UPS Healthcare workers in Stockton are the first in the company’s growing nonunion division to join the Teamsters. Now, they’re celebrating a court order from the U.S. Court of Appeals certifying the union and ordering the company to the bargaining table with Stockton Local 439.

UPS Healthcare workers in Stockton first won their union election in 2022. But UPS Healthcare mounted bogus legal challenges to delay bargaining. 

The court order certifies the union election and orders the company to come to the bargaining table. 

Taking on UPS’ “Better Not Bigger” Strategy

UPS is cutting volume, closing package centers and consolidating sorting into automated hubs.

Under UPS’s “better, not bigger” strategy, CEO Carol Tome is focusing on high-value, non-union speciality logistics business: UPS Healthcare, which is part of UPS Supply Chain Solutions. 

These nonunion subsidiaries employ tens of thousands of workers. They accounted for $12.7 billion in revenue in 2024.

In 2023, non-union UPS Specialists began to join the Teamsters nationwide. UPS Health and UPS Supply Chain Solutions workers can do the same. 

Beating Retaliation, Busting the Union Busters

Daniel Valdez, a UPS Healthcare worker who helped lead the organizing drive in Stockton, says he got involved “so we can get the wages and benefits that other UPS Teamsters get.”

UPS Healthcare terminated Valdez in retaliation for organizing. After nine months, he won his job back. Now, he’s ready to win a strong contract.

“UPS uses phony union busters in the shop and the courts because they want to keep UPS Healthcare and Supply Chain Solutions non-union,” said Sal Lomeli, Secretary/Treasurer of Teamsters Local 439. “These workers proved that we can fight back and win.”