Old North News

Two years ago this month, United Parcel Service (UPS) announced it would be growing in North Carolina, opening a new distribution center in Onslow County in 2025 that would "create 98 new jobs," according to a state press release.

That was then.

Now, as Onslow construction completes, UPS is unapologetically re-trenching, pursuing a "better not bigger" strategy that promises to shrink its distribution footprint and instead, close facilities in North Carolina and elsewhere, replacing warehouse workers and drivers with automation to lower costs.

Teamsters President Sean O'Brien visits the UPS facility in Greensboro in April 2024. He visited with Teamsters Local 391 President Mike McGaha. | Teamsters Local 391

What changed was the company's five-year national contract with the Teamsters, signed months after the Onslow announcement, in summer 2023. 

It guaranteed the average UPS driver $170,000 per year in annual pay and benefits by 2028.

Teamsters union president Sean M. O'Brien, who visited Charlotte that spring, threatened a strike of its 340,000 UPS employee members if the company agree to higher pay. He dubbed the deal "the most lucrative agreement the Teamsters have ever negotiated at UPS."

"This contract will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers," said O'Brien.

But a year after signing the Teamsters' deal, UPS announced it would re-build the company to require much fewer of them.

Last March, the company announced it would close "about 200" distribution centers between 2024 and 2027, replacing them with more automated ones. 

UPS CEO Carol Tome said the company would cut 12,000 jobs to start, saving the company an estimated $1 billion in wages and contractor fees.

And this was just the start.

"I have robots in my building"

Tome's announcement led to media finger pointing, and lit up UPS employee message boards.

"Why do UPS Drivers make so much?" asked Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Chris Sims. "The Teamsters authorized a strike... if a new contract agreement couldn't be reached."

UPS employs more than 12,000 in Louisville, home to its global air hub.

"How are people feeling about the Teamsters these days?" asked user "Delidave7" on the popular subreddit, r/UPSers. "I have robots in my building and Carol... is going hog wild." 

"I often see posts complaining that the union isn't protecting members against layoffs, or isn't actively preventing automation. Those things aren't going to happen," said user "JackiePoon27."

UPS cut 75 workers at its Charlotte night sorting facility, citing  “the lack of available work at this location moving forward."

New positions in the Onslow County facility, located in Holly Ridge, are not currently listed on the UPS Jobs web site.

UPS is was 20th largest employer in North Carolina in 2023, according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce Quarterly Census of Employment an Wages. It employs more than 1,000 people in Mecklenburg County, Guilford County and Wake County, more than 250 people in Chowan County, more than 100 people in Moore County and Wilkes County and more than 50 people in Jackson County and Macon County.

According to UPS, 70 percent of the company's 443,000 U.S. workers are represented by labor unions, mostly the Teamsters. 

There are three Teamsters' locals in North Carolina.

Teamsters Local 61 represents workers in western North Carolina and is headquartered in Asheville.

Teamsters Local 71 represents workers in Charlotte and Teamsters Local 391, workers in Raleigh and Greensboro.