Summary UPS and the Package Wars | The New Yorker www.newyorker.com
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Martech's header-based authentication has enabled UPS to compete in the "Package Wars", while union leaders and drivers strive to ensure equitable pay and working conditions despite the company's surveillance measures.
Key Points
- Martech has enabled header-based authentication, which is necessary for UPS to compete in the "Package Wars."
- The Teamsters are preparing for a new contract, hopeful that it will be a powerful recruiting tool for the labor movement and help unionize Amazon workers.
- Casey's fastidious ways and obsession with packages led to the growth and culture of UPS.
- Esteban Chavez, a 24 year old UPS driver, was found unconscious in his package car and later died.
- Last July 28th, drivers around the country gathered to demand air-conditioning in their package cars.
- In 2021, an arbitrator ruled that UPS had violated the contract but limited his ruling to 2019.
Summaries
201 word summary
Martech has enabled header-based authentication, which is necessary for UPS to compete in the "Package Wars". Antoine Andrews is a 46-year-old driver from Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood, a member of the Teamsters union who takes pride in servicing customers. Vinnie Perrone, president of Local 804, organized a rally after Esteban Chavez died of heat exhaustion. Joe Allen's book The Package King details the history of Local 804 and its relationship with UPS, which was disrupted by a Justice Department lawsuit in 1988. Steven Brill's book The Teamsters chronicles Ron Carey's fight for reform, culminating in a 1997 strike that won significant raises and 10,000 full-time jobs.
Tom Perrone became president of Local 804 in 2019 to prepare for upcoming contract battles, and Mike Roberts and Anthony Perrone convey UPS's "wholesome, old-fashioned image". Chris Williamson is fighting for pay inequity, and Scott Damone noted the union's past leaders favored full-time drivers over part-timers. UPS has multiple surveillance measures, such as tracking drivers and safety sensors on package cars. The New Yorker offers a weekly subscription and checks for consent to performance cookies. UPS drivers feel the public doesn't understand their job, and they didn't receive hazard pay or bonuses during the pandemic.
423 word summary
UPS has multiple surveillance measures, such as tracking drivers and safety sensors on package cars. At a union meeting, Tom Perrone discussed part-timers' compensation and Vinnie took the oath to become a porter. The New Yorker offers a weekly subscription and uses a function to check for consent to performance cookies. UPS drivers feel the public doesn't understand their job, and they didn't receive any hazard pay or bonuses during the pandemic.
Tom Perrone became president of Local 804 in 2019 to prepare for the upcoming contract battle, and he has fought against UPS's hiring of P.V.D.s. In 2021, an arbitrator ruled UPS had violated the contract, and the Local 804 headquarters in Long Island City, Queens is a hub for UPS drivers. The main UPS hub in New York City is located in Manhattan, and Mike Roberts and Anthony Perrone convey UPS's "wholesome, old-fashioned image". Chris Williamson has been fighting for pay inequity for part-timers in the next contract, and Scott Damone noted the union's past leaders favored full-time drivers over part-timers.
In 1997, Ron Carey declared a strike against UPS which won significant raises and 10,000 full-time jobs. In 2018, the I.B.T. ratified a contract with UPS creating a two-tier system for package-car drivers, and Sean OBrien won the election to succeed James P. Hoffa in 2021. The Teamsters have had a long relationship with UPS, which was disrupted in 1988 when the Justice Department brought a racketeering lawsuit against them. Steven Brill's book The Teamsters chronicles Ron Carey, a UPS driver from Queens who became president of Local 804 in 1967 and fought for reform.
Vinnie Perrone, president of Local 804, organized a rally to demand air-conditioning in package cars after Esteban Chavez, a 24 year old UPS driver, died of heat exhaustion. UPS instead installed fans and provided vehicles more often. Local 804 was chartered in 1937 and has had several strikes over the years since then. Joe Allen's book The Package King details the history of Local 804 and its relationship with UPS.
Martech has enabled header-based authentication which is necessary for UPS to compete in the "Package Wars." Antoine Andrews is a 46-year-old UPS driver from Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood and has been delivering packages for nearly 20 years. He is a member of the Teamsters union and his job is demanding and stressful, but he takes pride in servicing customers. The Teamsters are preparing for a new contract and hope it will be a powerful recruiting tool for the labor movement and help unionize Amazon workers.
