BrownCafe

Teamsters union members furious with a decision by union leaders to ratify a five-year contract covering UPS Inc.’s (NYSE:UPS) small-package workers, despite the contract proposal being rejected by the majority of voters, have vowed to force lead negotiators back to the bargaining table with the transport and logistics giant.

At UPS Freight, the company’s LTL unit, matters could quickly come to a head. After decisively rejecting the tentative contract proposal agreed to by union leadership and the company, workers at UPS Freight on Oct. 11 said they would cancel a 30-day contract extension when it expires on Nov. 12. Unless an agreement is reached by then, 12,000 unionized UPS Freight workers could walk off their jobs.

About 62 percent of UPS Freight employees voted down their 5-year contract proposal, citing dissatisfaction with driver sub-contracting language and substandard wage increases.

A man has died after an accident at the UPS facility on Mercer Road.

Just before noon, Lexington Police and Fire Departments were dispatched to UPS in reference to a workplace injury.

A 43-year-old man was conducting equipment maintenance when the injury was sustained. The victim was transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased.

Parson has formed a special bond with Tammy Patrick, a delivery driver for UPS. The familiar UPS brown truck means more than just delivery time. It signals a visit from her special friend.

In the small town of Jasper, there’s a little girl who has faced some pretty big trials but has come out with an even bigger smile.

Parson Blue Herrington was born with a rare genetic disorder that effected her lungs from birth. She struggled with supplemental oxygen and had a double lung transplant at 11 months old.

Each day she takes 12 different medications and is fed nutrition through a tube, but you wouldn’t even be able to tell.

Workhorse Group Inc. has begun building its lightweight electric step van that it says can carry a class-leading 6,000 pounds and go 100 miles before recharging.

The first trucks off the line in Union City, Ind., will be delivered to UPS as part of a 50-truck test fleet. If UPS likes the performance, it will complete an order for 950 trucks that it placed in June. Workhorse said it had other orders for early production but declined to name the customers.

The NGEN-1000, which gets the equivalent of 40 mpg, weighs 10,001 pounds fully loaded and 4,000 pounds empty. The cost to travel 100 miles would be about $6 based on the national average cost of just over 10 cents per kilowatt hour.