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Hoffa’s Numbered Days – Jacobin

For UPS, the largest Teamster employer in the United States, Hoffa has been the gift that keeps on giving. John Schultz, a reporter for Traffic World, one of the freight industry’s leading publications, wrote an article in May 2000 called “In Love with Hoffa”:

United Parcel Service, the nation’s largest transportation company, feels that it has taken part in one of the great trades of all time in labor: James P. “Jimmy” Hoffa for Ron Carey as president of the Teamsters union.

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UPS News

UPS air mechanics file complaint of unsafe working conditions – Louisville Business First

A union group representing airline mechanics has filed a legal complaint against United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) for allegedly failing to protect workers’ safety on the job.

A complaint, filed Nov. 23 in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Kentucky, calls for UPS to immediately halt the use of more than 100 lifts, which are used by workers to reach the mechanical components of the aircraft.

The lifts rise as much as 25 feet off the ground. The union, Teamsters Local 2727, said in a news release that it repeatedly has raised concerns about malfunctioning lifts and truck booms that have dropped workers on multiple occasions. Earlier this month, according to the union, a 19-foot lift collapsed while a member of Local 2727 was working on the left wing of a plane.

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UPS News

UPS fired driver for union activities, social media use – NLRB judge – Reuters

United Parcel Service Inc violated federal labor law when it fired a driver in Pennsylvania for his union activities and criticism of the company on social media, a National Labor Relations judge in Washington D.C. ruled on Friday.

Administrative Law Judge Geoffrey Carter rejected UPS’ argument that it would have fired Robert Atkinson for his poor performance in the absence of his organizing and criticism, finding that the company’s decisions were “tainted” by its unlawful goal of removing a vocal leader and union activist from the workplace.

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UPS News

Demotion 7 Months After Leave? Not Retaliation, Court Says – HR Daily Advisor

When a court evaluates whether an employer has retaliated against an employee for taking medical leave, it often considers “temporal proximity”—that is, how soon an adverse action followed leave or a leave request.
Accountability

And while there is no bright-line rule for just how close those events need to be to suggest retaliation, a span of 7 months is definitely too long, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—which covers Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee—held in Tennial v. United Parcel Service, No. 15-6356 (6th Cir. Oct. 24, 2016).

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UPS News

How UPS stays steady in center of e-commerce shipping storm – Retail Dive

United Parcel Service doesn’t sound much like a company at the center of a massive storm in the shipping and package delivery market — though that’s exactly where it is right now.

UPS recently said it is expecting record deliveries during the holiday season, a blast of optimism that came as it also reported another strong revenue quarter. But for a year or more, the world’s largest package delivery company repeatedly has been faced with questions about one of its biggest customers, Amazon, which is amassing its own shipping fleet and delivery assets. Meanwhile, a slew of firms — most prominently Amazon, but also Uber, Lyft, Postmates and many others — are redefining the meaning of express delivery to include same-day-delivery or even quicker on-demand delivery. Also, as cross-border e-commerce booms, the international sellers UPS supports face an array of new complexities involving different languages and currencies, as well as the taxes administered in different countries.