897 word summary
Martech has enabled header-based authentication, which is necessary for UPS to compete in the "Package Wars." Antoine Andrews, a 46-year-old UPS driver from Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood, has been delivering packages for nearly 20 years and is a member of the Teamsters union. He has a friendly rapport with customers that helped fuel public support during the 1997 15-day strike. His job is demanding and stressful, but he takes pride in servicing customers. UPS workers are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and are facing increased competition from other delivery services. The Teamsters are preparing for a new contract, hopeful that it will be a powerful recruiting tool for the labor movement and help unionize Amazon workers. Casey's fastidious ways and obsession with packages led to the growth and culture of UPS. In 1937, Local 804 was chartered to represent UPS workers in New York and there have been several strikes over the years since then. Joe Allen's book, The Package King: A Rank-and-File History of UPS, details the history of Local 804 and its relationship with UPS.
Vinnie Perrone, president of Teamsters Local 804, organized a rally for its members to discuss the issue of air-conditioning in their package cars. Esteban Chavez, a 24 year old UPS driver, was found unconscious in his package car and later died. UPS claimed A.C. would be ineffective, so they installed fans and provided vehicles more often.
Last July 28th, drivers around the country gathered to demand air-conditioning in their package cars. At a gathering of drivers at Local 804 headquarters, Andrews announced a moment of silence for a fellow driver who had collapsed due to heat exhaustion in Arizona. Perrone warned that the company was taking advantage of drivers and that they were not being fairly compensated despite record profits.
The Teamsters have had a long relationship with UPS and in 1988, the Justice Department brought a racketeering lawsuit against them to stamp out Mob connections. Steven Brill's book The Teamsters depicts Ron Carey, who started as a UPS driver in Queens in the mid-fifties and went on to be elected president of Local 804 in 1967, as an honest reformer. In 1997, Ron Carey, leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (I.B.T.), declared a strike against UPS. The Teamsters won significant raises and 10,000 full-time jobs. In 2018, the I.B.T. ratified a contract with UPS creating a two-tier system for package-car drivers which is still a source of rage and bitterness. Sean OBrien won the election to succeed James P. Hoffa in 2021, ending Hoffa's 23-year tenure amid a scandal.
Scott Damone, Local 804 business agent, noted the union's past leaders favored full-time drivers while treating part-timers less favorably. The union's upcoming contract negotiations will include improving part-timers' pay and securing more full-time positions.
Local 804 held 14 rallies around the country in August, including one outside the Maspeth UPS hub attended by mostly drivers and left-wing Democrat Jamaal Bowman. Chris Williamson, Local 804's Vice-President, has been fighting for pay inequity for part-timers in the next contract and insists on total solidarity among members of the local.
The main UPS hub in New York City is located in Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River. It is surrounded by glass skyscrapers and its policy book instructs managers to use first names to generate a friendly atmosphere. Mike Roberts is a longtime inside worker with a full-time job while Anthony Perrone conveys UPS's "wholesome, old-fashioned image". The Local 804 headquarters in Long Island City, Queens has been a hub for UPS drivers for decades. On the day of my visit, 140,000 parcels were delivered. Vinnie Perrone, president of Local 804 of the Teamsters Union, noticed an increase in online orders and heavy items being shipped. UPS was recently reported to have an on-time delivery rate of 97%.
In 2019, Perrone became president of Local 804 to prepare for the upcoming contract battle. He has fought against UPS's hiring of P.V.D.s (Personal Vehicle Drivers) who are independent contractors and difficult to unionize. In 2021, an arbitrator ruled that UPS had violated the contract but limited his ruling to 2019.
The drivers feel that the public doesn't understand their job. Despite working throughout the pandemic, they didn't receive any hazard pay or bonuses. Antoine Andrews is a UPS driver who also works as an organizer for the Teamsters and has joined rallies for Starbucks workers. Dave Carew is a veteran driver who delivers packages and carries heavy items, averaging eight miles and 45 flights of stairs a day. Finally, Santiago mentioned UPS's ten-point commentary and how it puts pressure on drivers to move fast and cut corners. UPS has multiple surveillance measures, including supervisors tracking drivers and safety measures such as sensors on package cars. At a union meeting, Tom Perrone discussed part-timers' compensation and encouraged members to do their job right for a better contract. Vinnie, a former driver, took the oath to become a porter at a UPS building and urged members to stick together. The New Yorker offers readers weekly subscription with free tote bag and best stories from writers. To ensure consent to performance cookies, a function is used to check if window.OnetrustActiveGroups contains 'C0002' and a script is appended. A function is also bound to window.cnBus to make a call when the OneTrustGroupsUpdated event is triggered, but the call is not being made for an unknown reason.
