UPS fires 250 workers who stood up for an employee friend. The 250 workers are all drivers and employees of UPS Queens, New York. The reason UPS fires 250 workers? They made a 90-minute protest to defend a co-worker in February.
According to Business Insider, UPS spokesman Steve Gaut said UPS previously let go of 20 of its workers after their shifts Monday. After that, UPS fires 250 workers in total when they issued notices of termination to another 230 employees notifying them that they would be let go as soon as their replacements were trained.
UPS fires 250 workers for protesting the dismissal of long-time employee and union activist Jairo Reyes in February. Reyes was fired for a dispute over hours, says Gaut on first reports by the New York Daily News. The 250 unionized UPS workers left their jobs for 90 minutes to fight for Reyes.
According to Gaut, UPS fires 250 workers because the employees' protest wasn't approved. The unapproved protest caused loss in sales and fines due to undelivered and late packages.
Because UPS fires 250 workers, local politicians are outraged and threatening to cancel around $43 million worth of city contracts with UPS.
New York City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said to the The Queens Courier, "They took a grievance with one employee and turned it into notices of termination with 250 workers. That's outrageous. These are good, hardworking employees who have a contract for UPS. To try and break this contract, break this union, is something that is unacceptable and we can't tolerate."
Despite the threat from politicians, UPS fires back saying it would have to let go of more employees if the city cancels its contracts.
UPS spokesman Gaut says of UPS fires 250 workers:
"UPS appreciates its business with the New York public offices. 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."
On February 26, UPS used to have 1,400 employees at the Maspeth distribution center, the place of the strike causing UPS fires 250 workers.
Gaut added "When a group of 250 employees walk out for 90 minutes it is a significant disruption in the delivery of parcels or packages to customers on that day, we get penalties if we don't deliver on time. For that reason, strikes are not an approved method of conflict resolution in UPS' contract with the union."
UPS fires 250 workers, the union meanwhile wrote on its website:
"The company fired a group of drivers to try to divide us, create panic, or try to get Local 804 to cave in and sell out. That is not going to happen."
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