UPS will lay off around 244 workers to upgrade its Swan Island facility and automate more work. The North Portland hub at 6707 N. Basin Ave. is set to close June 30, but layoffs will begin May 30.
The closure is expected to last more than a year, while UPS makes changes to automate many operations.
There are 916 hourly employees assigned to the facility, but it’s the 244 “inside manual workers” who are expected to lose their jobs, UPS wrote in a layoff notice sent to state officials.
The workers who will lose their jobs are represented by Teamsters Local 162.
Local 162 did not directly respond to requests for information about the layoffs, but a spokesperson for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said representatives from Local 162 and UPS are continuing to meet to discuss next steps.
Brian Denning, a Local 162 member who loads trucks at the UPS facility, said two other Swan Island properties will be used to load and stage package cars while the main facility is closed. Other packages will be diverted to UPS facilities outside of Portland.
Neither the Teamsters nor UPS responded to questions about how many jobs they expected to return when the facility reopens.
The Swan Island hub has already made huge cuts in the past year. UPS laid off 350 employees from day sorting operations at the same Swan Island facility in April 2024. Most of the employees were part-time workers represented by Local 162.
John Palmer, a Teamsters international vice president, told the Oregonian in January that he expects only a small percentage of the jobs to return after the closure. The union should have done a better job negotiating contracts that protect workers displaced by automation, like through severance or retraining, Palmer told the Oregonian.
Thats not even Swan island!!! Thats the Tukwila building in Washington state. Half those guys are retired , feeder or transfered out of State!! How do i know , because the little short guy in front is my good friend whose had my route before he retired !!! Get you facts checked ..
Hi Matt, looks like you’re commenting about a photo from 2018 that we attached to this article for SEO purposes. Most readers won’t see it, because it’s not in the article itself. It should only come up as a thumbnail illustration when someone posts the article to social media. Maybe we should have gotten a better or more recent photo to attach. Hope your friend is enjoying a good retirement! A union pension is a hell of a good benefit.
The article is great but always fact check… also it is being seen because its posted on facebook…