Teamsters Call on UPS CEO to Get Company out of ALEC During Protest in Detroit

Coalition of Labor, Religious, Environmental & Community Activists Turn Out to Demand UPS Cease Affiliation With Anti-Worker Group, American Legislative Exchange Council

News provided by

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Sep 29, 2015, 04:08 ET

DETROIT, Sept. 29, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Detroit Teamsters were joined by representatives from labor, environmental, community, and religious groups at a protest today outside a Detroit Economic Club luncheon where UPS CEO David Abney was the keynote speaker. The group staged the protest to call on UPS to cease all affiliation with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

The protest capped more than a week of actions that took place across the country where thousands of Teamsters that work at UPS wore "ALEC: Bad for UPS, Worse for You" stickers and signed a petition that calls on the package industry giant to withdraw from the corporate special interest group.

"Our UPS members sent a clear message to the company – get out of ALEC and get on side of working families," said Ken Hall, Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer. "ALEC is behind the worst legislative attacks on working men and women across the country. Our members are proud to work for UPS, but want to make sure the company shares their values."

The Teamsters Union represents more than 250,000 members at UPS and UPS Freight. UPS remains an active member of ALEC despite the organization's anti-worker and anti-union agenda that seeks to undermine and weaken worker protections.

More than 120 corporations and hundreds of state legislators have dropped their memberships to ALEC in just the past few years. In the last year alone, droves of major corporations including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yelp, Yahoo, eBay, AOL, SAP, International Paper, Occidental Petroleum, Northrop Grumman, BP, T-Mobile, Shell Oil, and Canadian National Railway discontinued their ALEC memberships.

Many of these companies left over concerns that ALEC's harmful views conflicted with their corporate social responsibility policies. These extreme views, which include defunding public services, worker misclassification, and denying the science of climate change, also conflict with UPS's corporate values.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:
Galen Munroe, (202) 624- 6911
[email protected]

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SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters