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.
“Our brothers and sisters must go out and hit the pavement every day to service the community,” he said. “We are just asking UPS to do their part and put some AC in this jurisdiction.”