Members of Teamsters Local 657, which represents workers at 22 UPS facilities in Texas, rallied August 28 to demand the company move faster on the union contract it signed with the Teamsters last year. Workers at UPS represented by the Teamsters won protections for workers exposed to extreme heat in their 2023 contract including language to include air conditioning in vehicles purchased after 1 January 2024 and to include cooling devices in 28,000 UPS package delivery vehicles by the end of the contract in 2028. According to CNN, however, UPS has not purchased any new vans since 1 January.
According to Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz, “The company is behind on air conditioning, and that is unacceptable.” Workers interviewed by the Guardian newspaper they have never seen air conditioning in one of UPS’s delivery vans.
Sources:
- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/07/ups-heat-death-texas
- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/23/ups-delivery-workers-
- air-conditioning
- https://x.com/Teamsters/status/1828923138085634375?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%
- 5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1828923138085634375%7Ctwgr%5Ee6f340f066e75ad5986d
- 9fa278dedf117e4339cf%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F
- www.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2Farticle%2F2024%2Fsep%2F07%2Fups-heat-death-texas