What Can 'Brown' Do For You? Hand Out 250 Pink Slips for Free Speech.

This guy was in a coma after being hit by a car on the job. He is now about to be fired. It's not like UPS needed another #PRFail moment after the not-so-Yuletide fun it had over the holidays, but here we are -- UPS, its employees, and a colossal public faux-pas. According to the New York Daily News, UPS just fired 250 of its unionized employees in Queens, N.Y. because of free speech. These workers walked off the job (granted, bad form) to protest the dismissal of one of their buddies. On Monday, 20 employees were terminated after their shifts — "and the remaining 230 notified that they’ll be canned as soon as replacements are trained," a company spokesman said. “They just called me in ... (and) said, ‘Effective immediately, you are no longer on the payroll,’” said Steve Curcio, 41, a 20-year employee earning $32 an hour. And it gets even awesomer... Local politicians are threatening to cancel city contracts that give UPS millions of dollars in breaks on parking fines. "They took a grievance with one employee and turned it into notices of termination with 250 workers," New York City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer told The Queens Courier. "That’s outrageous. These are good, hardworking employees who have a contract for UPS. To try and break this contract, break this union, is something that is unacceptable and we can’t tolerate." More than 1,400 people are employed at the Maspeth distribution center in Queens, until now. This strike was on Feb. 26, and it is just becoming the public ballyhoo UPS couldn't afford. You know, in addition to a few million dollars in parking fines. UPS has a point because when 250 employees split, deliveries could get delays. That is direct insubordination; however, there's also these under-the-table, sweaty-palm-handshake deals going on so which is worse? Before you answer that, consider mistreatment of employees tends to be a thing with UPS. The ACLU is on their case for an issue last month in which a pregnant employee was put on unpaid leave with no medical coverage after her doctor instructed her not to lift anything weighing more than 20 pounds. Oh, that guy in the picture? That's Domenick DeDomenico, 40, who was in a coma for 10 days after getting hit by a car last year while delivering packages for UPS. He fought back from serious brain injuries and needed a year of speech and physical therapy. Get that? He just gained the ability to speak again and in a fit of free speech, he may lose his job. Logistics, they love. People? Meh.

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What Can 'Brown' Do For You? Hand Out 250 Pink Slips for Free Speech.

Shawn Paul Wood

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Shawn Paul Wood