The fiction:

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said he was “able … to fight, protect against autonomous vehicles, protect against artificial intelligence, to ensure that our members employed at UPS had a future that was not gonna be replaced by artificial intelligence and robots.”

The truth:

1. UPS made 2.5 billion in profit over the last four months of 2023
2. UPS will close shifts, hubs and implement mass automation to cut labor costs, decreasing the workforce by some 50-80% according to industry insiders through their Network of the Future Initiative.
3. UPS Teamsters are facing down an international company with an international plan to crush us.
4. Without mass action, those few UPS Teamsters remaining after these closures and layoffs will be in a much smaller union with deeply underfunded pensions, health and welfare funds and fewer rights or protections.

First actions & outline of future actions:

1. Sign and share the petition against shift closures and layoffs, here.
2. Connect with an ITOC organizer through our contact form.
3. Learn about the UPS-Teamsters 2023-2028 contract; and, where applicable, use it alongside federal, state and municipal labor laws as a tool. Enforcing the contract will not stop the layoffs, yet it is important to use what little rights are in the contract to fight back. ITOC organizers can assist you with contract enforcement.
4. Learn about the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ internal constitution, there are ways to bring charges and organize against union bosses at every level. This will not “fix” the bureaucracy, but it can provide activists a platform to stand up to harassment by union officers, organize, strategize and show the hypocrisy of union leaders, big and small. ITOC has experienced founding members who can stand up to union stewards, business agents, presidents and other officers.
5. As UPS Teamsters we must hold shop-floor actions at every hub, center and union hall in the country. Together, we must confront UPS management and their enablers, Teamster leadership.
6. Our next step is clear: mobilize nationally, galvanizing not only UPS workers but all logistics laborers, tech workers, and the broader working class.
7. Our struggle doesn’t stop at national borders. We must also recognize the exploitation of workers in the Global South, where corporations from the Global North use labor and resources to develop and manufacture AI/automation technologies. Under the sick logic of capitalism, this creates hyper-exploited workforces in the Global South and mass joblessness in the Global North.

Join us.