UPS will soon shrink its package sorting operations and lay off employees at facilities in New York, Rhode Island and Virginia as the delivery giant continues to adjust to volume declines.
The night sortation shift at UPS' Mechanicsville, Virginia, facility will close this Saturday, spokesperson Jim Mayer said in an email. Additionally, the day sort at the company's Warwick, Rhode Island, facility will close April 2 and its Maspeth, New York, night sort will shutter May 10.
“We often evaluate our operations and flex our network to meet volume demands," Mayer said. "This allows us to continue delivering industry-leading service while also maintaining competitive prices."
Mayer did not say how many employees would be laid off as a result of the moves, but Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act posts say the Warwick closure will impact 130 employees, and the Maspeth closure will affect 66 workers.
"Our employees are extremely important to us, and we understand the impact this may have on their families," Mayer said. "We will work with those who may be impacted throughout the process to provide support.”
The looming closures add to sortation shift cuts UPS is making at facilities in Connecticut, Maryland, Oregon, Kentucky and Indiana to adjust its network capacity for soft demand.
Several of the cuts focus on day sortation shifts. UPS has often increased or decreased its day sort activity depending on its capacity needs, as it's less reliant on these sorts for time-critical deliveries, said Jeremy Tancredi, a partner in West Monroe’s Operations Excellence practice and a former UPS industrial engineer, in an interview. In the event of a day sort closure, the volume can be handled during other shifts, he added.
