UPS, Teamsters reach five-year Freight labor pact

Threatened strike averted with agreement hammered out before Aug. 1 deadline.    UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents about 11,000 UPS Freight employees, have reached a tentative agreement for a new five-year master contract. 
   “With agreements now reached for both the freight and small package national master contracts, discussions continue for small package supplements and local agreements,” UPS said in a statement Friday. 
  UPS said progress continues with the union on many of the local small package agreements and supplements, including a handshake agreement covering more than 100,000 Teamster-represented UPS employees located in the Central Conference, Southern Conference and Oregon/Idaho, among others. “Other local agreements and supplements continue to be negotiated,” the carrier said.
   The new agreements will take effect Aug. 1, after they are ratified by the UPS employees. Between the two divisions — parcel and freight — UPS employs about 260,000 Teamsters, with more than 40,000 new union member employees since 2014.
   In June, Teamsters threatened to strike UPS if progress on the new labor agreements stalled in the face of the Aug. 1 deadline.