SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

There has been a great deal of misinformation spread about Teamsters Local 89’s position on the UPS Teamsters National Master Tentative Agreement, so allow us to set the record straight.

Local 89 believes the 2023-2028 tentative agreement is the richest, most historic step forward for UPS members in our union’s history. It contains general wage increases nearly double what any prior contract offered, and dramatically improves wages and working conditions across the board. This contract is a massive leap forward that makes life-changing improvements for 340,000 UPS Teamsters.

Local 89 emphatically recommends our members vote YES to ratify this historic contract.

At the time of the two-person committee meeting in Washington on July 31, Local 89 voted against recommending the agreement. This was NOT a vote against the contract itself, as some have speculated. From the day the tentative agreement was announced, Local 89 has recognized this contract as a remarkable achievement.

Our vote against recommending the contract on July 31 was specifically regarding our concerns around Market Rate Adjustments or MRAs. Nearly half of our Local’s 12,000 UPS Teamsters currently benefit from MRAs. On Monday, we had not gathered all the information we needed about whether UPS would take away MRAs and harm our members’ earnings. Local 89 refrained from recommending the contract as we continued our research into MRAs.

In the days since, we worked closely with General President Sean M. O’Brien, General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman, and the International’s Legal Department regarding our outstanding questions. As a result of this information gathering, we can now say with confidence that our existing seniority members who currently enjoy MRAs will also receive the general wage increases on top of their MRA rates under the new tentative agreement. UPS would be acting in bad faith and violating the National Master Agreement if the company attempted to reduce MRA wages in the future.

With these details confirmed, Local 89 now officially and proudly recommends a YES vote on the UPS Teamsters National Master Tentative Agreement.

We thank our members for their patience as we worked through our concerns. Local 89 is thankful for everyone at the Teamsters International who helped answer our questions and worked with us in solidarity to resolve our local issues.