Posts tagged global competition
Unions don’t deliver for workers
July 11, 2025 // Take the recent UPS layoffs. In August 2023, the Teamsters Union touted its new UPS contract as a historic victory, claiming historic wage increases and increased benefits. Fast forward to January 2024, when UPS announced it was eliminating 12,000 jobs. Just a year later, it said it was cutting its delivery business with Amazon in half by the second half of 2026 and was aiming to shutter 10% of its buildings. Why the cuts? Because the union’s monopoly bargaining power allows it to demand wages that make it tough for companies to stay competitive. When costs climb, even giants like UPS have little choice but to cut jobs or invest less in the future. The UPS saga is a shining example of what the Mercatus report highlights: union power can backfire, leaving workers worse off in the long term.