For eight years, Rob Becker worked as a delivery driver for UPS in Queens, New York. About five years ago, he was terminated. He got involved in his local union, Teamsters Local 804, and fought, successfully, to get reinstated.
While pushing for changes and collecting signatures in recent months at UPS as the Teamsters prepare for a new union contract fight across at the company in 2023, Becker, an alternate union steward, was again fired from his job.
“I guess I was costing the company too much money,” said Becker. “We are constantly harassed and intimidated by our management. It’s never-ending, we do go through some calm periods, but inevitably it turns back up at some point when they decide to crack the whip.”
He said his termination noted that he was fired for taking a two- to three-minute break in the morning to get a drink of water.
In the new union contract, Becker and other workers have been pushing for better overtime protections, an elimination of a second tier of delivery drivers who are paid less and provided with less protections for doing the same work, better pay for part-time employees and heat protection.
UPS workers and the Teamsters have signaled preparations to strike to win these demands in the next union contract.
“We are ready to strike 100%. It’s obviously a weapon of last resort,” said Becker.
In August, Teamsters International launched the contract fight at UPS, as the union leadership newly elected in 2021 has signaled an end to accepting concessions in union contracts with UPS.
The union is fighting for the end of misclassifying workers as a means to pay them less, such as personal vehicle drivers who work as temporary contractors. They also want the increasing surveillance of drivers on the job, a two-tier employee system of drivers, at least a $20 an hour starting pay for part-time employees and heat protections as UPS vehicles are not equipped with air conditioning.
UPS cut hourly pay for many part-time workers earlier this year, as the company reported record profits of nearly $13bn in 2021.
“Our union is resolved to win the best contract for UPS members and to reset the standards for wages and benefits in this industry by August 1, 2023. We won’t extend negotiations by a single day. We’ll either have a signed agreement that day or be hitting the pavement,” the Teamsters International president, Sean O’Brien, said in a statement.
Ben Douglass, another UPS driver in Queens, New York for two years, was also fired on 24 August, the same day as Becker, while serving as an alternate union steward. He said over the past six months, retaliation and harassment has ramped up.
“Myself and other worker activists have become thorns in the side of management. In the lead up to the contract fight, management has a strategy of trying to scare the workforce so people aren’t fully prepared to fight against accepting a subpar contract,” he said.
Douglass is one of the delivery drivers who is classified as a 22.4 driver, in the second tier of delivery drivers where pay is much lower and they don’t receive overtime protections. He’s also fighting to improve pay and working conditions for part-time workers and heat protections in the wake of drivers requiring medical attention and the heat-related death of 24-year-old driver Esteban Chavez in California earlier this year.
Douglass and Becker have both filed grievances to push to be reinstated to their positions view their firings as part of targeting of union activists and organizers in the workplace ahead of the new union contract fight.
“I think there’s a systematic policy from the UPS management to target activists in the workplace and there’s a culture of harassment and retaliation,” added Douglass.
UPS did not comment on the firings and claims of retaliation.
In regards to the union contract negotiations, a UPS spokesperson said in an email: “These, and many others, are important topics that we will discuss as part of our negotiation. UPS and the Teamsters have worked cooperatively for almost 100 years to meet the needs of UPS employees, customers, and the communities where we live and work. We have built UPS into the world’s leading package delivery company together, which has also bolstered Teamsters membership over the years. We believe we’ll continue to find common ground with the Teamsters and reach an agreement that’s good for everyone involved.”
