the staff of thew Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced Tuesday a tentative collective bargaining agreement — just days before their current contract was set to lapse.
“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,” UPS CEO Carol Tomé said in a statement.
The new deal includes higher wages for Teamsters workers, air conditioning in trucks and an agreement to hire 30,000 new drivers.
Teamsters threatened to strike starting next Tuesday, as the contract covering 340,000 workers expires on July 31. With a tentative agreement in place, work will continue as the contract is voted on by union members next month.
The Teamsters threatened that drivers would walk off the job without a deal. A Teamsters UPS strike would have been the largest private sector strike in U.S. history and could have upended national supply chains, experts said.
Talks between the two sides restarted today after stalling earlier in the month. The deal still needs to be ratified by rank-and-file members in a vote that will conclude on Aug. 22.
I’m looking forward to paying more for delivery…