Not realizing the Teamsters changed its initiation fees installment plan has some UPS seasonal workers fuming.
For most, the holidays are a time of year where people scrimp in order to have enough money for presents for their kids.
Unfortunately, for some seasonal workers in Massachusetts, the Teamsters’ initiation fees are causing an even greater hardship.
via CBS Boston:
BOSTON (CBS) – Sheila O’Malley of Charlestown couldn’t believe it when she opened her paycheck from her seasonal job at UPS. “I was shocked,” she told the I-Team. She worked 41 hours that week, many of them during the overnight, and ended up with just $14.52.
Sheila assumed it was a mistake and the money would be refunded. In part, because Sheila, like other thousands of other seasonal part time UPS workers, signed an agreement to pay the $500 Teamsters union initiation fee in $32.00 weekly installments. But UPS casinoplay told her it wasn’t a mistake. A spokesperson for UPS told the I-Team, “Local 25 reversed this long standing practice by rescinding this policy.”
For the new hires, that meant the balance of the union initiation fees and dues would be deducted in one lump sum. For Sheila, that was $490.00- nearly her entire week’s pay.
“I cried and tried to plead my case with them. But there was no wiggle room. He [union representative] said ‘You’re a part of the union now and you won’t have to worry about that coming out of your check,’” she said.
Read the rest here.
