LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville-based Teamsters Local 89, one of the most important strongholds in the UPS network, provided the sole dissenting vote on Monday among 162 local unions that reviewed the Teamsters' tentative contract agreement with UPS, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the private union meeting.
UPDATE, Aug. 3, 2023: Louisville union endorses UPS contract after 'concerns' addressed
It wasn't immediately clear why Local 89's representatives declined to endorse the contract, which Teamsters leaders have called "game-changing" and the richest in the union's history.
The roughly 340,000 Teamster-represented UPS workers — not the leaders of their local unions — will decide whether the five-year contract goes into effect in a nationwide vote that starts Thursday.
But rank-and-file workers typically look to their local leaders for guidance and interpretation of the contract's terms.
In Teamsters procedure, agreements are first reviewed by a pair of designees from each local. The locals, in turn, help explain the deal to their members.
Representatives of 162 local unions looked over the contract at a closed-door meeting in Washington on Monday, with 161 locals voting to endorse it and only Local 89 dissenting. Another 14 locals "failed to show up" to the meeting, the union's leadership said.
Local 89's dissent is potentially significant because it's one of the biggest of the 176 Teamsters locals that represent UPS employees.
Local 89 has about 12,000 UPS members, the majority of whom work at UPS' global air hub in Louisville known as Worldport. The proposed contract covers a total of about 340,000 UPS employees across the U.S.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman at a rally outside UPS Worldport in Louisville on July 18, 2023.
Local 89 is also the home of the No. 2 ranking official in the Teamsters, General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman, who helped spearhead the contract talks with UPS. Before winning the international leadership post in 2021, Zuckerman had been the president of Local 89 since 1999.
The "no" vote comes even as members of Local 89's leadership have acknowledged significant gains in the contract. The union's spokesman said last week Teamsters were "quite proud" of the terms, including annual raises far richer than in previous deals.
Local 89 President Avral Thompson did not return a call for comment on Tuesday, and Local 89 offered no statement on the Monday vote.
The union's international leadership declined to comment.
On a call for members Monday evening, Teamsters International President Sean O'Brien reiterated his support for the contract, saying the deal "sets the tone for the entire labor movement."
Zuckerman added that there was wide agreement during the earlier meeting of local union representatives Monday that the contract is a good deal.
"We dove into the details. We looked at how much UPS will be spending each year, and the union's economists analyzed UPS' finances and compared our gains in 2023 to what was achieved in 2018 and earlier," Zuckerman said. "There's no question about it. And there were no lingering questions in the room."
It's not unprecedented for local unions to dissent during the contract review. Some voted 'no' during the last round in 2018, but a tally wasn't kept because the union took only a voice vote.
At that time, there was significant division between then-Teamsters President James Hoffa and local leaders, including Zuckerman in Louisville and O'Brien in Boston.
The union rank-and-file went on to reject the 2018 deal in a national vote, but the Hoffa-led union deployed a procedural tactic to impose the contract over members' objection.
