Some 250 UPS employees walked out for 90 minutes — in protest for the firing of fellow employee union activist Jairo Reyes. Twenty were fired immediately, with the other 230 being told that they will be terminated once their replacements have been trained, according to the New York Daily News.
It’s an interesting situation. I’ve often given the advice to deal with a bad boss by getting all your coworkers together because it’s unlikely that they’ll fire all of you. But, clearly, this advice would have been the wrong advice for the UPS workers, because UPS did fire them — even though they need to hire replacements.
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You should always stand up for what you believe in and support those with whom you find alignment. Always.
And you stand up in a way that will make your point and facilitate change….but, be patient….change rarely happens quickly and that is where most “Stander Uppers” fail
I probably would have been one of the ones that ‘joined the forces’ to protest the firing of this person if I felt it were unfair and if myself and others were going through similar problems. It seems safer standing up in numbers, but clearly at UPS it wasn’t:( If the management was generally unfair and not treating people right, I would try my darndest to secure a new job and leave before my ‘replacement’ was trained.
UPS is Union, which offers many more resources than common “at-will” employment. If Jairo Reyes was wrongfully termed than he will have resources to dispute. If the 250 workers were wrongfully termed, they will have resources also. if no resources available, then they were acting outside their Union contract and legally termed.
Union can be a great thing, but it does frame every employment decision as either black or white which often take good management decisions out of option.
I agree, the union contract is there to “protect” the employee; And, these employees have to realize that they, too, are required to fulfill their end of the contract.
Far too often, folks remember their “rights,” but forget their obligations.
I don’t feel for these folks at all – they basically told their customers “you don’t matter.” If I were a manager I wouldn’t want that kind of employee working for me and dealing with our clients.
I agree with Jeff M. I used to work a Union job, and it is almost impossible to get fired. The fact that they were even able to terminate Reyes makes me believe that he must of done something very wrong in a very blantant way.