UPS drivers on track to get air-conditioned trucks for the first time

With a strike authorization vote underway, union leaders and UPS announced a tentative deal to add air conditioning to the package carrier’s iconic brown delivery vehicles for the first time.

“The Teamsters and UPS agreed to tentative language to equip the delivery and logistics company’s fleet of vehicles with air conditioning systems, new heat shields, and additional fans,” the union said in a statement late Tuesday.

UPS confirmed it reached an agreement on heat safety with the Teamsters, saying in a statement that the tentative language “includes new measures that build on important actions rolled out to UPS employees in the spring, including new cooling gear and enhanced training.”

The announcement follows years of complaints by labor leaders — at UPS and other major retail and logistics companies — that working in hot weather can become unbearable and even dangerous.

Read the full report from NBC News.