UPS is unique among the world’s largest businesses. Here’s why.

United Parcel Service is Big Business. With $74 billion in revenues and $4-plus billion in profits, it currently ranks 43rd on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations.

UPS is also Big Labor. One source places its workforce of 377,640 employees worldwide as the 9th largest U.S.-based private employer. (The company website lists its current global workforce as 528,000.)

And unlike other large employers like Walmart and Amazon, most UPS employees are union members. In fact, the company is the single largest employer represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the UPS-IBT contract is the largest collective bargaining agreement in North America.

When people think of UPS they think of the fleet of brown ‘package cars’ and their drivers in brown uniforms. But many UPS employees are ‘inside workers,’ working at one of the more than 1,800 ‘centers’. They too are Teamsters, entitled to the same privileges and protections of union membership while working part time in their own clothes.

Who works for UPS? The preload shift is surprisingly diverse. Unlike the drivers, who are mostly men, the inside workers are more evenly split between men and women. Many are young, though a surprising number of them are older. Most have their high school diploma; some are working their way through college; and a few already have their college degree.

Each person has their own unique story, but most of us are refugees of one kind or another. One moved from Arizona after his roommate’s uncle stabbed him in the chest. Another moved from Oregon when the rent there got too high. A third was recently divorced after her husband of eleven years moved his girlfriend into their home. Some were, like me, displaced from jobs that disappeared due to Covid. Others were just simply burned out by the terms or conditions of other low-wage work in industry or foodservice or retail.

Like many refugees the world over, UPS workers are biding their time and planning for a better future. Some hope to become part-time supervisors or full-time package car drivers. Others have their sights set on a career in some other field.

Abby is studying criminal justice and has applied for an internship with the FBI. Ash is studying health and physical education. Bridget is studying marine biology. Maggie just earned her degree in international relations and is thinking about graduate school. Rhett is studying for the MCAT as he prepares to apply for medical school. Paul, who immigrated from New Zealand as a child, has his degree and works a second job in addition to serving in the reserves. Daniel, shown below, recently got their doctorate and is searching for positions as a math professor.

From the perspective of the company, we are all ‘bodies.’ Supervisors routinely communicate via walkie-talkie about how many bodies they need in one part of the warehouse or another. So it should come as no surprise that not many of my coworkers express any deep sense of affection for or loyalty to their employer.

However, we do appreciate what union membership provides us in terms of wages and benefits. Our monthly dues entitle us to a wage of $14.50 per hour, and guaranteed annual increases every August thereafter. After nine months on the job we receive full health coverage at no additional cost. The work is challenging but the union ensures that workers are treated fairly and respectfully. How many other part-time jobs do that? How many full-time jobs do that?

I’m proud to work at UPS. I feel like I belong to an elite club, a group of laborers who watch the sun come up together. We are women, men, and nonbinary; old and young; gay and straight; black, brown, and white. Despite – or perhaps because of – our diversity, we enjoy a special camaraderie and esprit de corps. The union makes us strong.