United Parcel Service Inc. has become a hot employer since its union last month secured $30 billion in new money over a five-year contract. Online jobs board Indeed Inc. saw a more than 50% increase in searches with “UPS” or “United Parcel Service” in the job title the week after the deal announcement July 25, according to data shared with Bloomberg News. The trend doesn’t appear to be industry-wide, as searches for “delivery driver” didn’t see similar spikes. “UPS driver jobs near me” has also been a top trending search on Google in the two weeks since the deal was reached.
“We have seen strong interest in UPS jobs as a result of media coverage of the tentative agreement with the Teamsters,” Jim Mayer, a spokesperson at UPS, told Bloomberg News in an emailed statement. To head off a potential strike, on July 25 UPS agreed to boost starting wages for part-time workers to $21 an hour and improve working conditions, including adding air conditioning in new vehicles.
The tentative agreement has yet to be accepted by union members. The results of the ongoing ratification vote will be announced on August 22.
The news might not be as moving for shareholders. On August 8, UPS lowered its full-year profit forecast, in part due to rising costs after the tentative labor agreement. UPS said the guidance change was “primarily to reflect the volume impact from labor negotiations and the costs associated with the tentative agreement.”
UPS shared some details of the new labor contract on its earnings call. Full-time drivers will make around $170,000 in annual pay and benefits by the end of the five-year contract. Part-time union employees will earn at least $25.75 per hour and receive full health care and pension benefits.
This all stands far above industry standards, but enthusiastic UPS-wannabes should know that the path to a coveted driving position is far from a smooth ride. To become a driver, an employee first has to work “inside the building” as a package loader. These jobs pay less and are mostly part-time, since UPS has two package sorting rotations a day and the hub is mostly shut down in between those. They do, however, get the same benefits as other UPS workers. In a way, workers have to prove themselves before they can slip into the driver’s seat — which often takes several years.
Even once a driver, the company starts workers at the lowest level. The job won’t be a nice Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift. The route will most likely involve toting heavier packages and making many stops. It will, however, pay significantly better than its contractor counterparts at FedEx Ground or Amazon — neither of which are unionized.
The company is most likely not going to hire en masse right now. UPS volumes have been dropping for several quarters as pandemic demand wanes. But during peak seasons, the company boasts adding as many as 100,000 temporary workers.
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