Laval, August 4, 2010 – Last Thursday, UPS workers voted by mail to ratify a new work contract. This contract makes substantial improvements to both monetary and non-monetary clauses.

The agreement’s highlight concerns the pension plan, which was modified to strike out the 30-year pension cap. This represents a 38% gain for the workers.

“I believe that this represents the best collective agreement that our respective parties could possibly negotiate,” explains Val Neal, director of Teamsters Canada’s Parcels and Small Packages Division. “Together, we have built a solid foundation for the future.”

The new contract was ratified by more than 83% of the company’s workers, which marks a historical first. The revised union bargaining structure is probably responsible in part for this highly positive result, given rank and file members were provided the opportunity to play an active role in the bargaining process.

The Teamsters Union represents this small parcel delivery company’s 5,600 or so workers throughout Canada.

This excellent collective agreement sends a clear and unequivocal signal to FedEx Canada workers. Let us recall that the Teamsters Union launched an organizing campaign targeting these workers in 2009.

“Workers employed by small parcel delivery companies who are represented by the Teamsters definitely benefit from better conditions than their non-unionized peers,” adds Robert Bouvier, president of Teamsters Canada. “A company’s success depends on its human capital, and our organization is the only one able to defend workers’ best interests.”

The recently ratified work contract expires in August 2015.