UPS Fires 250 Employees for Staging a Strike

[groundloop]

Source: Slate



UPS is firing 250 Queens, N.Y., drivers for walking off the job during a 90-minute protest in February.

The company dismissed 20 of the workers after their shifts Monday and issued notices of termination to another 230 employees, notifying them that they will be fired once the company has trained their replacements, UPS spokesman Steve Gaut told Business Insider.

The workers were protesting the dismissal of longtime employee and union activist Jairo Reyes, who was fired over an hours dispute, according to Gaut. The New York Daily News first reported on the firings.

...............

UPS fired back that it might need to terminate additional employees if the city alters its contract. “UPS appreciates its business with the New York public offices,” Gaut said. “Ultimately if that business is reduced or eliminated, the result will be reduced need for UPS employees to serve the pick-up and delivery requirements of City offices, potentially impacting the livelihoods of the many local UPS employees that did not join in the illegal work stoppage.”


Read more: http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/04/03/ups_fires_250_employees_for_staging_a_strike_in_queens_n_y.html

---

[Deep13]

1. That company needs to be nationalized. nt

[leftyohiolib]

2. 2 bulls locking horns - dump ups use usps

[Xyzse]

3. Glad I haven't used Brown for a long while.

This is just wrong.

[demosincebirth]

13. Who do you use?

[groundloop]

15. I don't know about everyone else but I ship with USPS whenever possible

Their flat rate boxes and envelopes are generally a better price than UPS or FedEx.

[Xyzse]

17. USPS generally.

Then again, that's also because I don't know where the UPS centers are to ship stuff.

So, either USPS or FedEx.
Since Parcel places tend to use FedEx, sadly, the only parcel place I know lately is Kinko's and Kinko's tend to be FedEx.

[demosincebirth]

20. I called UPS and found out there was one one mile from my house.

[Xyzse]

21. Really?

Yeah, I generally just know where my post offices are, and where kinko's are.
So never really bothered with UPS, unless it is specifically asked for.

[James48]

4. Call the CEO

When UPS sent 250 workers termination notices for taking part in a protest, you joined over 100,000 people across the country to demand UPS stop workplace retaliation.

That's why you should be the first to know: UPS chose 20 out of the 250 drivers at random and fired them last night. UPS timed the terminations so that these drivers and their families would lose their healthcare coverage.

UPS cannot expect to fire these workers without repercussions. We need to ratchet up the pressure immediately and make sure UPS knows we're paying attention.

Can you call UPS CEO Scott Davis and tell him to respect their workers and stop workplace retaliation? Click here.

UPS is hoping they can continue to sweep their labor issues under the rug. That’s not going to happen. Working Families leaders and elected officials are putting pressure on UPS to rescind the terminations and negotiate a settlement with their union.

But we need you to make some noise. UPS is a profitable company -- and no business can afford to ignore thousands of calls from unhappy consumers.

Click here to call UPS CEO Scott Davis and tell him to revoke the terminations and settle this dispute through dialogue, not intimidation tactics.

http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9589

In solidarity,

Joe Dinkin
Working Families

[Deep13]

7. Solidarity Forever

[Blue_Tires]

6. I can't imagine the Teamsters would sit still for this...

http://teamsterslocal804.org/


Led by NYC Public Advocate Letitia James, more than a dozen State and City leaders rallied on the steps of City Hall this morning with Local 804 members to call on UPS to immediately rescind the terminations of the 250 Teamster drivers in Queens.

“We're asking UPS to do right by the workers who have built this company and to do right by the customers who depend on these workers everyday,” said Local 804 President Tim Sylvester. “UPS should take back the terminations and resolve this through dialogue and negotiations—not intimidation tactics.

Teamster Joint council 16 President George Miranda led a contingent of union leaders who were there to show there support from Teamster locals, the Transport Workers Union, the New York State Nurses, SEIU 32-BJ, the Laborers, and the Communication Workers of America.

"At a time when good jobs are becoming more and more difficult to come by, it is unconscionable that UPS workers are being fired for standing up for basic workplace rights," said Vincent Alvarez, President of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. "We stand behind our union brothers and sisters as they continue the fight to keep their jobs."

The Rally and Press Conference was organized with the help of the Working Families Party which has help galvanize community support and political backing for our fight for justice at UPS.

Scott Stringer, who as NYC Comptroller is the elected official in charge of all city contracts, is the latest high-ranking public official to stand with Local 804 members.

At risk for UPS is a $43 million contract the company has with the State of New York and a sweetheart deal UPS has with the City that cuts its parking fines by $15 to $20 million every year.

"I do not understand who at that company put forward a business plan to take away a generation of good will between UPS and City of New York, Stringer said.

