UPS Inc. has reinstated 35 unionized workers at its Louisville, Kentucky, ground hub who it had laid off late last week, thus averting a threatened work stoppage by the Teamsters union that could have affected operations at UPS’ ground hub and its primary air hub there.
The 35 specialist and administrative workers were reinstated with full back pay and will return to their positions on their next scheduled workdays, the union said in a Facebook post.
The affected workers at UPS’ (NYSE: UPS) Centennial ground hub, who were laid off last Thursday, had joined Teamsters Local 89 in Louisville in October. According to a Teamsters communique on Thursday, UPS laid off the workers on grounds that management could perform their duties. Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien warned that same day that UPS was prepared to strike at both UPS facilities if the situation wasn’t resolved by Monday.
O’Brien and General Secretary Fred Zuckerman intervened on Friday to discuss the matter with UPS executives and an “amicable resolution” was reached that night to return the employees to work, the union said.
Local 89 represents more than 2,000 workers at the Centennial hub and more than 12,000 Teamsters at its primary air hub, known as Worldport, in Louisville.