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Socialist Review Index (1993–1996) | Socialist Review 174 Contents
From Socialist Review, No. 174, April 1994.
Copyright © Socialist Review.
Copied with thanks from the Socialist Review Archive.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
In the March issue of SR I read about a recent strike against United Parcels Service in the US. This was very interesting to me because I also work at UPS. Neither I nor any of my colleagues has heard anything about that strike. We face the same problems of ever intensified exploitation.
Beside the problem of higher weights to handle there are other grievances. At the end of last year UPS reorganised work in the Cologne Hub so that the same or even more volume as before is now on the conveyor belt in a shorter time. Generally we now have to work three hours at night non-stop and with less overtime than before, and so of course also with less pay. In addition our January salaries were not paid on time because of an alleged technical problem with the new system. This means that many workers who had to pay their rent had real problems, while UPS made big profits by paying all their European workers late.
Unfortunately we were not able to do anything about it. There is not even a bureaucratised trade union and no factory council here. Most of us only work for three to four hours a night so there is little opportunity to talk to one another. Please could you send me the address of any of the organisations involved in the strike so that maybe the next time the necessary information could be spread immediately.
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