2653 word summary
If window.cnBus is present, a script is appended which calls the user-context with referrer, verso, and location parameters. A function is also bound to the window.cnBus to make the call when the OneTrustGroupsUpdated event is triggered. The call is not being made for an unknown reason.
In order to make sure that the user has consented to performance cookies, a function is used to check if window.OnetrustActiveGroups contains 'C0002'. If so, the script is appended and the hasScriptBeenInjected variable is set to true.
The New Yorker offers readers weekly subscription with a free tote bag and a chance to never miss a big story. It provides readers with the best stories from David Sedaris, Alex Baia, Ted Geltner, and Ava Kofman. Jennifer Gonnerman joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2015 and received a 2021 National Magazine Award for her article Survival Story about a New York City bus operator. Vinnie, a former driver who was shot while on his route two years ago, took the oath to become a porter at a UPS building. At a union meeting, he encouraged fellow members to stick together in the coming months to help get the best contract. The union was heavily invested in UPS's success and had become increasingly militant. At the meeting, it was announced that the value of the C.E.O.'s 2021 compensation package was 15.2 million dollars, which was met with applause. The message was that the union workers should strive for a win-win situation and that UPS's success is tied to the success of its union labor. Local 804 held its last general-membership meeting on a Sunday morning, where members recited the Teamsters oath and applauded. The meeting started with Tom Perrone discussing the compensation package for part-timers, saying they deserve better. He mentioned the pay of UPS drivers, adding that participation is key. He encouraged the union's newest members to do the job right, saying there's light at the end of the tunnel. He noted that the unpredictability of the job can lead to tensions at home. Matt Leichenger added that the job had made him paranoid, and Elliot Lewis mentioned a guy who quit due to mental issues. UPS drivers used to gather at a pizza shop on their lunch break. To prank the man behind the counter, they sent him two slices of pizza. They also told a story about how they used to practice on-road observation, where supervisors would follow a driver on their route to watch them.
Not all surveillance at UPS is electronic; supervisors can find out where every driver is at all times, as well as their number of stops per hour. There are also safety measures such as sensors on the package cars and instructions such as "keep package close to your body" and "remember five or more stops in advance".
Santiago, one of the drivers, mentioned the ten-point commentary which includes instructions for how to interact with customers and how to be hyperefficient. He also noted that UPS puts pressure on drivers to move fast and cut corners, though the company characterizes its use of sensors as a safety measure. Finally, Santiago said that body breaks down faster at UPS due to injuries like his herniated disk in his neck. Dave Carew, a veteran driver for UPS, has been contending with a limp for a long time. Working out of a building in Suffolk County, he delivers packages to Shelter Island and carries heavy beach umbrellas and porch furniture. His daily average is eight miles and forty-five flights of stairs.
Antoine Andrews, another UPS driver, works three days a week delivering packages and two days a week as an organizer for the Teamsters. He has travelled to Ohio and Kentucky to help DHL workers join the union and has joined rallies for Starbucks workers.
The conversation among the drivers revealed a feeling that the public doesn't understand the job of a UPS driver. They are working every day throughout the pandemic, yet they didn't receive any hazard pay or bonuses.
Billions of dollars have been made by the company, yet they didn't get anything. People are now noticing packages on their doorstep, but it is difficult for UPS to keep up with Amazon Flex drivers who are exploiting independent-contractor obligations. The Teamsters are trying to organize Amazon warehouse workers, but are limited in what they can do due to that company's contract. In 2015, UPS began hiring Personal Vehicle Drivers (P.V.D.s) to drive their own cars and deliver packages during peak season. This practice has caused a stir, as it makes unionizing the drivers difficult and allows UPS to avoid being held legally responsible for the drivers' treatment.
John Perrone, president of Local 804 of the Teamsters union, has fought UPS's hiring of P.V.D.s and argued that the Teamsters national contract with UPS prohibits package-car drivers from being required to use their personal vehicles. In 2021, an arbitrator ruled that UPS had violated the contract but limited his ruling to 2019.
