Love Philly? Sign up for the free Billy Penn newsletter to get everything you need to know about Philadelphia, every day.
Two thousand UPS workers in the Philadelphia region have signed onto a demand to raise wages after part-time employees were hit with an unannounced pay cut.
A Thursday morning protest organized by the Teamsters 623 Local union drew about 75 workers, elected officials, and organizers to the South Philly UPS complex. The Oregon Avenue shipping center employs more than 1,350 people across customer service, drivers, and warehousing, according to a union spokesperson.
Shamar Hudson, a warehouse worker getting off his shift as the rally began, told Billy Penn there wasn’t any warning from management before his pay was slashed from $19 to $15 an hour.
“We never heard it from a manager,” Hudson said. “You saw it on your paycheck and that was just that.”
UPS worker Maurice Smith found himself in the same situation. Hired at $17.50 per hour last August, he got a raise to $19 — and then this sudden drop. “I thought [the cut] was going to be $17, not $15,” he said.
UPS ramped up hiring during the pandemic as demand for delivery services skyrocketed. Last May, the logistics giant announced it was looking for 500 part-time workers in the Philly region. As part of this hiring push, the company boosted wages to $19, noted Local 623 Principal Officer Richard Hooker Jr., to keep up with rates offered by other shipping and logistics companies.
This month, as hundreds of...
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja The Nigerian Cancer Society (NCS) has condemned the alleged false claims of all time cancer diagnosis by one Blessing Okoro, popularly known as Blessing CEO, urging secur...