Photo Credit Teamsters Mobilize

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With less than a week before the contract expiration date, UPS and the Teamsters Union reached a tentative agreement on July 25th. The Teamsters’ leadership has called this agreement a “historic win” for UPS workers, but in actuality, it’s a sellout deal that only slightly raises pay while doing nothing to improve working conditions.

Much of the talk around the tentative agreement has centered on an increase in hourly pay to $21 for part-time workers. This slight raise puts part-timers at only market rate and rises two dollars over the next five years; meaning part-time UPSers will make just $23 an hour by 2028.

Part-time UPS workers are rarely scheduled adequate hours, and with the rising cost of living in Charlotte and across the country, this will not be enough to sustain most workers. The proposed $21 is also well below the $25 an hour the Teamsters for a Democratic Union, the main group that backs Sean O’Brien, President of the Teamsters, and along with other Teamsters officials, had claimed to be demanding.

With few hours and low wages, part-time UPS workers have called for more full-time jobs. The tentative agreement will add only 7,500 full-time positions, an average of just 150 per state. This is essentially nothing when compared to the over 200,000 part-timers currently employed at UPS. It also doesn’t guarantee more than the current 3-and-a-half-hour guarantee for part-time employees. The agreement does nothing to improve conditions inside UPS warehouses. Warehouse workers will still be subject to poorly air-conditioned and ventilated buildings and work inside trucks that regularly reach temperatures above 100 degrees during the summer months. Despite breaks for employees being standard across the country, warehouse workers in Charlotte will still not receive breaks.

Teamsters Local 71 in Charlotte is led by Willie Ford, a Sean O’Brien ally and International Teamsters Trustee. At local warehouses, union reps have been propagating the idea that this agreement is a huge win, despite it doing barely anything to improve conditions and pay for UPSers nationally or in Charlotte.

The struggle for a better contract between UPS workers and UPS is far from over. For UPS workers to get the contract they deserve, they will have to get organized as rank-and-file to fight for their own interests. Rank-and-file groups, such as the New Day and Teamsters Mobilize, are popping up at UPS warehouses in Charlotte and across the country. Many individual UPSers have also gone online, rallying their coworkers to vote no to the agreement. A no-vote is merely the start of the struggle for a contract that meets UPSers’ demands. In the past, Teamsters have used many different tactics and loopholes to override the votes of their members.