Teamsters Approve New Trucking Contract Raising Wage to $14.71 in Last of 3 Years

WASHINGTON — The Teamsters Union announced Friday that its rank and file has ratified a new, three-year contract with the trucking industry.

The union said 62,296 Teamsters, or 53.2% of those voting, cast ballots in favor of ratification. Teamsters who voted against the pact totaled 54,873, the union said, and 2,106 ballots were disqualified.

The new contract provides a base wage for a veteran Teamster of $13.71 an hour, which would rise to $14.71 in the last year of the contract. The base wage under the old contract, which expired March 31, was $13.21.

A group of union dissidents had challenged the ratification vote in a lawsuit alleging that 40,000 part-time Teamsters were unfairly prohibited from voting on the agreement, which would cut their wages by more than $2 an hour.

Teamster spokesman Duke Zeller said part-time workers traditionally have not been allowed to vote. The Teamsters who filed the suit are members of a dissident group seeking to oust the union’s current leadership.