[Deep13]

8. There is power in a union.

[truthisfreedom]

9. I will instruct my employees to immediately terminate

all UPS shipments.

[Ash_F]

10. USPS is cheaper anyway

http://www.endicia.com/why-us/blog/2014/2014-usps-postage-change-infographic

[hollysmom]

11. OK, I was between jobs withmy own company and decided maybe I needed to get a real job

due to my Husband's job status at the time (long story, not worth it) I applied to UPS. On the application, it asked for my social security number. I did not give it pout freely at that time (I have since loosed up another long irrelevant story). I then talked to a recruiter. She demanded my SS#. I asked if she thought she had a legal right to demand it. (you can see this is going down hill fast) She said no, she didn't but it showed that I was not a trusting person if I applied for a job and didn't trust them enough to give them the number. I said it was purely following the law, I would give it to them when and if they offered me a job. She claimed I was giving a lousy interview, I said she had yet to ask me any job related questions and that I was certainly willing to go forward if she would continue with questions, She said I should sit in the lobby until she consulted with her boss, So I went out and sat in the lobby until they were going to lock the doors because no one was left in the office - yes, she went home with me sitting there. What a shit company. Later I had friends that worked there all quit pretty quickly because of abusive practices. Apparently the only people who got respect in the company were the drivers probably because they had a union. here are some of there ridiculous rules at that time

1. They expected you to work an hour of overtime every day because the drivers are not paid for changing into and out of their uniforms so all office people needed to do the same.
2. You could be sent home and docked pay if you came in with shoes colored other than black and brown, women as well as men.
3. No facial hair allowed because drivers could not have facial hair. Men
4. If the drivers were on strike all office workers were expected to work as drivers and also at Christmas time they would take people out of the office to drive.
5. usual bad office practices total lack of respect of workers even in upper levels.

So glad I missed that bomb I could have and should have sued them for my interview abuse, but eh, there were always other jobs out there, so I let it slide.

[progressoid]

12. No facial hair?

I thought it was a requirement that UPS drivers have a mustache

[hollysmom]

14. at that time, there were no mustaches allowed - although eyebrows were ok. n/t

[mikekohr]

19. Mustaches were always allowed, but had to be trimed at the corners of the mouth.

Original thinkers and ethically motivated behavior was explicitly banned however.

[elzenmahn]

16. This is what BROWN does to YOU...

...and any worker standing up for their rights.

And they have the backing of the courts and their handmaidens in Congress.

The old union and labor battles, in which people died to secure things we take for granted (40 hour workweek, overtime pay, etc.) will need to be fought all over again.

[mikekohr]

18. UPS Uses An Off Shore Tax Dodge in Bermuda to Escape Millions in Taxes

UPS, which is dependant on US infrastructure to operate, shelters millions of dollars per year in an off shore tax dodge named Over Seas Partners.

Based in Bermuda, Overseas Partners Limited, (OPL) sole design is avoidance of United States income taxes. The IRS won the largest back taxes judgment in history against them in the late 1990's. The Bush administration dropped the case during the appeals process.

UPS pretends to be good corporate citizens. They are not good guys. I was in management there for 12 years. They are no fan of Democrats either. I was repeatedly informed by upper management that Democrats were a pale shade of the Communist Party.

Their lobbying organization, UPSPAC, one of K Street's biggest, gives overwhelmingly to Republicans. UPS was a corporate sponser of Newt Gingrich's "Contract on America.'When I left UPS in 1992 I turned in testimony and documents that detailed their tactics of forcing supervisors and management into donating to UPSPAC. The Federal Elections Commission filed a charge against UPS, in which, after a four year legal battle UPS agreed to pay a $4,000.00 fine and to never engage in this behavior again (never get caught again).

I turned over to the EEOC internal company documents that resulted in a sealed judgment against UPS for age discrimination.

I turned over to attorney David Mark of Seattle, Washington, documents that proved UPS was aware of tactics that resulted in employees being forced to work through their unpaid lunch hour. The documents proved that UPS was aware of these facts and were actually tracking the number of affected employees on a national level, in spite of years of legal testimony to the contrary. The case resulted in a multi million dollar judgment aginst the corporate entity.

UPS, may be an authoritarian dinosaur in the business world, but they are extremely astute in avoiding bad press. Press clipping are gathered at a national and world wide level and studied with an intent to how best to influence positive press coverage. Example: one of the biggest contributors to National Public Radio is the Annie E. Casey Fund, This fund is named after the daughter of UPS's founder Jim Casey.

mike kohr

[Lady Freedom Returns]

22. So UPS is not a Union shop?

Never using again.