Posted on 07/07/2025 4:46:43 AM PDT by Salman
(WASHINGTON) – United Parcel Service (UPS) is expected to unveil an illegal plan later this month to buyout full-time employees represented by the Teamsters, a corporate scheme that will directly violate the union’s national contract protecting 340,000 delivery workers.
The multibillion-dollar company’s Driver Voluntary Severance Plan (DVSP), which UPS has not yet publicly disclosed, would offer cash to drivers to initiate early retirement or quit their job. The DVSP, likely to be announced to workers in the coming weeks, would leave most drivers without quality health insurance if they retire under the program and would undermine UPS’s own legal commitment to create 22,500 more jobs under its current Teamsters contract.
“UPS is trying to weasel its way out of creating good union jobs here in America by dangling insulting buyouts in front of Teamsters drivers. It is an illegal violation of our national contract,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “UPS is obligated to establish tens of thousands of new full-time jobs under the agreement. But CEO Carol Tomé and UPS’s corporate managers are hoping that if they offer paltry severance packages to enough workers, no one will notice the company is setting the union’s contract on fire. UPS Teamsters work too damn hard to be treated with such disrespect.”
Proposed cash offers would be far less than what rank-and-file Teamsters now earn and could continue to make over the life of the current agreement. Teamsters contracts have long ensured that UPS drivers employed 30 years or more receive employer-paid health care throughout retirement, a strong union benefit that would not be guaranteed to all workers under UPS’s severance plan.
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(Excerpt) Read more at teamster.org ...
Poop on UPS as I’ve had nothing but substandard service from them for years whether it’s losing or damaging packages. Take your pick.
Interesting. Is the union looking out for its members best interest, or is it trying to keep its membership count up? The are not necessarily the same thing.
“Illegal”?
Seems like this is a contractual dispute. UPS might be fully within its rights to let employees go, especially in “Right to Work” states.
I prefer USPS as it’s Constitutionally-based (but run like a socialist public works scam) and FEDEX overall gives some of the best service - I even have an account with them.
but SCREW the unions. Who OWNS UPS, the unions, or the shareholders?
Reaping what they sowed. For years they gave reduced shipping prices to Amazon and upped the price of shipping on the regular Joe. It became cheaper to send my kids something new rather than ship them something they left at home.
All while Amazon worked to replace the need for UPS altogether. The Teamsters didn't care they thought they would unionize Amazon. So they sat by while all this happened. UPS management failed UPS, the Teamsters failed their UPS members. Amazon has been laughing all the way to the bank.
In my hood the Prime trucks are everywhere - UPS not so much. USPS also has receded.
I don’t prefer USPS.
In the last few years we have had mail and packages lost, delivered to the wrong address, delivered days late.
That includes priority mail and mail requiring a signature.
Also includes my husband’s meds. On more than one occasion.
Interestingly this started to happen after I became a Trump donor.
And we are the only family on the street with service this bad.
Now we drive to get what we need, even if it means hours in the car, or pay through the nose for the Boys in Brown or FedEx.
We’ve always had excellent service from the latter two, and excellent customer service on the rare occasions when there was an issue.
The USPS, as presently constituted, needs to go the way of the dino..
It exists to pad the government payrolls, and delivers mail when it feels like it.
And I’ve heard that sentiment repeated by people who work there.
As for the Boys in Brown: You leadership is planning on screwing you silly. Don’t let them. If you feel you must have a union, get one that works for you, not Deep State.
“Is UPS doomed?”
Probably, if the Teamsters UNION insists on representing the drivers. But what the hell, they did have a good run!
Perhaps neither
I will argue that the union is attempting to enforce a contract that is no longer viable as the result of drastic changes in the UPS business volume
The UPS at present and going forward is not the same as that signing the contract that turns out to be inflexible
Yeah, something tells me that the Teamsters’
claim that a voluntary buyout is illegal may not be quite accurate....
Exactly. Employees who choose to accept a buyout will no longer be paying dues to the union. That's all this is about.
This is fallout from UPS exiting the Amazon relationship.
FedEx often leaves packages in the unsecured foyer, where they get stolen.
Amazon is the biggest delivery service in America. They drive trucks that are just like UPS trucks. UPS is way more expensive than USPS or Federal Express for online sellers. UPS has to adapt to current conditions or they go out of business. Teamsters doesn’t care they want union dues.
This is about boosting profits even higher so the C-Suite can enrich themselves by worsening service. The Teamsters should strike.
This is fallout from UPS exiting the Amazon relationship.
One that should’ve never been made.
USPS has an AZN deal, too.
Helps if you’re a gov’t run entity, I guess.
If UPS can’t afford the current contract—and I think that’s the case—the union needs to adapt. I remember when a reporter asked Lee Iaccoca while he was the President of Chrysler what the workers got out the concession-laden contract he hammered out with the UAW. He turned around and stared directly at them and said: “A job, you idiot!”
USPS is a little less but a regular ground package can take up to 10 days to deliver.
Until Amazon took off rates used to be much more reasonable. I send cash for gifts or send a gift via Walmart/amazon/target/miscellaneous online retailer. I shop for almost nothing at local establishments if I have to ship it.
> Interesting. Is the union looking out for its members best interest, or is it trying to keep its membership count up? <
The Teamsters may just be:
1/ Trying to protect the terms of the collective bargaining agreement as they see it
2/ Turning this into a dispute to try to negotiate or arbitrate better terms of a buyout
3/ Pitching a fit because that’s what they always do
Either way 20,000 union members will be leaving the payroll and will no longer be paying dues. UPS will just follow current terms of the contract and lay people off.
My former employer, during Covid, offered an attractive early retirement package with union agreement. I, and 1000 coworkers, took advantage of it. For every one of us senior folks who left, the company was able to keep two junior folks on board. This allowed for a rapid return to normal when the Covid hoax was called off.
EC
https://youtu.be/g7sVsFGTeKE?si=PPaWfutsrrCNodsf
It is a insanely good job as a full time driver with hours that get insane 4th quarter, but what amazon has proven, you can get buy with 35 hour a week and a bunch or surge contractors.
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