BECOME A UPS DRIVER AND MAKE $175,000 SALARY DUE TO NEW TEAMSTER CONTRACT-THOSE TYPES OF DEMANDS ONLY BANKRUPT TRUCKING COMPANIES-

Sean O’Brien and the UPS Layoffs

President Trump is pressing CEOs to announce new U.S. investments, but has he spoken with his friend Sean O’Brien, the Teamsters boss? United Parcel Service on Tuesday announced 20,000 job cuts and 73 facility closures this year in no small part thanks to Mr. O’Brien.

The UPS layoffs follow its January decision to cut half of its delivery business with Amazon, its largest customer. The shipper’s rising labor costs have made many Amazon deliveries less lucrative. Amazon can use its own network of mostly non-union drivers to deliver more of its own packages at lower cost than UPS.

Last year UPS announced 12,000 job cuts, mostly in management, owing to falling package volumes and rising labor costs from its 2023 Teamsters agreement. That contract raised average compensation for full-time drivers to $170,000 from $145,000 over five years. Teamsters at UPS get up to seven weeks of vacation and don’t pay healthcare premiums.

But fewer workers will now get this as UPS’s rising labor costs have forced cutbacks and prompted more automation at sorting centers. Mr. O’Brien on Tuesday said UPS “is contractually obligated to create 30,000 Teamsters jobs under our current national master agreement.” He’s misleading his members.

A Teamsters summary of the agreement says “UPS will offer part-time employees the opportunity to fill at least 22,500 permanent full-time job openings throughout its operations covered by this agreement,” which “shall include the obligation to create at least 7,500 new full-time jobs from existing part-time jobs” in the last three years of the agreement.

In other words, UPS agreed to make some part-time jobs full-time and give part-time employees a chance to fill some full-time openings. But the rich labor agreement Mr. O’Brien struck is now pricing workers out of jobs. It’s not the first time. His militancy helped drive trucking firm Yellow Corp. into bankruptcy in 2023, costing some 22,000 Teamsters their jobs.

Mr. Trump’s tariffs also won’t help UPS workers. Chinese deliveries to the U.S. have been highly profitable for UPS, but those are expected to decline. CEO Carol Tomé noted, however, that Chinese exports to the rest of the world might increase. “ We can move where supply chains move,” Ms. Tomé said. Alas, U.S. workers can’t.

Mr. Trump named Teamsters favorite Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor secretary in return for Mr. O’Brien’s non-endorsement last year. At least the union chief has protected one job.