On Friday, August 15, 2025, Teamster members at Louisville Packaging ratified a historic new three-year agreement by an overwhelming 93%. Just six days prior to the ratification, members had unanimously voted to authorize a strike if necessary, which was one of the factors that resulted in this contract victory.
Economic highlights include general wage increases of $3.95 over the life of the agreement, with the first $2.00 going into effect upon ratification. This marks the largest wage increases ever obtained at Louisville Packaging, and is a 44% increase over the previous contract.
“This contract is a huge leap forward for our members at Louisville Packaging and will seriously improve a lot of our folks lives,” said Business Agent Stephen Piercey. “We’re very proud of what we accomplished in negotiations, but none of it would have been possible if it weren’t for the fact that our members were ready and willing to fight for a better contract.”
Additional economic highlights include increases to pay for leads, senior operators, flammable room employees, 2nd shift employees and 3rd shift employees, increases in yearly allowances for prescription safety glasses and safety shoe allowances, a significant reduction in how long it takes workers to earn their 3rd and 4th weeks of vacation, improvements to short term disability, first time language for long term disability, and more.
Another extremely important improvement is first time language covering temporary employees. The Company has traditionally used temp agencies in place of direct hiring and eventually promote the temporary employees to full-time status. However, there was no guidelines on when a full-time position had to be offered, and some workers were kept as temporary for six months to a year. With the new contract in place, temporary employees who work 720 hours must now be offered full-time employment.
A great amount of progress was also made on the non-economic side of the contract with some of the highlights being significant improvements to the attendance policy, discipline policy, grievance timeline, transfer and promotion process, drug and alcohol policy and much more.
We would like to thank Business Agent Piercey and our bargaining committee, consisting of Chief Steward Kevin Kerns, Steward David Wilburn, and rank-and-file members Jeff Shed and Jason Bryant. The bargaining committee’s extensive knowledge of the job combined with their passion for winning a strong contract contributed greatly to this victory.
From President Thompson, Secretary-Treasurer Cooper and everyone at Teamsters Local 89, congratulations to our members at Louisville Packaging for standing together and winning a great contract!
