The largest network reconfiguration in the history of UPS will impact workers in Pennsylvania

The United Parcel Service plans to close three facilities in the Commonwealth including one location in Dauphin County.

A spokesperson for UPS confirmed that three facilities in Pennsylvania are closing. The facilities are located at 1821 S. 19th St. in Swatara Township near Harrisburg; at 2006 River Road in Plum, Allegheny County, near New Kensington, and at 2129 Rockdale Lane in Stroud Township, Monroe County, near Stroudsburg.

“The closures are part of our network reconfiguration, the largest ever in company history, with the purpose of modernizing our facilities and increasing efficiency,” said UPS spokesperson, Karen Tomaszewski Hill.

UPS plans to close 164 operations and 73 buildings including the three Pennsylvania facilities by the end of June. The delivery company also plans to cut 20,000 positions by the end of the year. About two thirds of the locations are on the East Coast. This follows the delivery company closing 11 facilities last year.

The network reconfiguration comes as UPS plans to reduce the deliveries it does for Amazon by more than 50% by June 2026.

“Note that the volume we are transitioning out is Amazon’s fulfillment center outbound volume. This volume is not profitable for us nor a healthy fit for our network,” Carol Tome, CEO of UPS, said on the earnings call. “The Amazon volume we plan to keep is profitable and it is healthy volume. In other words, volume where we can add value like returns and seller fulfilled outbound volume.”

The company also plans to increase productivity through additional automation.

“With this configuration we will also lessen our dependency on labor, reduce the capital requirements needed to run the network and will drive structural operating margins and return on invested capital improvement,” Tome said.

In January, UPS officials said when Amazon’s contract came up this year, it decided to reassess the relationship and decided that volume reduction was the best alternative, according to WXPI.

The TV station also reported that Tome said on the previous earnings call that while Amazon is its largest customer it isn’t its most profitable one and its margin is very dilutive to the U.S. domestic business.

As of Wednesday evening, The Department of Labor & Industry had not indicated on its website that it had been notified of the layoffs. Tomaszewski Hill declined to say how many people worked at the three facilities but said that it will work with those employees impacted by the closings.

“We are working to place as many employees as possible in other positions,” she said.