Aircraft mechanics ratify new contract with UPS

After more than five years of negotiations, the pact includes an immediate 17.72 percent pay raise, the union says.    UPS aircraft mechanics and related employees at UPS Air Cargo have voted to ratify a new five-year contract with UPS that guarantees an immediate 17.72 percent pay raise, Teamsters Local 2727 announced Friday.
   The contract, which runs through Nov. 1, 2023, also includes yearly raises, which will result in a 32.61 percent pay increase from current rates by the end of the pact, and protects the healthcare package with no premiums, according to a press release.
   The new agreement, which covers more than 1,400 mechanics and related employees, will make the UPS Air Cargo mechanics “the highest-paid air cargo mechanics in the country by a wide margin,” said the union in a news release.
   The two sides had been in negotiations since October 2013. Members of Teamsters Local 2727 rejected a labor agreement in October after a tentative deal had been reached in August, which included an immediate 16 percent pay increase and 3 percent annual pay hikes.