News / UPS agrees 11th-hour concessions to avoid strikes at major depots

UPDATED 12 August, 20:00 to include comment from UPS.

Workers at UPS’s largest US airfreight hub, Louisville, have called off a threatened strike this week after a last-minute concession from the parcel giant.

Announcing it was cancelling the strike at the Kentucky site and coordinated action at Chicago, along with picket lines set for California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, the Teamsters said UPS had “bowed to the credible strike threat”.

Union general president Sean O’Brien had warned: “The Teamsters have lost all patience with UPS’s ongoing attacks on our members’ rights and our contracts.

“UPS has displayed disdain and shameless disrespect for the workforce. It has refused to settle grievances, is overworking drivers and our part-time members, has failed miserably to deliver heat relief, and is illegally trying to pay our members off.”

With the action set to begin today, the union said UPS had agreed a “handful” of settlements at a little past midnight, including grievances related to the company “regularly diverting airport distribution services to workers paid at a lower rate”.

Now workers at UPS’s Worldport’s Aircraft Maintenance Distribution Center in Louisville will handle that work.

In Chicago, administrative and specialist workers have been granted a contract ensuring they are paid in line with the top wage rate for respective duties, and further concessions include providing air conditioned vehicles and limiting working hours to 9.5 a day.

Mr O’Brien said: “The Teamsters demand UPS makes good now on delivering thousands of additional vehicles with air conditioning to our local unions in the hottest working environments for delivery drivers. UPS is fully and finally out of time to do right by our members.”

He added: “The enforcement of our national contract must now only heat up. We need all members ready to punch back at a moment’s notice,”

Confirming that UPS and the Teamsters have resolved local matters, a spokesperson for the carrier told The Loadstar that this came as part of its “normal, established processes for handling disputes”.

They added: “We remain committed to delivering reliable service to our customers without disruption. The company also continues to adhere to the agreements made during our contract negotiations in 2023.”

Late last month the integrator’s second-quarter results reported reduced profits and revenues, and did not to offer any full-year guidance. CEO Carole Tome said: “Our sector, specifically the US small package market, was unfavourably impacted by US consumer sentiment that was near historic lows.”

As The Loadstar reported, UPS’s US domestic revenues were down 0.8% year on year, to $14.8bn, with a 7.3% decline in volumes, and operating profit essentially flat, at $982m.