UPS Inc.'s unionized workers in its small package unit will tentatively receive their ballots to vote on a new collective bargaining agreement during the second or third week of next month, with the votes expected to be counted in October, according to a communique today from Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a Teamster dissident group.
This will be the first contract vote in the long relationship between Atlanta-based UPS and the Teamsters to be conducted without the use of paper ballots that would be mailed back and forth. Each of the 256,000 UPS unionized package unit employees will be given a unique access code, and they can vote on-line or via phone to a computer.
Each member will cast one vote on the national or "master contract, and another on their respective regional or local supplement. Some members may cast a third vote on a local rider. The master contract cannot go into effect until all supplements and riders are ratified. Teamster leaders and the company have already approved tentative five-year contracts for the small-package and LTL operations.
The new compacts, if ratified, would be retroactive to Aug. 1, the day after the current pacts were set to expire. Both agreements have been extended for undetermined durations.
The voting window is expected to be open for at least three weeks, according to the TDU statement.
Today's announcement only applies to the small-package unit. TDU does not yet have information on voting instructions for the 12,000 members of UPS Freight, the company's less-than-truckload (LTL) unit. that you will use to vote. You can vote on line, or by phone to a computer.
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