UPS Airlines pilots close deal on new contract with Independent Pilots Association

Following the announcement of reaching a tentative agreement on a new five-year labor deal at the end of June, UPS Airlines and the Independent Pilots Association said today that the new deal is now official.

UPSsaid that its pilots represented by the Independent Pilots Association (IPA) ratified the new agreement, which becomes amendable on September 1, 2021, while taking effect on September 1, 2016.

And it added that this agreement was voted on 98.7 percent of IPA’s membership, with 91.6 percent voting to ratify, with the contract covering 2,579 pilots at UPS Airlines.

The key components of the agreement include:

• immediate pay increases of 14.65 percent and a signing bonus in place of retroactive pay;
• 3 percent annual wage increases through the span of the contract
• a 40 percent increase to the defined benefit pension plan;
• crew rest enhancements, including reduced duty period limits for overnight and international flights;
• a commitment by UPS to work with the IPA in applying the latest in fatigue science to pilot scheduling; and
• additional sleep facilities at major gateways; and sleep modules in UPS B767 aircraft

“我们很高兴地看到,我们的机组人员已经接受了this win-win contract offer,” said Brendan Canavan, UPS Airlines president, in a statement. “Together, we have succeeded in taking care of both our people’s needs and our business objectives.”

IPA President Robert Travis said that important gains were made in all areas of the contract to include improvements in the critical area of pilot scheduling, with the caveat that “time will tell” whether or not UPS is willing to embrace changes that could lead to a safer operation.

Travis also said that IPA will continue to advocate for cargo’s inclusion into duty and rest rules that are now only applicable to passenger flying.

In late June, UPS Vice President of Public Relations Steve Gaut said the tentative agreement reached between UPS and IPA was a step in the right direction.

“We are pleased to have been able to balance the interests of the two parties and it resolves a number of issues we have had on an ongoing basis over the last few years,” he said. “We are hopeful that the communication process will lead to a successful ratification.”

But last October, prospects of a tentative deal being reached appeared to be far from a sure thing, with UPS pilots voting by a 2,252-8 margin to authorize a strike against their employer, the IPA.

“The vote was a symbolic, scripted event, one that’s common in pilot negotiations throughout the industry, ” a UPS spokesman told LM at the time of that vote. “Its results were entirely predictable. The reality is, UPS continues to negotiate in good faith for a win-win contract; talks continue to move forward under the direction of the NMB, and our customers remain in good hands with UPS as we enter the busy holiday season.”

That vote, added UPS, was a symbolic gesture in that under the RLA, the NMB controls negotiations, and a strike is not possible without the NMB’s permission, and then only after exhausting a lengthy series of safeguards.

And it pointed out that strike authorization votes are a common tactic in airline negotiations, with pilots’ unions, going back to 2000 having held approximately 20 authorization votes with an average approval rate of 97 percent.

As for UPS’s biggest competitor, FedEx, FedEx union pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) signed a new contract with FedEx management in October 2015, which took effect in November 2015 and becomes amendable in 2021.