Perrone himself has worked with UPS for twenty years and had two serious injuries on the job. In 2019, he became president of Local 804 in order to help prepare for the upcoming contract battle and make management feel as uncomfortable as they make union members feel. Vinnie Perrone, president of Local 804 of the Teamsters, began to see car tires and other heavy items in the back of his package car when online shopping took off. UPS came out on top of a recent report on delivery companies' performance with an on-time-delivery rate of 97%. Marc Wulfraat, a logistics consultant, explained that UPS is known for its ground-delivery service, which is ideal for customers who are shipping within the US and have a two-to-five-day time frame.
The Local 804 headquarters in Long Island City, Queens has been occupied for decades but is now run-down. Despite the antiquated setup, drivers from this hub delivered 140,000 parcels on the day that I stopped by, taking an unusual route through conveyor belts and package cars.
Perrone believes that UPS's recent successes have come at a steep cost to its workers. He conveys the company's reputation as a "wholesome, old-fashioned image" with a cartoon by Pia Guerra and Ian Boothby. The main UPS hub in New York City is an eight-story brick structure located in Manhattan, at Forty-third Street and Twelfth Avenue, overlooking the Hudson River. It is surrounded by glass skyscrapers that have risen around it since it opened sixty years ago. The company's policy book, first printed in 1929, instructs managers to use first names to generate a friendly and informal atmosphere. A framed sign reads "Jim Casey Occupied This Office 1962-1975" and his picture hangs by the door.
The level of camaraderie within Local 804 between inside workers and drivers is largely determined by whether a driver previously worked inside a building. Chris Williamson, the Local 804's Vice-President, started working at the Maspeth hub as a preloader in 1988. He was paid fifty cents more than the minimum wage. Mike Roberts, a longtime inside worker, has a full-time job. His shift starts at 11 A.M. and he walks out of the building a little after 9 P.M.
Williamson has been insisting on total solidarity among members of the local and trying to stamp out a way of thinking that inside workers are better than those on the street. He has also been fighting for pay inequity for part-timers in the next contract. The Teamsters need to keep a united front between inside workers and drivers, feeder drivers and everyone else in order to succeed in their contract battle this year. Starting pay at the Maspeth hub is typically $15.50 an hour. In August, Local 804 held fourteen rallies around the country, including a large one outside the Maspeth UPS hub attended by mostly drivers and left-wing Democrat Jamaal Bowman.
Scott Damone, the Local 804 business agent, noted that the union's past leaders favored full-time drivers while treating part-timers less favorably. The union's upcoming contract negotiations will include improving part-timers' pay and securing more full-time positions, as well as addressing the six-day work week and eliminating the 22.4 provision.
Damone emphasized the importance of righting wrongs and stated that the union needs, wants, and deserves more compensation. He noted that New York's exorbitant housing costs make it difficult for drivers to make a good living. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (I.B.T.) invoked an archaic clause in their constitution to ratify a contract with UPS in 2018, creating a two-tier system for package-car drivers. This contract is still a source of rage and bitterness among many Local 804 members and other UPS workers. In 2021, Sean OBrien, the leader of a local in Boston, won the election to succeed James P. Hoffa, who had held the position for twenty-three years. Hoffa's tenure ended amid a scandal related to the financing of his relection campaign.
The 1997 strike led by Ron Carey, who took over the I.B.T., was declared the most dramatic confrontation between industry and organized labor in two decades. Carey decried the reliance of UPS on part-time employees to work as package handlers and the Teamsters cast their strike not only as a battle against their employer but as a fight for decent jobs for all Americans. The strike halted UPS's operations, and the Teamsters won significant raises and ten thousand full-time jobs. In 1988, the Justice Department brought a racketeering lawsuit against the Teamsters to stamp out the Mob's influence. The union's longtime leader Jimmy Hoffa had a reputation for Mob connections. Steven Brill's book The Teamsters (1978) depicts Ron Carey, who started as a UPS driver in Queens in the mid-fifties and went on to be elected president of Local 804 in 1967, as an honest reformer.
At a gathering of drivers at Local 804 headquarters, Andrews announced a moment of silence for a fellow driver who had collapsed on the doorstep due to heat exhaustion in Arizona. Perrone mentioned that the incident had gone viral and that the customer who was not home at the time had been disturbed by the footage. He underlined the importance of being prepared and well hydrated on hot days, and warned that the company was taking advantage of drivers. He concluded by saying that UPS was making tons of money, while drivers were not being fairly compensated. Last July 28th, UPS drivers around the country gathered in a shady spot across the street from their building in Canarsie, Brooklyn to demand air-conditioning in their package cars. Photos of temperature readings above a hundred and twenty degrees circulated on social media.
