. 1, 2024 — a feature that’s currently missing in UPS delivery vans and trucks, putting drivers at risk for heat exhaustion, dehydration and other heat-related illness.

Contract talks between UPS and the Teamsters first began in April, but stalled in early July, largely over wage demands for part-timers. Last week, UPS and the Teamsters decided to come back to the bargaining table early Tuesday morning, reaching this new tentative deal within hours.

“Rank-and-file UPS Teamsters sacrificed everything to get this country through a pandemic and enabled UPS to reap record-setting profits. Teamster labor moves America. The union went into this fight committed to winning for our members. We demanded the best contract in the history of UPS, and we got it,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien, a fourth-generation Teamsters from Boston, said in a statement Tuesday.

“UPS has put $30 billion in new money on the table as a direct result of these negotiations. 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,” O’Brien added.

The company’s CEO on Tuesday also praised the deal. “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, the CEO of UPS (who reported $19 million in total compensation last year) 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.”

What is still yet to be seen, however, is a vote of confidence from union membership.

The Teamsters say that representatives of UPS Teamster locals (smaller affiliates of the national union, spread across the country) will meet on July 31, the day their current contract expires, to review and recommend whether membership should approve the agreement, which has already received the endorsement of the UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee.

The deal will then be put to a vote by union members, who make up about one-third of the Teamsters’ 1.2 million members in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rice. Voting will run Aug. 3 through Aug. 22.

Are you a UPS worker in Orlando or elsewhere in Florida? Contact Orlando Weekly reporter McKenna Schueler at mckenna@orlandoweekly.com to share your thoughts on the tentative agreement.

Updated 7/25 at 7:33 p.m. to clarify that this TA would result in the creation of 7,500 full time jobs, if approved – not 30,000 as previously stated.

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This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2023.

General news reporter for Orlando Weekly, with a focus on state and local government and workers' rights. You can find her bylines in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, In These Times, and Facing South.