“The committee reached tentative agreements on a number of issues,” said Denis Taylor, Director of the Teamsters Package Division and Co-Chairman of the union’s UPS Negotiating Committee. “The tentative agreements on particular articles are not final until the entire contract is negotiated, but the committee wants to keep members updated.”

So far the negotiations have focused on the union’s proposals. The Teamsters and the company have reached tentative agreements on many proposals, including articles 3.1, 3.3, 3.7, 6.4, 8.7, 12, 17 and 37.

The Safety and Health Committee has reached tentative agreements on Articles 14, Sections 1 and 2; Article 16, Section 4; Article 18, Sections 1, 3, 6, 18.1, 21 and (new section) 28; Article 20, Section 4; Article 35, Section 3.3; and Article 44, Section 1 and 2.

On Article 37, the union has made significant improvements to Sections (a) harassment, (b) eight-hour days and (c) over 9.5.

On Article 37, Section (a), the tentative agreement will create a new Article 37 National Committee to deal with harassment. The new committee will have a sitting arbitrator to break deadlocks. The committee will have contractual authority to award a monetary penalty of up to three days pay depending on the severity of the offense. The new language would also require any member of management deemed by the committee to have committed two or more violations in a two year period to appear in person before the committee for any subsequent grievance(s).

Under the Article 37 (b) tentative agreement, if UPS fails to adjust a driver’s dispatch to comply with this section, the driver will receive the current two hour penalty and also retain the eight hour request for later use.

On the Article 37 (c) tentative agreement, the drivers will no longer need to wait for a violation to get on the 9.5 list or go to the manager to get on the list. The union will collect the names of drivers who want to be on the 9.5 list and provide those names to management in January and June. In addition, a driver may elect to add or remove their names to the list at ANY TIME during the two five month periods, with one week’s notice to UPS.

Finally, the provision dealing with repeated violations has also been significantly improved. The current language triggers a review by UPS and the union after three violations in a five month period and a higher level of review after any subsequent violation in that same five month period. The new language removes the first level review and triggers the higher-level review after four violations in a calendar year, which will expedite that process.

UPS Freight

The Teamsters National UPS Freight Negotiating Committee made strides in securing stronger language for members during this week’s negotiations.

The union has tentatively agreed to a true training program that will encourage bargaining unit employees to obtain their CDL in order to fulfill full-time CDL positions. The qualifications to achieve these full-time driving positions have been streamlined as well, by reducing the time requirements.

The next round of negotiations is scheduled for the week of April 8.

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The Teamsters UPS National Negotiating Committee has concluded its fifth week of negotiations and achieved tentative improvements to parts of the contract covering excessive overtime, harassment and other issues. The UPS Freight National Negotiating Committee made progress on CDL training requirements this week.