The International Brotherhood of Teamsters' push to halt UPS' next round of driver buyouts was denied in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, paving the way for the carrier to offer $150,000 separation payments to thousands of employees.
The Teamsters "failed to show that it will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction (i.e., that any arbitration would be rendered meaningless in the absence of the requested injunctive relief)," Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper said in an order filed Friday. She added that cases warranting the issuance of a labor injunction are rare.
Casper's ruling comes less than a month after UPS publicly revealed plans to deploy a voluntary buyout program for full-time U.S. drivers. UPS is pushing to reduce its employee ranks as it adjusts to fewer packages from Amazon and starts to hand off more Ground Saver shipments to the U.S. Postal Service for delivery.
“We are pleased with the court’s ruling and intend to move forward with our Driver Choice Program, as originally planned,” UPS said in an emailed statement to Supply Chain Dive.
The Teamsters, which represent 80% of UPS' roughly 370,000 U.S. employees, filed a lawsuit earlier this month seeking a temporary restraining order on the buyout rollout. The union argued that the program would violate the Teamsters' labor contract with UPS.
About 105,000 UPS drivers would be eligible for the $150,000 lump sum payment packages, which would be in addition to any retirement benefits earned. UPS had planned for the buyout enrollment window to run from Feb. 13 to March 12, with separations starting around April 26, per Casper's order.
It's unclear to what extent the timing of the buyout program could shift due to the court case. UPS said it would share further details about the offer to its drivers over the coming days.
UPS deployed a similar separation program in 2025. About 3,000 of the nearly 115,000 drivers eligible accepted last year's buyout offer, per Casper's order. Counsel for the Teamsters said during a hearing in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts case that the new buyout program could lead to a larger number of employees leaving and noted that UPS has not established "aggregate or location-specific caps on program participation," according to Casper.
"Setting aside the speculative nature of this argument, it does not impact an arbitrator’s authority to remedy the harms alleged, even as the Court recognizes that it could make any remedy more difficult to implement," Casper said.
The Teamsters did not respond to a request for comment on Friday's order.
