UPS Opens New Facility In Skokie, Creating 150 New Jobs

SKOKIE, IL — A new United Parcel Service shipping facility began processing packages in Skokie in late September, adding about 150 new jobs to the area.

The new 172,500-square-foot UPS building at 7800 Austin Ave. can process up to 12,000 packages an hour and can handle up to 170 delivery vehicles during peak times, according to company officials.

The facility saves electricity with LED lights and motion sensors, its temperature is regulated with reinforced insulation and it uses new technology like automated label applicators and "dynamic sort instruction," which simplifies the sorting process down to a simple scan, UPS officials said.

UPS spent about $22 million on the new Austin Avenue facility, one of 13 in the Chicago area that is hiring about 3,500 seasonal employees for the upcoming holiday season.

"The building was created to help us continue to manage the volume moving through the Chicago area efficiently, effectively, and at the level of service our customers expect from UPS," Karen Tomaszewski, a UPS spokesperson, told Patch.

The Skokie UPS facility began operations after the August opening of another package center at 3740 S. Morgan St. in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood.

Both new centers were announced in the days after UPS agreed a collective bargaining agreement with the union that represents more than 340,000 of its workers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

That contract established a starting part-time wage of $21 an hour, which UPS is now offering to seasonal employees.

It also eliminated forced overtime on drivers' scheduled days off, provided a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday for the first time and ensured air conditioning would be included in new cars purchased next year and fans retrofitted into old cars, according to the Teamsters.

---

UPS is currently hiring at the Skokie facility for the seasonal package delivery driver and driver helper, a job the listing describes as "a lot of work but also a lot of fun."

Last week, UPS officials announced the company's third-quarter profit was $1.3 billion — down by nearly 57 percent compared to the third quarter of last year. Overall revenue for the quarter was $21.1 billion, down almost 13 percent from the third quarter of 2022.

In a statement announcing the company's earnings, UPS CEO Carol Tome thanked employees of the company for working hard during recent "challenging" times.

“While unfavorable macro-economic conditions negatively impacted global demand in the quarter, our U.S. labor contract was fully ratified in early September and volume that diverted during our labor negotiations is starting to return to our network," Tomé said. “Looking ahead, we are well-prepared for the peak holiday season.”