UPS drivers protest in McKinney for air conditioning after recent heat-related incidents

McKINNEY – Dozens of protesters gathered at a UPS facility in McKinney Wednesday morning to demand air conditioning in the company's delivery vehicles.

Teamsters Local 767, the union representing UPS drivers in North Texas, organized the protest after a driver lost control last week and fell down. The union says the driver was suffering from a heat-related illness at the time.

The driver had notified a manager that he was vomiting and feeling sick from the heat, according to the union, but the manager asked him to return the truck to a facility several hours away from McKinney in Longview. The union said it violated UPS policy and 911 should have been called.

“We send over 2,000 vehicles on the road in Local 767's jurisdiction, and none of our vehicles have AC in them,” said Dave Reeves, president of Teamsters Local 767, at Wednesday's protest.

“Our brothers and sisters have to go out and hit the pavement every day to serve the community,” he said. “We're just asking UPS to do their part and put an AC in this jurisdiction.”

The driver who passed out was fairly new to the job and his truck had no air conditioning.

Union leaders met with UPS on Tuesday to discuss preventing similar incidents.

A UPS spokesperson sent the following statement to CBS News Texas:

The health and safety of our team members is important to us and we are committed to providing a safe working environment for our employees. Last year, UPS and the Teamsters agreed to additional measures as part of our overall efforts to help keep our employees safe while working in the heat. We are on schedule or ahead of schedule on all of our contractual commitments.

The agreement with the Teamsters included equipping all new vehicles purchased after January 1, 2024, with AC and making modifications to our existing package cars to improve airflow, temperature and comfort for our drivers. We have hundreds of AC vehicles operating on the road today and will continue to purchase and install new AC vehicles as soon as possible. We have also fitted the vast majority of our vehicles with heat shields and improved air intakes to better cool and ventilate the cargo area.

Here's a summary of our additional efforts to help keep our people safe:

• We're investing more than $409 million annually in safety training in the U.S. and we're constantly improving our heat safety training, outfitting workers with specialized cooling gear, and adding equipment to our vehicles and facilities that help protect our people from the heat.
• We regularly train and communicate about Recharge, our health and safety program that was developed in partnership with experts in athletic hydration and heat safety. As part of the program, we regularly share follow-up training and reminders about the importance of:
  • Adequate rest and self-care before and after work.
  • Eating water-rich foods and staying hydrated throughout the day.
  • Taking additional vacations whenever necessary.
  • Knowing the signs and symptoms of heat illness.
• We partnered with experts from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute and the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut to study various working conditions and further improve our training to help our employees work safely – especially on days of hot.
• We also partnered with MISSION®, a major activewear company that specializes in cooling fabrics, and have distributed more than 440,000 pieces of specialized cooling equipment to our executives and indoor staff.
• We've supplied over 96,000 water jugs to drivers across the US to help them stay hydrated, and all employees have access to fresh, cool water and ice at our facilities.
• We have installed 1,500 additional ice machines and 1,700 water fountains in our facilities, and nearly 14,000 additional fans.
• We have installed over 200,000 fans in our package cars.
• We have fitted over 76,000 delivery vehicles with exhaust heat shields. These heat shields can reduce vehicle floor temperatures by up to 17 degrees F, according to preliminary tests.
• We have equipped over 74,000 vehicles with scoop air induction technology to feed fresh air into the cargo bay, providing additional cooling comfort for our drivers.