The International Brotherhood of Teamsters representing over 340,000 UPS workers ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement with the company August 22, avoiding a potentially devastating strike. This comes almost a month after Teamsters leadership members announced they had reached a contract agreement with UPS July 25.

The union said that over 86% of participating teamsters voted to approve the contract, which will now be in retroactive effect August 1, according to CNN. The organization said that 58% of its members participated in the vote which ran from August 3 to August 22.

As part of the deal, full-time and part-time UPS Teamsters will receive $2.75 more per hour in 2023 and a total of $7.50 more per hour over the entirety of the five-year contract. The agreement will also create 7,500 new full-time Teamster jobs at UPS, as well as provide additional health and safety protections, including in-cab A/C for larger delivery trucks and air induction vents in the cargo compartments of package cars, after January 1, 2024.

“Our members just ratified the most lucrative agreement the Teamsters have ever negotiated at UPS. This contract will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers,” said Teamsters general president Sean M. O’Brien. “Teamsters have set a new standard and raised the bar for pay, benefits and working conditions in the package delivery industry. This is the template for how workers should be paid and protected nationwide, and non-union companies like Amazon better pay attention.”

Had a strike of all 340,000 Teamster members against UPS taken place, it could have been the costliest in U.S. history, according to an analysis conducted by the Anderson Economic Group (AEG), which set the cost of a 10-day strike at more than $7 billion.