UPS’s Teamsters workers ratify new 5-year contract

UPS’s Teamsters workers ratify new 5-year contract The International Brotherhood of Teamsters today notified UPS that a new five-year contract covering about 240,000 employees has been approved and ratified.
   The master contract was negotiated nearly a year in advance of the current contract’s expiration on July 31, 2008, and will extend contract coverage to July 31, 2013.
   The ratification came as five local supplemental or rider agreements received approval in a second round of employee voting. Last month, the UPS National Master Agreement was approved by 65 percent of the voting employees.
   The new contract includes wage increases as well as contributions to health care and pension plans for UPS employees. The agreement allows UPS to withdraw employees from the Central States multiemployer pension plan and to establish a jointly trusteed, single-employer plan for this group. UPS will make a pre-tax $6.1 billion payment to the Central States plan on Dec. 26, in connection with its withdrawal.
   “We are excited to learn that everything now is in place to implement our agreement with the Teamsters,” said Mike Eskew, UPS’s chairman and chief executive officer. “This agreement helps to ensure that UPS is well positioned for success in the coming years.”