UPS on Friday announced its anticipated voluntary buyout offers to all full-time delivery drivers, for the first time in its history.
The news comes as UPS navigates “an unprecedented business landscape” and a massive network reconfiguration, it said in a statement.
The Teamsters union, which represents about 340,000 UPS employees, is urging its members to reject the offers.
“Our members cannot be bought off,” General President Sean O’Brien said in a social media statement, calling the offers “illegal and haphazard.”
The package, which would be in addition to any earned retirement benefits, provides $1,800 per year of service at UPS, regardless of tenure — with a minimum payout of $10,000 and no cap.
This spring, UPS said it would cut 20,000 jobs and close 10% of its buildings amid a cutback in its deliveries for Amazon and a larger push to make the network more “efficient.”
The company is in the midst of overhauling its entire network, which will ultimately close 200 facilities and leave 400 locations that are “either partially or fully automated,” UPS U.S. President Nando Cesarone said earlier this spring.
The company also cut 12,000 management roles last year.
The Teamsters said its members were sent letters about the buyouts Thursday.
“UPS is obligated to create jobs, but they want to sell out the American worker instead,” O’Brien said.
“The Teamsters aren’t buying it, and we’re not for sale.”
Just two years ago, UPS struck a new five-year contract with the Teamsters union that included pay boosts, promises to add air conditioning to package delivery vehicles and agreements to hire additional Teamsters.
On Friday the company said it remains “committed” to the contract pledges, which include creating 7,500 full-time Teamsters jobs and offering part-time employees the chance to apply to about 22,500 full-time roles.
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