UPS to Freeze Pensions for 70,000 Workers to Reduce Costs
- About 16% of the shipping company’s workforce will be affected
- Company joins DuPont, Lockheed in changing retirement plans
A United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) driver delivers packages in New York.
Photographer: John Taggart/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
United Parcel Service Inc. will freeze a pension plan for about 70,000 nonunion U.S. employees because of escalating costs and volatility in determining future payments, replacing it with a different retirement benefit.
UPS joins companies including DuPont Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. in freezing pensions, which means that some or all participants may stop accumulating benefits. UPS’s retirement obligations are on top of a $1 billion jump in capital spending being planned for this year to handle a surge in e-commerce shipments.