People Over Packages
Viviana Gonzalez thinks about her son as she looks for packages in the oven-like swelter of her package car. A single-mother and Teamsters Local 396 shop steward in Los Angeles, Viviana fears not only for her safety but for her child because of the deadly heat she works in as a UPS package car driver.
"We do need air conditioning," Viviana says. "Because there are times when I think about my health. Am I going to pass out? Is anybody going to find out that I'm back here in the back of the truck?"
Last summer, as news stories detailed the brutally hot conditions UPS Teamsters are subjected to while facing the daily risk of heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses, the union set out to confront the company hard in negotiations to demand UPS take meaningful action. Last week, the Teamsters National Negotiating Committee and UPS reached a historic tentative agreement to air condition the company’s fleet of vehicles, alongside other protections from extreme conditions including new exhaust heat shields and two fans per package car.
Viviana reminds us why it is long past time to put management in the hot seat, which is precisely what Teamster leaders and rank-and-file committee members are doing every day in negotiations.