By Laura Stevens
Teamsters union members in Louisville, Ky., overwhelmingly
rejected a part of a contract with United Parcel Service Inc.,
creating more headaches for the company as it looks to end months
of negotiations with its labor force.
In a vote counted on Thursday, the Teamsters' local bargaining
unit rejected the supplement 2,804 to 185. Supplements determine
issues such as health-care benefits, the number of added new jobs,
wages for part-timers and overtime restrictions.
It was the second time the employees in Louisville rejected the
supplement. It covers around 8,000 UPS employees who work at the
delivery company's massive Worldport air operation, which flies
millions of packages in and out for sorting.
"Our members won't accept a bad supplement," said Fred
Zuckerman, president of Louisville's Teamsters Local 89. Reasons
for rejecting the supplement included UPS's delays in adding more
equipment for workers to get from the parking lot to their areas of
work at the Worldport air hub more quickly, including more shuttles
and metal detectors. In addition, he said the company removed a
pension-contribution increase for some workers and a $1,000 bonus
that were in the last version of the supplement.
"We're going to continue to work to attain a settlement," a UPS
spokesman said. A spokeswoman for the national arm of the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters declined to comment.
The rejection of the supplement is a setback to UPS's attempts
to implement the five-year master contract that was approved in
June by the company's domestic package-delivery employees. Despite
winning approval last summer, the contract can't go into effect
until local unions have resolved all outstanding supplements and
riders.
Seventeen were initially rejected, but most of those have
passed, including those for the large central, southwestern and
western regions. Only three remain to be passed, including
Louisville.
Write to Laura Stevens at laura.stevens@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires