Wisconsin Teamsters consider UPS Deal

Unionized workers at Madison area UPS locations learned the details of their new proposed bargaining agreement as voting on the new agreement begins Thursday.

MADISON (WKOW) -- Unionized workers at Madison area UPS locations learned the details of their new proposed bargaining agreement, as voting on the new agreement begins Thursday.

Teamsters Local 344, the union that represents all Wisconsin union UPS workers held three informational sessions Thursday at the Madison Labor Temple. The three sessions are just a few in a string that will be held across the state, as local workers begin to formulate their opinions on the deal reached last month between the company and Teamsters.

"We had the fight and claw for every single one of those wins that we got in the agreement," said Bill Carroll, secretary-treasurer of Local 344.

Carroll helped negotiate the deal. He said he spent February to August in Washington, D.C., working on the deal, with only a total of two weeks back home in Wisconsin.

The proposed labor agreement includes immediate $2.75 wage increases for all full-time workers. Wages will increase by a total of $7.50 over the length of the new deal which expires in 2028.

Part time employees would have the floor of their wages increased to $21 per hour in 2023, with further increases over subsequent years.

The company will also be required to include air conditioning in all of their new delivery vehicles starting in 2024. Those new trucks will go to southern states first. Wisconsin will be among the last locations to get air conditioned vehicles, but all trucks will be outfitted with fans immediately after the deal is signed.

"We didn't give anything back (to UPS)," Carroll said. "Now negotiations typically is a two way street. So, you give and take. We were able to win virtually every issue that changed in the agreement."

Despite that sense of accomplishment, Carroll has found himself combating what he characterized as misinformation about the deal among his members.

He blamed social media for spreading false rumors about the deal's effect on various benefits.

Benefits and wages are the chief concerns for Wisconsin UPS workers, Carroll said. Local 344 maintains its own pension plan, so adjustments made to that benefit at the national level have no impact on local unionized workers.

Voting on the proposed contract runs through Aug. 22.