US – 350,000 UPS employees have drawn a line in the sand for a timeline of contract negotiations with UPS.
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien and General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman convened a meeting of what is known as the UPS National Screening Committee on Thursday.
Contracts for UPS run usually for 5 years, and the recent contract is set to expire on July 31, 2023. Union negotiators have reported that they will strike on August 1, 2023, if a contract is not agreed upon.
“We’re going into these negotiations with a clear message to UPS that we’re not going past August 1,” O’Brien said in his remarks to the committee. “We have to deal with 22.4s, PVDs, subcontracting, part-time wages and other issues that we’re taking a hard line on with the company,” O Brian said in a press release.
“Sean is going to pick a fight with this company, and that fight is to get the very best contract we can get for our members,” Zuckerman added. “This contract is going to be unlike the contracts of the past 25 years where UPS comes in and says they want a cost-neutral contract. It’s not going to be a cost-neutral contract. We’re going to take from them what our members deserve.”
O’Brian said that he will take a hard line in UPS expanding its use of full-time personal vehicle drivers who deliver packages in their own vehicles and get reimbursed by the company on a per-mile basis. Also dealing with 22.4 drivers who are paid less than full-time drivers who work different shifts than standard drivers, along with subcontracting and part-time wages.
The committee is meeting all day today and tomorrow. Supplemental committees will review supplemental proposals separately in preparation for supplemental negotiations which begin in February
