On June 25, 24-year-old UPS driver Esteban Chavez Jr. collapsed in the back of his truck while working, and died. Temperatures in the Los Angeles area that day were in the high 90s.
Hundreds of other UPS workers around the country suffer from heatstroke every summer, as UPS refuses to install air conditioning in its trucks or warehouses.
In our own Teamsters Local 804 in New York City, a supervisor even told a driver who was suffering heatstroke while working not to call an ambulance, and tried to keep him from filing a workers comp claim. Later that day the driver was hospitalized for heatstroke.
And, though we have a contractual right to have at least fans in our trucks, in New York City UPS refused to install fans for months.
At the same time, the company began installing something else: driver-facing surveillance cameras with audio and video capabilities, to ratchet up the already intense monitoring we are subjected to and ensure they can squeeze the most out of our workday.
So as the summer heat wave crested, drivers fell ill, and public concern rose for people working in the heat, we decided to organize for collective action.
The demand for fans and A/C instead of surveillance cameras is not only a big deal with our co-workers, but has also attracted sympathy from the general public. So we decided to take a two-pronged approach to push the issueorganizing both in our workplace and in the public eye.
The idea for the Safety Not Surveillance rallies came from the rank and file. Many members were talking about how outraged they were at the new camerasinstalled in the middle of a heat wave, no less.
Some of us stewards came up with a plan to fight back and proposed it to our local president, Vinnie Perrone, in early July. He agreed.
Perrones statement announcing rallies for July 28, published as an image on Facebook and Twitter and shared in WhatsApp chats, caught a decent amount of traction. Local leaders from around the country re-shared it, expressed support, and committed to taking similar action.
We called through lists of our co-workers to talk about the issue and encourage them to attend the rally, emphasizing the importance of collective action.
After phone-banking, we designed a flyer that included dates for both the Safety Not Surveillance rallies and our 2023 Contract Campaign Kick-Off rally. We wanted to emphasize that these were related, because we knew our more ambitious safety demands would likely only be met in our contract fight next year.
While flyering, we also circulated fan request lists and encouraged members to exercise their right to have a fan installed.
In the past, individuals had requested fans on their own. We decided to collectivize the request so people would feel that the issue was a general one, and to build pressure against the company.
Signing members up on the list also gave us an opportunity to discuss our upcoming contract fight, where we can negotiate over cameras and safety rules.
Our efforts paid off, and we got solid turnout. Hundreds of members showed up at simultaneous rallies at two of the biggest hubs on the day of action. News outlets picked up the story of the eventsand the coverage gained momentum after a photo of a denied fan request went viral on social media.
In a viral tweet we asked the public to call the UPS 1-800 complaint number about the issue. Pretty soon dozens of reporters were reaching out to us. Fox5, CBS, Telemundo, CNBC, Business Insider, Vice, The Guardian, QZ, Jacobin, Fox26, and several other outlets ran stories.
All this media interest encouraged members to speak out, and built their confidence that the public was supporting our fight.
In the midst of the coverage of Safety Not Surveillance, the UPS-Teamsters 2023 Contract Campaign Kick-Off rallies happened all over the country the first week of August.
The agitation and momentum we had generated through Safety Not Surveillance brought hundreds more members out to our campaign kick-off events, along with some reporters who had initially reached out because of our safety campaign.
UPS has now installed fans in some trucks and apologized publicly for failing to install them before.
The campaign gave the public a glimpse of the intransigence of UPS and whats at stake in our potential strike next year. Were going to need their support.
One lesson we take is that even private sector workers can attract community support and make our bargaining relevant to the common good of workers across the economy when we publicize workplace issues that are outrageous yet also relatable to many.
Elliot Lewis and Matt Leichenger are shop stewards in Teamsters Local 804.
UPS: The Countdown Begins
One year out from contract expiration, UPS Teamsters at hundreds of locations kicked off their contract campaign with parking lot rallies.
Teamsters President Sean OBrien pledged to win a contract that will reset the standards for wages and benefits in this industry by August 1, 2023.
We wont extend negotiations by a single day, he said. Well either have a signed agreement that day or be hitting the pavement.
