Business

UPS Pilots Ratify New Contract

ATLANTA (AP) ― UPS Inc. pilots have approved a new contract with the world's largest shipping carrier, ending a lengthy battle that included threats of a walkout.

The Independent Pilots Association said Thursday that 56.5 percent of UPS pilots who voted approved of the deal, which runs through 2011 and provides higher pay and health care premiums. The deal reached between the union and management was announced on June 30, after more than three years of talks.

Roughly 2,652 pilots were eligible to vote.

Terms of the new contract include immediate hourly pay raises of 17.7 percent for captains, IPA spokesman Brian Gaudet said. Pay for first officers will immediately rise by between 18 percent and 25.8 percent per hour depending on length of service. There are also pay raises in later years of the contract.

UPS pilots had been making on average more than $175,000 a year, according to the company.

Health care premiums for family policies will increase about $200 a month for all pilots, Gaudet said. Signing bonuses ranging from $34,000 to $60,000 for pilots are also part of the contract, he said. Pilots also secured protections to make sure they have a hand in UPS' expanded international flying, the union said.

"From the beginning of our process, our pilots wanted to see a comprehensive contract. We call it a correctional contract," IPA president Tom Nicholson said in a conference call after the vote was announced. "We needed to make up ground."

UPS officials said they were pleased by the deal being approved.

"We are thrilled to have a ratified contract," said Bob Lekites, vice president of UPS Airline and International Operations. "We are excited about standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our people and moving forward to serve our customers and grow our business."

The Atlanta-based company and its pilot union had been grappling over pay, pensions, work rules and health benefits, among other things.

UPS, also known as United Parcel Service, and its pilots had been in federal mediated talks since June 2004. Its pilots contract became amendable on Dec. 31, 2003, and had remained unchanged since then.

At one point, the union had said it was considering asking for release from federal mediation so it could strike.

Nicholson said that while the talks were at times contentious, there aren't any hard feelings between the sides.

"It's not a bank robbery, it's not a holdup, it's a give-and-take process," he said.

Under the Railway Labor Act, the pilots couldn't strike while under the direction of the federal mediator. The mediator never released the sides from talks, which continued and were ultimately successful.

UPS shares slipped 3 cents to $70.51 in late morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

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