UPS had claimed A.C. would be ineffective due to drivers getting in and out of their vehicles. In response, the company installed fans in package cars and provided drivers with vehicles so often.
Two weeks ago, 24 year old Esteban Chavez was found unconscious in his package car and later died. His death has yet to be determined by the medical examiner.
Vinnie Perrone, a 58 year old UPS driver, is now president of Teamsters Local 804. This is one of the largest UPS Teamsters locals in the country, representing about 8 thousand employees in NYC and Westchester County and Long Island.
Perrone organized a rally for its members to discuss the issue of air-conditioning and other measures. He also noted that UPS has been posting record profits in 2020 and 2022, despite living costs going up.
Joe Allen, a former UPS driver in Chicago, details the history of Local 804 in his 2020 book, The Package King: A Rank-and-File History of UPS. Relations between Local 804 members and the New York management of UPS have been stormy, including numerous additional strikes, including one in 1962. UPS has a long and unique relationship with the Teamsters Union. It began in 1907, when James E. Casey started a message-delivery service in Seattle. By 1919, he had switched to delivering packages and expanded to Oakland, taking on the name United Parcel Service.
In 1937, the Teamsters gave a charter to Local 804 to represent UPS workers in New York. In 1942 and 1946, the workers went on strike to protest the treatment of some of their co-workers who had been suspended. In 1946, Casey invited the union to represent his workers.
Casey's obsession with packages and his fastidious ways have fuelled the company's growth and shaped its culture. UPS vehicles are painted brown, drivers wear brown uniforms, and they have a gilt badge bearing a brown eagle and the message "Safe, Swift, Sure."
The current Teamsters general president believes that if the Teamsters prevail, securing a stronger contract for UPS workers, it will be a powerful recruiting tool for the labor movement and a crucial asset in the Teamsters quest to unionize Amazon workers. UPS is an anomaly among delivery services, as its workers are covered by a union contract. Interest in union activism is increasing among a variety of workers, from college teaching assistants to Chipotle burrito-makers to Amazon package handlers. The battle for the next UPS contract comes at a critical time for the Teamsters.
UPS has been growing, adding more than 50,000 Teamsters-represented jobs between 2018 and 2021. Despite this, the company is facing increased competition from gig-economy companies like DoorDash, as well as traditional competitors like FedEx. Amazon, UPS's biggest customer until recently, is now delivering many of its own packages.
UPS drivers have to make a certain number of stops per hour. Andrew, a UPS driver since 2001, has a recurring nightmare where he falls asleep in his package car on his lunch break and wakes up panicked, desperately trying to make up the lost time. He feels that this dream reflects the anxiety of trying to keep up with the clock. Antoine Andrews started his career at UPS as an inside worker in 1996, earning less than half the hourly wage of veteran drivers. His job required him to take parcels off a conveyor belt and load them into a package car, making certain they were organized by address. He estimates he would load a little over a thousand parcels in a shift.
The following year, when UPS workers went on strike, Andrews joined the picket line. Preparations for a strike have already begun, with Teamsters Local 804 threatening to go on strike again when their contract expires on August 1st. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents some 350,000 UPS workers, and the union declared victory in 1997 after a 15-day strike.
Andrews has not grown tired of his job, despite the demanding and stressful nature of it. He takes pride in servicing his customers and building strong relationships with them. His friendly rapport helped fuel public support for UPS's workers during the strike. He continues to do the "dance of the UPS driver," driving a block or two, searching for parcels, delivering them to customers and repeating the process. Antoine Andrews, a 46-year-old UPS driver from Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood, has been delivering packages for nearly 20 years. Until 2020, UPS prohibited its drivers from having beards, but Andrews now sports a salt-and-pepper beard. On his route, he waves to people he knows and is greeted in return. When he drops off a package at Walgreens, he recognizes an elderly man who used to work at a neighborhood bar and offers him a free beer, which Andrews declines. Later, when he rings the bell of a house, the customer greets him with a fist bump.
Andrews splits his workweek between his UPS rounds and his organizing for the Teamsters. With the looming threat of a strike, the company is enjoying record profits while offering old-fashioned middle-class jobs. Martech has set a configuration to enable header-based authentication. This includes the authorization header, which is composed of a bearer token and a user authentication cookie. This configuration is necessary to enable UPS to participate in the "Package Wars."