Delivery giant UPS has announced plans to cut 20,000 jobs, but it’s not due to President Donald Trump’s ongoing tariff wars, CNN reports.
The reason: the increased use of technology in the industry and efforts to minimize its business with Amazon, UPS’s largest customer. The company wants to reduce its Amazon business by half by mid-2026.
CEO Carol Tome labeled the eliminated business as “not profitable for us, nor a healthy fit for our network.”
“The actions we are taking to reconfigure our network and reduce cost across our business could not be timelier,” Tomé said in a statement, according to ABC News. “The macro environment may be uncertain, but with our actions, we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS.”
The volume of UPS packages from Amazon decreased by 16% toward the end of the most recent quarter, which was larger than the original projected forecast. By the end of June 2025, the next steps of the “glide down” plan include closing 73 buildings in the United States.
In addition, Tomé said UPS facilities will utilize automation, ranging from sorting packages to label application and loading and unloading trucks. The goal is to have 400 of its facilities become partly, if not entirely, automated.
“With this reconfiguration, we will also lessen our dependency on labor,” she said.
UPS employs 490,000 workers. The Teamsters union represents more than 300,000 of UPS’ hourly workers.
“If UPS wants to continue to downsize corporate management, the Teamsters won’t stand in its way,” president Sean O’Brien said. “But if the company intends to violate our contract or make any attempt to go after hard-fought, good-paying Teamsters jobs, UPS will be in for a hell of a fight.”
UPS spokesman Glenn Zaccara said the company has every intention of living up to the terms of its contract.
While UPS’ cuts don’t correlate with Trump’s tariffs, they are a topic of concern for the company, which has experienced some effects from the 10% tariff on most imports, and more so from the 145% tariff on Chinese imports.
“There’s so much uncertainty in the back half (of the year), because all those (tariffs) will ultimately impact the U.S. consumer,” Tomé said. “Current consumer sentiment is down from where it was at the beginning of the year. (But) the consumer is still pretty healthy.”
RELATED CONTENT: Grit Meets Grown Man: David Yurman Taps NBA Stars Carmelo Anthony And Jaylen Brown For Bold New Chain Campaign
