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UPS Automation Used To Cut Jobs, Endanger Workers

November 20, 2025 Fight Back! News. , , , ,
Arlington, TX – Plans are moving forward for UPS to automate much of the work at its Lonestar Hub. UPS has framed the automation push as “Modernization” and has favored a “Better, Not Bigger” policy which means reducing overall volume while increasing profits for the company. UPS is anticipating a 6% gain in revenue per package as a result of recent changes; however, they also expect to see a decline of 8.5% in average daily volume. They expect to achieve this by focusing less on volume and more on transporting goods that bring a higher profit per package delivered.

The Unraveling Of Workplace Protections For Delivery Drivers

November 8, 2025 Daniel Schneider, Portside. , , , ,
American households have become dependent on Amazon. The numbers say it all: In 2024, 83% of U.S. households received deliveries from Amazon, representing over 1 million packages delivered each day and 9 billion individual items delivered same-day or next-day every year. In remarkably short order, the company has transformed from an online bookseller into a juggernaut that has reshaped retailing. But its impact isn’t limited to how we shop. Behind that endless stream of packages are more than a million people working in Amazon fulfillment centers and delivery vehicles.

Indiana Teamsters Take Fight To UPS CEO Over Contract Violations

August 21, 2025 Fight Back! News. , , , ,
Indianapolis, IN – More than 60 members of Teamsters Local 135 rallied outside the UPS facility in Plainfield on Tuesday, August 19, as company UPS CEO Carol Tomé visited the site. The action put the company’s top executive face-to-face with UPS workers’ anger over rampant contract violations, illegal buyout schemes, and building closures that threaten job security and working conditions. “Local 135 has a simple message for Carol Tomé,” said Dustin Roach, president of Teamsters Local 135. “We're done tolerating corporate games and illegal practices.” The rally took place outside the UPS Plainfield hub, the largest in the Indianapolis metro area. Teamsters quickly raised a giant “greedy pig” inflatable, said to represent Tomé’s tenure as CEO, and carried signs reading “No way Tomé” and “UPS lies.”

Atlanta Teamsters Confront Management Over Heat Safety

August 14, 2025 Alex Carson, Fight Back! News. , , , ,
Atlanta, GA- On Tuesday, August 12, Teamsters out of Local 728 at UPS SMART hub presented a petition to management with the signatures of about 100 rank-and-file workers. The petition demands that UPS identify designated areas in the hub as shade or cool zones and educate all SMART workers of their rights to use such areas for cooldown breaks. Cool zones were won as an addition to Article 18, section 27 of the 2023 Teamsters contract. But the gain has gone unrecognized in many hubs, including SMART, which is the third largest UPS hub. This has prompted rank-and-file Teamsters to take action in enforcing the contract and asserting their power on the shop floor. By not designating cool zones, many workers are unaware of their right to take a cooldown break when they feel overheated. This is in addition to their ten-minute break.

Teamsters Union Exposes UPS Plan To Reduce Union Jobs Through Buyouts

July 10, 2025 Sorcha Lona and Siobhan Moore, Fight Back! News. , , ,
Minneapolis, MN – On July 3, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters published an alert laying out a plan by the United Parcel Service (UPS) to offer buyouts for UPS drivers to retire early in exchange for cash payouts. When the Teamsters sent out the alert, UPS had not yet announced the plan publicly. Then on July 4, the company announced the plan which they are calling the Driver Voluntary Severance Program (DVSP). For many drivers, taking the buyout would forfeit benefits they have accrued as part of their contract. Carol Tomé is the CEO of UPS, and the company has been focused recently on plans to reduce jobs at UPS across the country.

Minneapolis Teamsters Fight For Safety In Summer Heat

July 6, 2025 Sorcha Lona, Fight Back! News. , , , , , ,
Minneapolis – Local 638 Teamsters tabled at the northeast Minneapolis UPS hub on Thursday, July 3. They distributed flyers on heat safety and union contract enforcement. Drivers coming in, and warehouse workers leaving for the day, stopped to learn about their rights, grab some lemonade, and share experiences as temperatures reached the 90-plus range in Minneapolis. Inside the warehouse and inside package cars, temperatures are regularly five to ten degrees higher for workers. As the result of a months-long contract campaign and credible strike threat in 2023, UPS workers won strong contract language. This requires UPS to install 2500 new water fountains, 18,000 new warehouse fans, and 28,000 new or replacement delivery vehicles equipped with air conditioning over the life of the five-year contract.

Texas: Rank And File Advance Anti-Harassment Campaign At UPS

February 9, 2025 Fight Back! News. , , ,
Arlington, TX— Teamsters of the shop floor committee at the UPS hub in Arlington conducted an anti-harassment workshop, February 2, to highlight the protections afforded to workers under article 37 of the UPS national contract with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The workshop was led and primarily attended by rank-and-file members, with participants including stewards and union staff. Article 37 contains the rights won by UPS Teamsters that protect workers from harassment; but workers are often unaware of their rights protecting them from such harassment or often do not realize the mistreatment they are enduring from management constitutes harassment at all.

