Atlanta Teamsters confront management over heat safety

Atlanta, GA- On Tuesday, August 12, Teamsters out of Local 728 at UPS SMART hub presented a petition to management with the signatures of about 100 rank-and-file workers. The petition demands that UPS identify designated areas in the hub as shade or cool zones and educate all SMART workers of their rights to use such areas for cooldown breaks.

Cool zones were won as an addition to Article 18, section 27 of the 2023 Teamsters contract. But the gain has gone unrecognized in many hubs, including SMART, which is the third largest UPS hub.

This has prompted rank-and-file Teamsters to take action in enforcing the contract and asserting their power on the shop floor. By not designating cool zones, many workers are unaware of their right to take a cooldown break when they feel overheated. This is in addition to their ten-minute break.

Management wants to maximize production and has attempted to deny cool zone language altogether because it may lead to workers taking breaks more frequently. This practice puts workers’ lives at risk, especially in Atlanta, where temperatures inside the hub regularly soar past 100 degrees.

It is not uncommon to hear of workers experiencing heat stroke in the summer. Nesean McCollough, a UPS Teamster for over eight years states, “There have been incidents when a lot of people have passed out, and supervisors don’t really care or even have empathy for others. It’s up to us to stand up for our own rights.”

In the summer of 2024 Teamsters at SMART hub launched a campaign of education and enforcement surrounding heat safety rights. This involved distributing fliers with contract rights and demanding management acknowledge the right to take cooldown breaks. This culminated in grievances being filed on the blatant violation of Article 18. By November 2024 the grievance was settled, and UPS was, in theory, made to accept the new contract language. But when summer 2025 began and temperatures rose, there were no cool zones to be found.

To Teamsters at SMART, it was clear an escalation was necessary. This led rank-and-file workers to launch the petition effort in June and July. It was met with overwhelming support. Brittney Wills, a signee of the cool zone petition, stated, “We’re not slaves and we deserve more respect. They want you to work faster in humid heat inside of the trailers and I feel like we need to be more about it. We need to start coming together as people and get things right.”

When the issue of cool zones was raised in the July safety committee meeting, a SMART hub health and safety manager stated that the cool zone topic was basically a non-issue because the cool zone signs were sitting in her office and just needed to be put up. She may have believed this to be a satisfactory response to workers’ demands, but signs sitting in an office do workers on the shop floor no good. Without clearly designated cool zones in the hub, enforcing the right to a cool down break is substantially more difficult. To the surprise of no one, the cool zone signs continued to sit unused in the manager’s office.

Upon being confronted with the concerns of rank-and-file workers at the August 12 safety committee meeting, the same health and safety manager was defensive when she was presented with the petition, insisting that current practices were enough to address safety concerns. After failing to divert the conversation away from “union stuff” she was forced to give in to the demands of the workers and admitted that cool zones should be established if workers want them so badly.

Within two hours of the meeting’s conclusion, the first cool zone sign appeared inside SMART hub. This shop floor victory is a testament to the power of Teamsters when they unite in fighting contract violations. When the grievance process falls short, it’s up to the rank and file to mobilize in defense of their rights.

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