April 8, 2014
By Stephanie West
New York, NY – Hundreds of union members and community supporters rallied on the steps of city hall here, April 3, in support of the 250 UPS drivers who were issued terminations for walking out to defend their fellow co-worker. Led by NYC Public Advocate Letitia James, more than a dozen State and City leaders Joined the Local 804 members to call on UPS to immediately rescind the terminations of the 250 Teamster drivers in Queens.
New York Public Advocate Letitia James spoke and threatened UPS with ending their $43 million of tax breaks provided by New York City. She went on to proclaim, “This ain’t Wisconsin!” City Controller Scott Stringer added "I do not understand who at that company put forward a business plan to take away a generation of good will between UPS and City of New York. This is not going to end this way.”
President of Teamsters Local 804 Tim Sylvester told the crowd, “We're asking UPS to do right by the workers who have built this company and to do right by the customers who depend on these workers everyday.” UPS should take back the terminations and resolve this through dialogue and negotiations—not intimidation tactics," said President Sylvester.
Workers walked out to defend a union activist and 24-year worker, Jairo Reyes, after UPS tried to fire him through an abuse of the grievance procedure. UPS issued terminations to the 250 brave drivers from Teamsters 804 that demonstrated against the firing of Jairo.
