By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, Feb 19 (Reuters) – A lawyer for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters told a judge on Thursday that the union expects over 10,000 United Parcel Service drivers to accept $150,000 buyouts if the delivery giant is allowed to proceed with a planned workforce-cutting program.
Michael Feinberg, an attorney for the union representing over 320,000 UPS workers, offered that estimate as he urged Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston to block UPS from moving ahead with the buyout program.
The union argues the buyout plan was initiated without negotiations in violation of its 2023 labor contract, whose provisions the Teamsters contend broadly bar UPS from entering into such individual agreements with its drivers.
The union sued on February 9 after UPS announced on January 27 plans to cut up to 30,000 jobs and shut 24 facilities as it looks to move away from millions of low-profit deliveries for its largest customer, online retailer Amazon.com.
UPS launched a prior buyout program last year that local Teamsters unions also opposed. It provided $1,800 in severance pay per year of service, with a $10,000 minimum, to eligible drivers. Only 3,000 opted in, prompting UPS to sweeten its offer the second time to get more, Feinberg said.
He said if UPS proceeds with rolling out buyout offers to 105,000 eligible employees, tens of thousands “will be seduced to apply for this hoping to get the $150,000 jackpot.”
Those who accept would leave their jobs under arrangements that could later be ruled improper by an arbitrator, who without an injunction from Casper would face the “impossible” task of reinstating them, Feinberg said.
“It’s going to be chaotic if not impossible for the arbitrator to remedy that situation,” he said.
UPS counsel James Nelson countered that the union was wrong that the contract was so broad as to bar it from offering buyouts to its unionized drivers. He said the alternative would be forcing UPS to conduct layoffs instead, which the contract clearly allows.
He said that under federal labor law, Casper lacks the power to issue an injunction in the labor dispute.
Should she do so, Nelson said, it would interfere with UPS’ efforts to reduce its driver workforce to address an 8.6% decline in package deliveries, a drop it expects to continue in 2026.
“We’re seeking to give people an opportunity to leave if they like to in exchange for substantial financial consideration,” Nelson said.
Casper did not immediately rule but said she expected to issue a decision in “short order.”
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Aurora Ellis)
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