UPS slid before the opening bell Tuesday as the package delivery company announced that it’s eliminating approximately 12,000 jobs and looking at strategic options for its Coyote truck load brokerage business.

Last year union members at UPS voted to approve a tentative contract agreement, putting a final seal on contentious labor negotiations that threatened to disrupt package deliveries for millions of businesses and households nationwide.

On a conference call Tuesday morning, CEO Carol Tome said that by reducing the company’s headcount UPS will realize $1 billion in cost savings.

[Where to start? First off, the union’s hardball may have won them better pay, but they’ll have fewer members to benefit from it. More to the point, a scale-down by one of the biggest carriers in the US says something about the forecast for the economy this year in terms of packages being shipped and product purchased, and … it ain’t good. Also, UPS will order all of its remaining employees back to their offices full-time this year, they announced. Those who still have jobs, anyway. — Ed]