Brian Henriquez was at work on thursday when he received a ring,
doorbell notification, couldn't get to his phone right away.
Something that he now regrets captured on his doorbells video
a UPS driver struggling to walk to the door and then collapsing on his porch.
That's right, A UPS driver collapsed thanks to the unbelievable
heat wave that is taking hold of most of this country as we speak.
There are real consequences to this heat wave, especially if you're a UPS driver
who has to deliver in a vehicle that lacks air conditioning.
And by the way, if you're a UPS worker in a warehouse,
it's very likely you don't have air conditioning there either.
And now this has become a huge problem because workers are getting sick and
instead of investing in what's necessary to keep these workers safe during
the heat wave to keep them cool to make sure they're healthy ups decided to invest
their money on surveillance instead, we'll get to that in a moment.
But first, what was the reaction of ups after they learned of
their worker collapsing like that?
We appreciate the concern for our employee and can report that he is.
UPS drivers are trained to work outdoors and for the effects of hot weather.
You know, the onus is really on the workers, you know, with adequate training.
They can somehow, you know, supercharge their superhuman
powers to withstand heat without air conditioning.
Okay, now, reportedly the worker called his manager after the incident and
did receive help.
But UPS workers around the country are suffering right now because of
extreme conditions.
Here's why the workers are so vulnerable to heat stroke ups is
ubiquitous brown trucks and warehouses are largely without air conditioning.
After record earnings.
Last year, the company installed cameras in its delivery trucks but
did not change its heat safety protocols according to the union
representing these workers, by the way,
compounding long held grievances about the company's priority priorities.
And so these workers are represented by a union, which means they might have
a fighting chance in changing their working conditions.
So they're not, you know, collapsing from
the terrible conditions that they have to work in without any adequate protection.
Some ups, workers, by the way,
have compared the heat in the back of their trucks to a sauna.
Federal occupational safety and health administration inspectors have documented
heat indexes of 126 in the trucks and temperature readings taken by workers
in their trucks in Arizona and Florida show temperatures above 150°.
I was just in Florida.
Okay.
It took me several days just to get used to that heat and humidity.
I couldn't eat.
I was constantly nauseous.
I can't imagine having to deliver packages,
having to do physical labor in those conditions with no air conditioning,
but that is what these workers have to deal with because let's just keep it real.
The employer here ups would have to spend a little bit of money to provide the air
conditioning or the fans that they need to buy the way to do their jobs and
to do it in a way that doesn't put their health in jeopardy and
that would cut into their precious profits.
But you know, surveillance cameras, that's important because they want to make sure
they can surveil their workers and get super punitive if they're not doing
everything right, because that's where the priorities are Jessica.
I mean, I'm not surprised by any of this.
Yeah, I love that you bring up the training.
When I saw that, I immediately thought like what is the training?
Are they putting people in a sauna to prepare to maintain homeostasis and
extreme weather conditions?
Like what is the training that prepares you for that?
There isn't any and
I cannot stress this enough that this is not what we meant when hot labor summer.
No, nothing like this.
People have to work to pay their bills to survive now they're working jobs that kind
of risk their life.
And the interesting thing about this story is there near in contract
negotiations, right?
A lot of the ups workers there in the Teamsters union,
what's concerning is Sean O'brien, the president of the Teamsters said that
they'll be prepared to strike at this time next summer.
We can't really wait until next summer.
The problem with this is there are all of these provisions in their union contract
right now that suggests all these criteria need to be met and
certain officials need to declare that there is a strike.
And I think this is the kind of condition where there could be a wildcat strike
among ups workers?
I assume that there's already tensions about what they want to bring up
in this next contract negotiation.
If people are collapsing because of heat stroke,
there are a ton of other workers who are uncomfortable all day long at work,
who are probably very ready to strike.
And this is why we don't just need unions,
we need strong unions that actually represent workers interests.
We've had a lot of situations where workers have been on strike regarding
contracts and their union leaders have signed contracts that many of the workers
are not happy with.
And so we really need to have a hot labor summer in a different
sense of the word hot.
Yeah.
Look, I totally agree with you on that.
You know, sometimes stories like this make it feel like it's a,
it's a hopeless situation, right?
Like what can we, as ordinary people do to help out?
You know, we talk about organizing your own workplace a lot, but you know,
I would, I would assume that most of us receive packages,
whether it's through amazon or UPS or one of these other delivery services.
I really do hope that these workers don't wait until next summer.
And, and if while cat strikes happen, I think that that could yield some positive
benefits, especially at a time when we hear, you know,
there's all this lip service paid to workers who help our supply chain move and
then function smoothly.
And do you really want to mess with delivery drivers right now?
Like just give them the basics to do their jobs in a safe environment.
But you know, one thing that I personally like to do is, you know,
leave if you're not gonna be home when a package is going to be delivered,
leave some cold water bottles out for the delivery drivers.
If you come across them, ask them if there's anything you could do to help them
out, you know, help out your fellow americans, okay.
Because I think a lot of people get take this for
granted the fact that they're in their comfortable homes or comfortable offices.
But there are people out there having to deal with the terrible
environmental conditions out there thanks to you know,
exacerbated heat droughts, whatever from climate change.
And I hate seeing that people are like literally fainting from heat stroke
because of this heat wave.
And these workers just get forgotten because our lawmakers aren't looking out
for them.
The union in this case, I wish fought a lot harder and you know, when they get
into their negotiations soon, I hope that they demand way better working conditions,
including come on man in the very least air conditioning in their warehouses.
But employers aren't gonna do these things out of the kindness of their own hearts,
their fiduciary responsibility is to maximize profits to return interest or
or to return money or profit to the shareholders, the individuals who
have invested in the company, that is the number one priority for them.
And they see labor as a massive cost that needs to be reined in.
So unless the workers fight for it, unless lawmakers provide the right
regulations passed the right regulations to keep these workers safe again.
Under this model, this capitalistic model,
the employer is not going to do what's necessary to keep the workers safe.
Absolutely. Yeah,
it reminds me of this like really old quote from like the ford era, and
I don't think this conversation actually happened.
It's kind of myth, but it's it's about automation, but
it can also be applied to paying workers such low wages and
putting them in such terrible conditions that they will not want to work for you.
And moreover, they will hardly be able to to meet their basic needs and pay for
rent, right?
People are paid way less than living wages all around the country right now.
And the story goes that like Henry ford had a visitor in his factory and
he's like, you know, look at all of these like robots that are helping us assemble
cars now, and he said, well, who's gonna buy the cars is the effect of it.
And that's exactly what we're dealing with,
I think in the United States all over.
If you're not paying your workers well and you're not treating your workers well ups,
workers have to take accounted amount of steps to get
from the truck to get to the doorstep.
Their everyday behavior is tracked so much.
They're basically owned by ups.
It is really scary when you get into it.
But we're in this weird situation where something's got to give because there's
not a huge incentive for people to keep working for their employer anymore if they
can't meet their basic needs, if their life is at risk when they're at work.
I mean, if you're a shareholder,
if you are someone who invests in these corporations,
it's not really in your interest either to be treating workers like this.
The entire, the entirety of profit wouldn't be possible if these
people were not working every day for ups.
So yeah, it's in their interest as well.
And I hope they figure it out before it's too late and everyone is striking and
things get violent