UPS drivers protest in McKinney for air conditioning after recent heat-related incidents
McKINNEY – Dozens of protesters gathered at a UPS facility in McKinney on Wednesday morning to demand air conditioning in the company's delivery vehicles.
Teamsters Local 767, the union representing UPS drivers in North Texas, organized the protest after a driver lost control last week and crashed. The union says the driver was suffering from heat-related illness at the time.
The driver had notified a manager that he was vomiting and feeling sick from the heat, according to the union, but the manager still asked him to drive the truck back to a facility several hours away from McKinney to Longview. The union said that broke UPS policy and 911 should have been called.
"We send out over 2,000 vehicles on the road in Local 767's jurisdiction, and not one of our vehicles have AC in them," Dave Reeves, president of Teamsters Local 767, said at Wednesday's protest.
"In the back of those trucks I swear you can make brownies," said UPS driver Jeff Bowers. "It's intense. If it's 105 outside, the back of those trucks: it's 120, 130."
Bowers is a UPS driver in Frisco. When it comes to this extreme heat, he doesn't take chances.
"I take my own precautions of having cooling vests and I have a mister fan in my truck that I bought personally," said Bowers.
But his efforts are no match for these dangerous conditions. Adding to the problem, his delivery truck doesn't have air conditioning.
"I think most people are very surprised when they find out there's no A/C in the trucks and they say 'Oh that's why you guys drive with the doors open,'" said Bowers.
The driver who passed out was fairly new to the job, and his truck did not have air conditioning.
"Our brothers and sisters must go out and hit the pavement every day to service the community," Reeves said. "We are just asking UPS to do their part and put some AC in this jurisdiction."
"Last year the company and Teamsters agreed to additional measures to help employees working in the heat; we are on plan or ahead of schedule on all of those contractual agreements," said UPS spokesperson Jim Mayer.
"No truck in this building has air conditioning," said Bowers.
Union leaders met with UPS on Tuesday to discuss preventing similar incidents.
A spokesperson for UPS sent the following statement to CBS News Texas:
The health and safety of our team members is important to us, and we are committed to providing a safe working environment for our employees. Last year, UPS and the Teamsters agreed to additional measures as part of our overall efforts to help keep our employees safe while working in the heat. We are on plan or ahead of schedule on all our contractual commitments.
The agreement with the Teamsters included equipping all new vehicles purchased after January 1, 2024, with AC and making modifications to our existing package cars to improve airflow, temperature and comfort for our drivers. We have hundreds of vehicles with AC operating on the roads today and will continue to purchase and deploy new vehicles with AC as quickly as possible. We have also equipped the vast majority of our vehicles with heat shields and enhanced air intakes to better cool and ventilate the cargo area.
Here's a summary of our additional efforts to help keep our people safe:
- We're investing more than $409 million annually on safety training in the U.S., and continually enhance our heat safety training, outfit workers with specialized cooling gear, and add equipment to our vehicles and facilities that helps protect our people from the heat.
- We regularly train and communicate on Recharge, our health and safety program that was developed in partnership with experts in athletic hydration and heat-safety. As part of the program, we regularly share follow-up training and reminders about the importance of:
- Getting proper rest and taking care of yourself before and after work.
- Eating water-rich foods and hydrating throughout the day.
- Taking additional breaks whenever needed.
- Knowing the signs and symptoms of heat illness.
- We partnered with experts from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute and the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut to study various working conditions and further improve our training to help our employees work safely – especially on hot days.
- We also partnered with MISSION®, a major activewear company that specializes in cooling fabrics and have distributed more than 440,000 pieces of specialized cooling gear for our drivers and inside staff.
- We've supplied over 96,000 water jugs to drivers across the U.S. to help them stay hydrated, and all employees have access to cool, fresh water and ice in our facilities.
- We've installed an additional 1,500 ice machines and 1,700 water fountains in our facilities, and nearly 14,000 additional fans.
- We've installed over 200,000 fans in our package cars.
- We've equipped over 76,000 delivery vehicles with exhaust heat shields. These heat shields can reduce the vehicle floor temperature by up to 17 degrees F, according to preliminary tests.
- We have equipped over 74,000 vehicles with air scoop induction technology to feed fresh air to the cargo bay, providing additional cooling comfort to our drivers.
Teamsters Local 767 said of the 2000-plus UPS trucks on the road in their area, none of them has A/C. The union says their latest contract states UPS agreed all new trucks bought this year would have A/C, an agreement the company says it will meet.