UPS has announced that it will cut its delivery of Amazon packages by over 50% by the middle of next year. What will this mean for UPS Teamsters and how can we protect our jobs?
Why They’re Doing It
First, this isn’t happening because UPS is in financial trouble.
UPS is highly profitable. The company made $8.9 billion in profits last year. Now, UPS is reducing Amazon deliveries to make even more.
Amazon accounts for 20% to 25% of UPS’s packages in the U.S. But UPS makes less profit per Amazon package. That’s one reason UPS has already been cutting the number of Amazon packages it delivers every year.
“Amazon is our largest customer, but it’s not our most profitable customer,” CEO Carol Tomé told investor analysts.
UPS is reducing the amount of Amazon volume to increase the company’s profits per package and overall operating margins.
“Better Not Bigger”
This is all part of the company’s “better not bigger” strategy which puts more emphasis on profit margins than on volume and job creation.
It’s the same reason that UPS is closing rural buildings and older facilities and building modern, automated hubs. UPS told investors it wants to close 10% of its facilities.
UPS Teamsters want the company to be successful to protect and create good union jobs.
CEO Carol Tome wants higher profit margins. She’s catering to Wall Street. Their idea of “better” is very different from ours. So what do we do?
Focus on Contract Enforcement and Union Action
It’s been a month of whiplash for UPS Teamsters. Earlier this month, Surepost ended and volume surged. Now UPS is announcing Amazon volume will drop over the next 18 months.
As union members, we need to focus on what we can control. That’s not volume. It’s contract enforcement.
When volume and excessive overtime surges, 9.5 rights and 8-hour requests are tools we have to fight excessive overtime. When volume drops, they become tools to protect jobs by distributing the work.
Inside workers have other tools, including supervisors working grievances and protecting our daily guarantee.
The company has their agenda which is higher profit margins. Our agenda is enforcing our contract and protecting good union jobs.
UPS Teamsters need to get behind our union’s efforts to organize Amazon and stop the race to the bottom in our industry.
Now more than ever, we need to be protecting ourselves by enforcing the contract and uniting as Teamsters to protect good union jobs.
Check out our most recent webinar for tips on contract enforcement and protecting ourselves from discipline: