The Teamsters have created a national Roadie Committee to build a case that UPS is diverting union parcel work to Roadie, the nonunion gig-delivery subsidiary it acquired in 2021. The outcome could either cement Roadie as a permanent lower-cost layer of UPS’s residential last mile or force UPS to scale it back as a contract violation.
What the union alleges: The Teamsters argue Roadie is performing bargaining-unit work under a different label and using UPS labels, UPS tracking, and UPS equipment on deliveries that belong in the union network.
“Since acquiring Roadie, UPS has transferred Teamster work to nonunion Roadie drivers every day,” spokeswoman Kara Deniz said, calling Roadie “a shell to avoid its contractual obligations.” The 2023 National Master Agreement, which runs through mid-2028, prohibits subcontracting bargaining-unit work in Article 1.
What UPS says: UPS disputes that the work is covered by the contract. “Our contract with the Teamsters requires that UPS drivers handle all deliveries for our small package business unit directly and we remain in compliance,” the company said. It added that it resolves disputes “through our long-established grievance process.” UPS argues that Roadie handles same-day, urgent and oversized items that never move through the Brown sortation network and may therefore fall outside the bargaining unit.
The cost math: The wage gap is driving the dispute.
Roadie’s gig drivers earn a median of $12.70 an hour, according to Gridwise, a third-party gig-economy tracker
A unionized UPS driver wage rises to a top rate of $49 an hour by 2027 under the 2023 contract
Roadie’s network runs 310,000-plus drivers reaching about 97% of US households across 30,000-plus zip codes
UPS is the only major carrier operating a unionized last-mile network in a market where FedEx Ground relies on nonunion service providers and Amazon’s delivery partners pay drivers about $19 an hour. Roadie is where UPS tries to narrow the cost gap.
The union is consolidating local grievances into a formal arbitration complaint, while a parallel federal suit from Teamsters Local 705, covering roughly 10,000 Chicago workers, is pending in the Northern District of Illinois.