The actions also marked the 25th anniversary of the last national UPS strike, in 1997, when Teamsters declared Part-Time America Wont Work and won 10,000 new full-time jobs.
This year, delivery drivers want to put a stop to excessive overtime and subcontracting, end the two-tier wage for delivery drivers, and remove new driver-facing cameras.
Inside workers who sort, load, and unload packages want higher pay for part-timersand once again, more full-time jobs. The average UPS worker gets paid 600 times less than CEO Carol Tom.
Both groups want to rein in persistent harassment by management.
UPS Teamsters delivered an unprecedented volume of packages during the pandemic. Theyre still working 10- to 12-hour shifts under punishing conditions, like extreme heat. Meanwhile over the past two years UPS has raked in $11.2 billion in net profits.
Labor Notes Staff
Click here to see more photos from the rallies held around the country.
Here is the original post:
UPS Says No to Air Conditioning, But Here's a Surveillance Camera - Labor Notes
- Power restored to Dauphin County Prison after nearly a day without air conditioning - WHP Harrisburg - August 4th, 2024 [August 4th, 2024]
- Police K-9 dies after being left in patrol vehicle, air conditioning stops working - Live 5 News WCSC - August 4th, 2024 [August 4th, 2024]
- Bristol County Sheriffs Office installing air conditioning to housing units, here is how they will pay for it - Fall River Reporter - August 4th, 2024 [August 4th, 2024]
- If we going out we going out together: Husband throws pot of gasoline on wife, sets her on fire after argument over air conditioning settings, cops... - August 4th, 2024 [August 4th, 2024]
- Sleeping with air conditioning on landed woman in hospital, know risks of overnight AC use - The Times of India - August 4th, 2024 [August 4th, 2024]
- Athletes win air conditioning battle with IOC after Olympics pledged to be the 'greenest ever' - Daily Mail - July 26th, 2024 [July 26th, 2024]
- A/C And Global Warming: A Northern Call To Embrace Air Conditioning - Worldcrunch - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Midea Treats New Yorkers to Free Air Conditioning and a Movie as Temperatures Soar - Business Wire - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Which Columbus City Schools will start the school year without full air conditioning? - The Columbus Dispatch - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Connecticut Voting Machines, Poll Workers Impacted by Heat - Governing - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- EcoFlow Wave Portable Air Conditioner Review: Keeping Cool The Green Way - SlashGear - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Rural residents may not be ready for increasingly intense heat waves - MTPR - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- US Department of Labor recovers $113K in back wages, damages for 169 Florida heating, ventilation, air conditioning workers denied overtime - US... - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- C & C Heating & Air Conditioning celebrates 74 years in the home service industry - PR Newswire - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Forrest Anderson will donate free A/C unit to 'military hero' in metro Phoenix - The Arizona Republic - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Drivers urged to use air con in the right way to see best results Works quicker - Express - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Summer temperatures put heat on NH to develop cooling assistance programs - Concord Monitor - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- How to stay safe in a heat wave - University of California - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- 4-Year-Old Fractures Both Legs, Damages Kidney in Fall From 6th-Floor NYC Window - NBC New York - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- Studying the Double Paradox in Air Conditioning at Indian Airports for Airborne Infection Prevention and Filtration of Harmful Suspended Particulate... - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- For Orioles minor leaguers, team-provided housing allows them more time to focus on baseball: 'It really is different' - Baltimore Sun - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- Portsmouth residents sue town over wind turbine. Here's why the judge ruled against them - newportri.com - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- LG RECEIVES AHRI PERFORMANCE AWARD FOR FIFTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR - PR Newswire - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- Reality show picks local business owner to give HVAC know-how - The Galt Herald - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- Houston's 90-degree April temperatures another signal of what climate change will bring - Houston Chronicle - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- HomeServe Expands HVAC Presence in Arizona with Acquisition of Sure Temp - Yahoo Finance - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- Berckmans Place: What is it, and how do you get there? Behind the VIP area at The Masters - DraftKings Nation - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- Ltd. Global Website | MHI Thermal Systems to Launch New Series of Large-Capacity Centrifugal Chillers Adopting Low-GWP Refrigerant -- Constant-Speed... - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]