UPS, Teamsters Begin Contract Negotiations

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PS Inc. and the Teamsters union began contract negotiations on Tuesday to replace an existing six-year deal that expires in July 2008, the parcel carrier said.

“While it is unusual to start this early, we do so because there are some very complex issues to address and we all recognize it will take time to find solutions,” said John McDevitt, UPS’s senior vice president for global transportation services.

The UPS contract, which covers more than 215,000 union members nationwide, is the largest private-sector labor agreement in the United States, according to the Teamsters union.

In early September, Bloomberg reported that UPS and the Teamsters would begin their negotiations far in advance of the current contract’s expiration date in order to avoid a repeat of 2002, when the two sides reached an agreement only weeks before a strike deadline.

UPS is ranked No. 1 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada.