Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 10:36:49 -0500 (CDT) From: "Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave-AT-mundo.eco.utexas.edu> Subject: AUT: UPS Strike (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 11:00:03 -0400 From: Sam Lanfranco <lanfran-AT-YORKU.CA> Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <LABOR-L-AT-YORKU.CA> To: LABOR-L-AT-YORKU.CA Subject: UPS Strike (fwd) ______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________ Subject: UPS Strike Date: Aug 13, 1997 From: Michael Eisenscher <meisenscher-AT-igc.apc.org I attended the national convention of APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance) today in San Francisco. It was an impressive event attended by more than 500 delegates from across the country. At the dinner Carolyn Robinson, Secretary-Treasurer of IBT Local 315 in Martinez gave a revealing report on the UPS Strike. She sits on the national bargaining committee; she's been in negotiations for seven months. She heads up the sub-committee on safety & health. Sister Robinson is the first (and only) woman to serve on the national UPS negotiating team for the Teamsters. She gave a very revealing report with details that have not yet been released to the media. She has given permission to me to relate them to you and intends to break these facts shortly to the public. (I tried to note her comments as Carolyn made them. If there are any errors in this information, it may be that I failed to accurately capture her comments. I believe, however, what follows is factually correct. If others know differently, please provide corrections.) 1. UPS has a rate of occupational injury that is three times that of the transportation industry. 2. UPS has one of the worst hazmat violation records in the industry. 3. EEOC has filed a class action suit against UPS for violating the rights of disabled workers. Workers who suffer eye injury are entitled to be transferred to other jobs, but UPS has refused or failed to accommodate their disabilities. 4. UPS, unlike its competition in the package delivery business, has refused to invest the $55 per vehicle it would cost to equip their fleet with articulated mirrors at the rear of the trucks. As a consequence, children have been injured and killed because drivers were unable to see them behind their vehicles. Isn't a child's life worth more than $55? 5. UPS has consistently stonewalled union demands for appropriate safety equipment such as decent seatbelts, seats, and tires, and has refused to retire from their fleet trucks that have only single cylinder brakes. 6. On average, one UPS employee is killed on the job every month. 7. In Chicago a brand new employee (described as barely more than a "boy") serving his 30 day probation died of heat exhaustion while unloading a truck during one of Chicago's heat waves. He was required to meet the standard of unloading 2000 packages per hour in order to make probation. OSHA fined the company $5000. 8. Packages presently can weigh up to 150 pounds each. The company has refused to bargain over weight limits, reserving the right to require drivers to unload alone packages that could run 200 or more pounds. When challenged, management told the union that if the driver needed help, s/he could ask the customer to assist. Young, inexperienced workers are becoming disabled for life from injuries received at UPS, often their first real job. Sister Robinson cited these as only some of the issues that are hung up in negotiations. While the issue of part timers and company demands to withdraw from the union's multi-employer pension plan have gotten press play, they are not the only unresolved problems that led to the strike. She reports that the strike is 99% effective nationwide. She also reported that the Teamsters have met with unions representing UPS employees in Europe and they have established a World UPS Union Council. Three strikers are touring Europe now, briefing workers on the strike. They spoke this week in Belgium, where the union at UPS responded by shutting down the company throughout the country in solidarity. She proclaimed, "Belgium is shut down tight!" Side Notes: I was at the UPS picketlines in Oakland yesterday where about 1200 workers are out solid. Spirits were high and the mood good natured but whenever a "Brown Alert" was called as a management-driven truck returned (with two managers in each) it became clear that they meant to take care of business. (How many managers does it take to read a map or package address?) In the short time I was there, a delivery driver for the SF Chronicle wheeled up and dropped off free papers, and a driver for Emory pulled up and unloaded fried chicken and sodas he purchased with money collected from coworkers. A picket captain with whom I spoke told me that he had personally visited very one of his customers to apologize for the inconvenience and explain what the company was doing and how they, not the union members, were the source of the strike. He is on a first-name basis with all of them, as he has had the same route for 8 years. HE is UPS to those customers. The last thing he did before walking out at the end of his last shift was to pull his name plate off the side of the truck he drives so that no one would assume he was driving during the strike. His sense of obligation and responsibility to his customers is not atypical. It is early in the strike and union members have yet to miss their first paycheck, but $55/week in strike benefits will not go far and it won't be too long before they feel the pain. When you go to the picketlines, don't go empty-handed. I was in the Mission District earlier this week and there were several members of one of SF's numerous left groups out on street corners with buckets collecting donations to the UPS strike fund. We could each take up a collection at work, call friends, and get organizations we belong to to pitch in with money or in-kind contributions. Most important of all, however, is that there be a loud and persistent growing crescendo of support for the strikers in letters to the editor, calls to talk shows, ads, email and letters to UPS, etc. We can't do anything now about Staley, Caterpillar, or the Detroit newspaper strikes. But we sure as hell can do something about the UPS strike and we ought not wait until it has dragged on for a year before taking our responsibility for solidarity seriously. In solidarity, Michael ----------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. McLibel Support Campaign Email dbriars-AT-world.std.com PO Box 62 Phone/Fax 802-586-9628 Craftsbury VT 05826-0062 http://www.mcspotlight.org/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to the "mclibel" electronic mailing list, send email To: majordomo-AT-world.std.com Subject: <not needed> Message: subscribe mclibel To unsubscribe, change the message to: "unsubscribe mclibel" --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005