Chicago Local 705 Teamsters defend one of their own with solidarity
Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, December 22, 150 workers at the Jefferson Street UPS barn in Chicago staged a protest before work.
According to Sean Orr, a driver and elected shop steward, the members of Teamsters Local 705 took action to defend one of their own.
“UPS unjustly fired one of us last week and refused to schedule a return-to-work day to keep our sister out through the holidays. In response, over 150 drivers stood outside and denied management the ‘flex start’ they crave during the holidays.”
“Flex start” is when drivers arrive ahead of their 9:30 start time to be ready when their trucks are loaded.
The fired union member, a Black woman driver, had delivered a box of clothes to an address with a locked gate by tossing it over a fence. The lowlife who complained about the delivery took doorbell video to the reactionary corporate news, always looking for a way to attack workers.
After this action, management finally scheduled the meeting with the union to settle the issue and get the woman back to work during the critical days of holiday deliveries known at UPS as peak season.
Summing it up, Orr said, “Solidarity gets the goods!”