Teamsters president speaks out following SurePost’s contract expiration

According to a Facebook post, the labor union confirmed a meeting in Atlanta on Jan. 7 with UPS management to discuss “increased volume” regarding the SurePost service contract. Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien argued that the organization’s priority is its employees rather than introducing new technology systems.

“We must never miss an opportunity to remind UPS that the well-being of our members and hardworking UPS employees always come before the advancements or convenience of any new technology,” O’Brien said in the Facebook post. “The Teamsters Union will always be monitoring any steps UPS is taking to introduce new technologies at the company, and UPS needs to remember it has a legal and contractual obligation to retrain our members whenever a change in technology or automation is pursued.“

The post mentioned, “Millions of packages moved away from SurePost and the United States Postal Service and returned to UPS package cars this month, now being sorted and delivered by hardworking UPS Teamsters.“

The U.S. Postal Service plans to make changes with shipping partners

According to Supply Chain Dive, SurePost is one of many delivery services that rely on USPS to provide cost-effective shipping for its customers. UPS used to drop off packages at Postal Service locations closest to the end customer because this was a better option than delivering them themselves. However, according to the new agreement, UPS-employed drivers will now provide the SurePost packages.

The newly implemented changes have also forced the Postal Service to make adjustments with its shipping consolidators, including DHL eCommerce, OSM Worldwide and Pitney Bowes, which plays a factor in the delivery of USPS parcels. Now, customers are concerned about the prices as the new contracts lead to eliminating rate discounts, per Supply Chain Dive.

Are customers receiving their packages?

With SurePost ending, customers must ship their packages directly to a U.S. location or their address rather than a post office box, Army post, or Navy fleet, NBC5 reported.

“Well, I just am concerned. You know, we’ve got economic issues in our country, and there’s a lot of people who… have a lot of small businesses, and I worry that it’s going to affect, on a sort of a global scale, both buyers and sellers,“ Shelburne, Vermont’s Pam Loeb told the outlet about the difficulties she has faced receiving her online packages. “I haven’t been able to order anything. And unfortunately, while I would prefer to do business locally, we do live in Vermont and… everything is not locally available, that there’s a reason that I order some things online.”