Post updated at 10:57 a.m. Wednesday, March 26:
The UPS hub in Lawrence is one of two Kansas sites set to close in a few months, raising concerns and questions about the future for several dozen local employees.
Lawrence employees learned of the pending closure earlier this month. Karen Tomaszewski Hill, a spokesperson for UPS, said at the time that she was unable to confirm individual stores that were slated to close, and that a companywide evaluation was ongoing.
The company in January announced “exciting changes” to “optimize our network, improve efficiency and continue to deliver on our customer-first strategy.” The changes include “reassessing a small percentage of our U.S. operations,” according to a statement on March 14.
Tomaszewski Hill on Wednesday confirmed the pending closures of the Dodge City facility, set for May 20, and the Lawrence center, set for June 17.
An employee of the Lawrence hub estimated that there are roughly 80 to 100 employees there, including sorters, drivers, managers and office workers, plus many additional part-time employees around the holidays.
Tomaszewski Hill declined to confirm that estimate and said the company does not disclose “census information” outside of updates to stockholders, which do not get into details about individual facilities but reported 406,000 nonseasonal employees in the United States.
Lawrence UPS routes will moved to Topeka, Edgerton and Lenexa, Kansas, and St. Joseph, Missouri, she said.
“Our employees are extremely important to us, and we understand the impact this may have on them and their families,” Tomaszewski Hill said in an emailed statement. “We are working to place as many employees as possible in other positions. We will work with those who may be impacted throughout the process to provide support.”
She said about 63% of UPS volume now flows through automated facilities, compared to 60% in 2023, and “We’re looking to just continue to build on the modernization of our network.” She said she wasn’t involved in the decision to close the Lawrence facility and it would be speculation to say that it was a center that could not be modernized to the company’s standards.
The company has filed WARN — Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification — notices in several states, including Maryland, North Carolina, California, Florida, Maryland and Tennessee, since the start of the year. The notices are required when employers with more than 100 employees plan closings and mass layoffs. The UPS notices indicated that more than 800 employees in those states would lose their jobs.
As of early Wednesday, no WARN notice had been published to Kansas records.
UPS Stores will not be affected, Tomaszewski Hill said earlier this month.
“The UPS Store brand is a subsidiary of UPS, and all the stores are owned by franchises,” she said.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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