UPS to cut 20,000 jobs, close 73 facilities

UPS is looking to slash about 20,000 jobs and close 73 facilities as it drastically reduces the amount of Amazon shipments it handles.

The package delivery company said Tuesday that it anticipates making the job cuts this year. It anticipates closing leased and owned buildings by the end of June. UPS said that it is still reviewing its network and may identify more buildings to be shuttered.

In January, UPS announced that it had reached a deal with Amazon, its biggest customer, to lower its volume by more than 50% by the second half of 2026.

The company employs about 490,000 workers, according to FactSet.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said Tuesday that UPS is obligated to create 30,000 Teamsters jobs under a five-year national agreement that expires in 2028. That labor contract, which was ratified in August 2023, included significant wage increases, improved safety measures, and the elimination of a two-tier wage system.

“If UPS wants to continue to downsize corporate management, the Teamsters won’t stand in its way,” O’Brien said in a statement. “But if the company intends to violate our contract or makes any attempt to go after hard-fought, good-paying Teamsters jobs, UPS will be in for a hell of a fight.”

Amazon, WH tilt over display on tariff costs

Amazon says it’s not planning to display added tariff costs next to product prices on its site — despite a report that sparked speculation the e-commerce giant would soon show the new import charges and the White House’s fiery comments denouncing the purported change.

The Trump administration’s reaction appeared to be based on a misinterpretation of internal plans being considered by Amazon, rather than a final decision made by the company.

And even those talks were limited. Only Amazon’s Haul service — its recently launched, low-cost storefront — “considered the idea” of listing import charges on certain products, company spokesperson Tim Doyle said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. But this “was never approved and is not going to happen.”

Earlier Tuesday, Punchbowl News had reported that Amazon planned to start showing how much of each product’s cost derived from tariffs “right next to” its total listed price, citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter.

Gilead in $202M settlement over payments

Gilead Sciences reached a $202 settlement with the US to resolve claims that it paid doctors and gave them meals and travel expenses for events to get them to prescribe its drugs.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan alleged that Gilead conducted programs from January 2011 to November 2017 to promote and increase sales of its drugs to treat the AIDS virus. The events were supposed to be purely educational, with modest meals.

Instead, the US said, the company held the programs at high-end restaurants, allowed practitioners to repeatedly attend events on the same topic and paid for them to travel to speak at “desirable destinations,” sometimes at their request.

Many doctors then prescribed the company’s drugs, prosecutors said, forcing federal health care programs to pay millions of dollars in reimbursements for the prescriptions. Under the settlement, which was approved by a federal judge yesterday, Gilead will pay more than $176.9 million to the US and the rest to various states.

Compiled from Associated Press and Bloomberg reports.