LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Shipping giant UPS and its Louisville-based pilots union have tentatively agreed to extend their labor contract through September 2023, locking in two more years of raises and retirement increases for pilots while averting the possibility of a stand-off anytime soon.
UPS and its nearly 3,000 pilots operate on five-year contracts, but a two-year extension of the current deal – which runs through September 2021 -- is mutually beneficial, company and union officials said Monday.
“We both knew we had a good deal and we decided to go ahead and extend it out another two years,” said UPS spokesman Mike Mangeot. “It’s a win-win contract.”
About 900 of the pilots live in the greater Louisville area. Worldport, UPS’ global air hub, is at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
The deal must be ratified by a vote of the pilots, which will be conducted March 10 through March 31, said Brian Gaudet, spokesman for the Louisville-based Independent Pilots Association.
Gaudet said UPS’ last two contracts with the pilots were the result of protracted negotiations lasting about five years apiece – periods in which pilots’ pay is frozen.
The deal on the table ensures that pilots will get raises and increased contributions to the company’s defined-benefit pension plan and defined-contribution retirement plan for an additional two years while negotiations for a longer-term deal unfold, he said.
“It’s two years of known compensation and retirement increases,” Gaudet said. “Good negotiations yield good deals. We had this opportunity and we decided to present it to the pilots.”
Pilots earn about $250,000 on average, according to UPS.
Gaudet declined to discuss the details of the extension.
