THE union representing 340,000 UPS workers in the United States announced on Tuesday that its members have voted to approve the tentative contract agreement reached last month.

The decision by members of the Teamsters union avoided a strike that threatened to disrupt package deliveries for millions of businesses and households.

The union said 86 per cent of members were in favour of ratifying the national contract:  the highest vote for a contract in the history of the Teamsters at UPS. More than 40 supplemental agreements were also ratified. 

Teamsters’ general president Sean M O’Brien said: “This contract will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers.”

He said the contract set a new standard for pay and benefits and is the new template for how workers should be paid and protected — “and non-union companies like Amazon better pay attention.”

Full- and part-time union workers will get $2.75 (£2.18) more per hour in 2023 and $7.50 (£5.94) more in total by the end of the five-year contract. 

Starting hourly pay for part-time employees also got bumped up to $21 (£16.63).