UPS and Teamsters agree on new five-year contract

UPS announced it had reached a tentative agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on a new five-year contract covering approximately 240,000 full- and part-time package employees in the United States.

The tentative contract, which now must be presented to UPS Teamster-represented employees for ratification, was negotiated nearly a year in advance of the current contract’s expiration on July 31, 2008. Upon ratification, most provisions of the new agreement will take effect on August 1st, 2008.

The tentative contract includes wage increases as well as significant contributions to healthcare and pension plans to help strengthen these benefits for employees. The agreement allows UPS to withdraw employees from the Central States multi-employer pension plan and to establish a jointly trusteed single-employer plan for this group. UPS will make a pre-tax USD 6.1 billion payment to the Central States plan in connection with its withdrawal.