United Parcel Service (UPS) is expected to unveil a plan that would buy out full-time employees represented by the Teamsters union, directly violating the union’s national contract protecting 340,000 delivery workers. The proposed Driver Voluntary Severance Plan (DVSP) would offer cash incentives to drivers who initiate early retirement or quit their job.
The DVSP is expected to be announced later this month and would leave most drivers without quality health insurance if they retire under the program. This move would undermine UPS’s commitment to create 22,500 more jobs under its current Teamsters contract.
The union has long protected drivers employed for 30 years or more with employer-paid health care throughout retirement. However, the proposed plan offers far less than what rank-and-file Teamsters now earn and fails to guarantee this benefit to all workers.
Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien described the plan as an “illegal violation of our national contract” that would “weasel its way out of creating good union jobs in America.” The union has also expressed concerns over UPS’s failure to provide heat relief to essential workers and allegations of diverting delivery work to nonunion affiliates.
The Teamsters are prepared to fight this move, with General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman stating that drivers should “reject this illegal and insulting buyout when UPS makes it public.” The union has the protections of its contract to fight back, and they will not be “kicked around” by management.
Source: https://teamster.org/2025/07/ups-violates-teamsters-national-contract-with-plan-for-buyouts