UPS Cuts Back On Amazon Deliveries, Announces Building Closures

February 7, 2025 Eliza Schultz and Bill Aiman, Fight Back! News. , , , ,
Chicago, IL – On Thursday January 30, UPS announced a major cutback in Amazon package deliveries, with the goal of dropping over 50% of the volume from the company’s largest customer by June 2026. In conjunction, UPS is looking to permanently shutter 10% of buildings, shrink their fleet of vehicles and lay off workers. The plan to close more buildings comes on the heels of the hard fought 2023 Teamsters contract, which resulted in major wage gains for part-timers and the end of the 2-tier system among package car drivers. The credible threat of a strike forced UPS to concede to the union’s demands in contract negotiations and look elsewhere for cost savings.

Momentum For Open Bargaining Grows For The Letter Carriers

April 11, 2024 Tyler Vasseur, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Hit by years of inflation, and inspired by last year’s contract struggles and big wins by Big 3 auto workers and UPS Teamsters, members of the Letter Carriers (NALC) at the U.S. Postal Service are getting organized to fight for open bargaining. So far 23 NALC branches and one NALC state association have passed an open bargaining resolution first put forward by NALC Branch 9 in Minneapolis. In many more branches, members are discussing the resolution and plan to bring it forward in the weeks to come. The resolution calls for NALC leaders to articulate clear demands up front, and to give regular updates about the progress of bargaining.

Putting Members First: Ron Carey’s Lessons For Labor Movement Reform

April 2, 2024 Steve Early and Rand Wilson, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
Books about union presidents are usually penned by professional writers -- either academic historians, labor journalists, or paid flacks. Past accounts of the life and work of labor organization chiefs like John L. Lewis, Walter Reuther, Jimmy Hoffa, or Cesar Chavez have run the gamut from hagiographic to constructively critical. Few have had a biographer whose view of their leadership role is rooted in first-hand experience as a blue-collar worker in the same industry and union. Ken Reiman’s personal connection to the subject matter of Ron Carey and the Teamsters (Monthly Review Press, 2024) resulted from his own career as a UPS driver and activist in the local union that Carey led before becoming president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in the 1990s.

UPS To Close 200 Hubs, Cut Teamster Jobs

April 1, 2024 Bill Aiman, Fight Back News!. , , , , ,
Atlanta, GA – United Parcel Service (UPS) announced on March 26 that the company plans to close up to 200 UPS hubs and automate sorting at the remaining hubs within the next five years. The plan is part of a broader initiative by UPS called “Network of the Future” which looks to automate union jobs with a goal of saving the company $3 billion in labor costs by 2028. UPS made $6.7 billion in profit last year and UPS CEO Carol Tomé took home $23.4 million in total compensation. The plan was announced at the UPS investor and analyst conference held at Worldport in Louisville, Kentucky.

To Beat The Heat, We Can’t Rely On Management

September 21, 2023 Alexandra Bradbury, Labor Notes. , , ,
The death of UPS driver Chris Begley, 57, who collapsed in August while making a delivery in 103-degree Texas heat, was no isolated incident. Monitoring co-workers for signs of heat exhaustion has become a routine feature of the job, says fellow driver Seth Pacic, a shop steward in Begley’s union, Teamsters Local 767. Pacic has learned to discern over the phone when a co-worker needs to find air conditioning ASAP—and when they’re deteriorating so badly that he should call paramedics and brave management’s wrath.

The UPS Teamsters Contract Has Been Ratified – What Now?

August 26, 2023 Teddy Ostrow and RuWalsh, The Real News Network. , , , ,
On Tuesday, August 22, the Teamsters union announced that its members voted to ratify the national UPS contract by 86.3% –  and with record turnout. Workers won significant raises, the abolition of the two-tier driver system, air conditioning in package cars, thousands of new full-time jobs, and more. In our previous episode, we discussed the gains of the tentative agreement and the years of Teamsters organizing it took to make them possible, including the past year’s contract campaign which built a credible strike threat. In this episode, we dug deeper into the various layers of members’ reactions to the contract, as well as what’s required of the membership to enforce it and build on it moving forward.

So You Wanna Practice Picket? Here’s How We Did It

August 25, 2023 Dane Rohl, Labor Notes. , , , ,
For the first time since I started working at UPS 15 years ago, it feels like unions across the country are on the rise. UPS Teamsters mobilized for a massive contract campaign to win the best contract we’ve ever had. Now it’s the Auto Workers’ turn. Like in the Teamsters, UAW members recently elected new leadership that will stand up for you—and more importantly, actually allow members to stand up for yourselves. I’ve been following the contract fights at the Big 3 automakers. You’re fighting for a lot of the same things we fought for: ending two-tier, a fair raise, and control of your time.

Despite Big Teamster Wins At UPS, Some Expectations Outpace Gains

August 15, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Some 323,000 U.S. workers have struck so far this year. Another 340,000 were in gear to strike, until their nationwide mobilization forced the company to concede. UPS Teamsters are voting on the deal through August 22. “After 25 years of [former Teamsters President James P.] Hoffa and his givebacks, we came out ahead,” said Eugene Braswell, a delivery driver and Local 804 steward. “This is the first time in all those years that I have a national contract that I can vote yes on.” How are UPSers making sense of their gains at the table? I spoke with two dozen rank and filers. Some were relieved they didn’t have to strike.
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