UPS Fires 250 Drivers After They Protested A Coworker’s Firing

CREDIT: AP PHOTO/JULIO CORTEZ

_Two hundred fifty employees of the United Parcel Service (UPS) walked off the job for 90 minutes in February to protest the firing of one of their coworkers, Jairo Reyes. Reyes had driven for the company for over 20 years, and they felt his firing (which occurred after a complicated saga over the hours that senior UPS workers could hold) was unfair.

This week, all of those employees were given a pink slip, New York Daily News reports. “They just called me in … (and) said, ‘Effective immediately, you are no longer on the payroll,’” one UPS employee told the outlet.

Twenty employees so far have been let go from the Queens branch that staged the walkout, UPS spokesman Steve Gaut confirmed to ThinkProgress. The other 230 have been given notices of termination with the understanding that they will be be let go when replacements are found for them.

“We take the commitments that we make to customers for delivery as a high priority, and whenever we can’t count on the workforce to complete their jobs it negatively affects customer demands,” Gaut said.

UPS workers are unionized under the Teamsters, and UPS alleges that the protesters not only delayed package delivery for customers, but also violated their union contract. Gaut invited the Teamsters of Local 804, where the workers were fired, to appeal the termination under contract rules. But the union insists it already has.

“Since UPS fired Jairo Reyes and 250 drivers walked off the job in protest, Local 804 has repeatedly tried to bring UPS to the table to settle the issues,” the group’s local wrote on its page. “Local 804 will continue to work with political leaders and the public to bring UPS management to the table to reach a fair settlement. We will do whatever is necessary to achieve this goal.”

UPS has previously come under fire for its treatment of workers. In one instance, a pregnant employee was put on unpaid leave with no medical coverage after her doctor instructed her not to lift anything weighing more than 20 pounds.

While the details of the contract between the Teamsters and UPS are not known, all workers, both unionized and non-unionized, are supposed to be able to strike without being fired. Late last year, in fact, the National Labor Relations Board decided to prosecute Walmart for violating that law. Still, labor strikes are becoming increasingly rare, in part because of declining unionization.