How UPS and Teamsters reaching an agreement will affect Kentucky?

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – A work shutdown looks to have been avoided as UPS reached a tentative agreement on Monday with the teamsters union, representing employees.

There are around 25,000 UPS workers across the state of Kentucky. One thousand of those UPS employees work in lexington under the Teamsters banner.

They were just a week away from taking part in the shipping giant’s first strike in more than a quarter century. However, Monday morning, the union announced that it had negotiated a historic tentative agreement with the company.

It comes after talks had broken down earlier this month, leading to practice protests throughout the Commonwealth.

Teamsters Local 651 President James Brant represents 2,200 UPS workers in central and eastern Kentucky. Brant told us wages were the key issue creating a gap between union and company. However, UPS seems to have bridged it in the end, as the teamsters write on social media that they’ve secured an “overwhelmingly lucrative contract.”

The Executive Director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, Jason Bailey, says this should stand to benefit the company in the long run as well.

“When they provide good pay and good working conditions, they’re better able to retain workers, and that’s difficult in this environment with a very tight labor market. Their ability to provide career employment at better wages is going to help their productivity,” said Bailey.

Union members countrywide still have to vote to approve this contract that the teamsters worked on at the national level.

Brant says he will head to DC this weekend to learn the specific terms of the deal and then bring it back to his teamsters for a vote.

For now, it appears that the crisis has been averted.

The Teamsters say that voting will be done electronically. It is set to begin on August 3 and conclude on August 22.

Copyright 2023 WKYT. All rights reserved.