In the midst of labor contract negotiations between UPS and Teamsters, the union representing roughly 340,000 UPS workers, the company made yet another operational adjustment to work schedules at UPS Worldport in Louisville, Kentucky.
Recently, UPS made an operational adjustment to eliminate all Friday day shifts at Worldport, the largest sorting and logistics facility in America. Prior to this adjustment, much of the Friday day shift was volume from the United States Postal Service.
A union official said USPS began to handle its Friday volume, leaving less work for UPS employees. A UPS official confirmed USPS “has come and taken that volume back because they can” and indicated the operational adjustment was less than ideal.
A UPS official said this adjustment was not related to the ongoing contract negotiations but instead is a result of the decline in package volume UPS is receiving.
UPS saw roughly 1.2 million fewer packages on an average day in the first quarter of 2023 than it did in 2022. This represents a more than 5% decrease in average daily package volume, according to quarterly filings. The decrease in volume also led to revenue falling. The company experienced a $137 million loss in revenue compared with last year from U.S. domestic packages using the next day air, deferred or ground shipping methods.
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“We anticipate a continued decline in average daily volume throughout the remainder of the year,” UPS stated in its quarterly filing.
At this time, UPS said it believes this operational adjustment only impacts the Worldport facility, a UPS official said. However, Brian Hamm, vice president of Teamsters Local 89, the union representing roughly 10,000 UPS workers in Louisville, said in a Facebook video on May 30 that shifts are being eliminated at UPS hubs across the country.
“UPS has certain rights under the contract and the law and one of them is to make changes to their business models and that’s what UPS is doing,” Hamm said.
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A union official confirmed employees were told in advance of the operational adjustments and that it would impact their daily schedules. For the employees who worked on Fridays, most of their schedules have been shifted to Sunday through Thursday. A UPS official said workers “didn’t necessarily lose work” but “it may have impacted their opportunity for overtime.”
“Any changes that have been made … has nothing to do with anything other than volume, because the market has changed,” a UPS official told the Louisville Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Contact reporter Olivia Evans at [email protected] or on Twitter at @oliviamevans_
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: UPS Worldport in Louisville eliminates Friday day shifts
Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ups-eliminates-friday-day-shifts-135908439.html