No drones or driverless vehicles for delivering packages — that’s one of the major demands from the Teamsters labor union in the big contract negotiation it’s undertaking with UPS this week.

The union wants to ban UPS from using such new-fangled technology, which the logistics company has been reportedly testing. That’s just one of the negotiating points on the table for one of the nation’s largest collective bargaining agreements, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal.

UPS confirmed to CNBC the details of the Teamsters proposal. The current agreement affects 260,000 full and part-time UPS employees and expires in July.

“UPS is focused on a contract that provides the flexibility needed to remain highly competitive, given the challenge of an increasingly crowded logistics segment,” the company told CNBC.

UPS has to balance Teamsters’ demands with changes to the industry because the two sides last struck an agreement in 2013.

Other demands outlined in an 83-page document submitted to UPS this week include hiring another 10,000 workers and halting deliveries after 9 p.m., including during the peak-delivery holiday months of November and December. UPS said it’s hired 40,000 more Teamster workers in the U.S. in the last five years.

The negotiations come amid new challenges and opportunities in the delivery space. Surging online sales have brought more business to companies such as UPS, Fedex and the government’s USPS. There is also increased competition with new and smaller entrants vying for a piece of the growing package-delivery market.

Read the Journal’s full report.

Source: Tech CNBC
Union heavyweight wants to ban UPS from using drones or driverless vehicles