The UPS-Teamsters contract — which some 340,000 workers are voting on this month — is the beachhead for what labor groups see is a bigger war: organizing Amazon and growing union ranks after years of decline.
The five-year deal for drivers, package handlers and others at Sandy Springs-based UPS is not only the largest private collective bargaining agreement in the U.S. It’s one that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters hopes will show Amazon hourly workers the union’s worth and build the case more collective bargaining can reverse rising income inequality.
Amazon and other big companies employ millions of non-union employees, many of them part-timers. Teamsters leader Sean O’Brien has emphasized the importance of improving terms for part-time workers in the UPS deal.
“We’re going to use this contract to help change the lives of people that are in this industry non-union, just like Amazon workers right now go to work unprotected, no benefits... no path to a full-time career,” he said.
Amazon declined to comment.
The tentative agreement reached last month would give current UPS part-time workers raises to at least $21 per hour immediately, according to the Teamsters. New part-time hires would start at $21 per hour and advance to $23 per hour.
The UPS deal is a template to help fuel an ambitious vision for unionization, beyond UPS, O’Brien said. “We’re going to take this contract and say, ‘This is what you’re gonna get when you join the Teamsters union.’”
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