United Parcel Service said it is closing its Stockton hub next week, part of a nationwide cutback in which the shipping company will shed 20,000 jobs and close 73 facilities.
The Stockton hub will close May 29, UPS announced.
The company did not say how many jobs would be affected. However, officials did say they are trying to find jobs for as many as possible in other UPS centers.
“Our employees are extremely important to us, and we understand the impact this may have on them and their families,” UPS said in a statement.
Despite the closure, Stockton still has plenty of warehouse work. The city, with its excellent access to highways and rail, has previously attracted companies eager to serve Northern California from locations where they can find lower real estate costs.
In February, Amazon said it was seeking to fill 1,000 full-time positions in its Stockton warehouses. And Home Depot entered into a 20-year agreement with the city in March that included a new e-commerce center that would create up to 100 jobs.
UPS announced plans to slash its workforce as part of a strategy to reduce the number of packages it delivers for Amazon, which had been its largest customer. The 490,000-employee company’s CEO said during its fourth-quarter earnings call in January that Amazon may be its largest customer, but it’s not the most profitable one. So UPS decided to make changes when the contract came up for renewal.
The company’s statement said it has an “unwavering commitment” to customers around the globe, but it needs to make “strategic changes to optimize the volume in our network, improve efficiency and continue to deliver on our customer-first strategy.”
It added that “the changes underway include closing a small percentage of our U.S. operations. Treating our employees fairly remains a top priority for us, and we will continue to provide industry-leading service to customers in every community we serve.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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