×
Register an Account
Forgot Login?
Justice in Campbellsville
Feb 03, 2017

Feb 10, 2016

Her grievances were deadlocked by UPS and the IBT state panel system failed her, but Madonna Russell and Teamsters Local 89 still found a way to get justice in a small UPS facility in Campbellsville, Kentucky.

A Teamster since 1985, Madonna was an exemplary employee who worked in a small UPS center in Campbellsville, where she served as a steward for seventeen years. The story of how she prevailed against all odds began in early 2014 when management in her center began issuing an unusually high amount of discipline. As the steward for the area, Madonna rightly pushed back against this through the grievance process. Rather than respect the fact that she was performing her duties and was operating well within her legal rights as a steward, UPS management took great offense. What followed was over a year of constant harassment, intimidation, and retaliation against Madonna every time she exercised her rights as a union steward.

On multiple occasions, and in direct response to grievances filed by her to address contractual infractions and safety issues, UPS would make threats of taking work away from Madonna. At first it was small amounts of work they would remove. Later they stripped away over an hour and a half of housekeeping work, resulting in a substantial loss of income for her. At one point UPS management even terminated her based on trumped up charges, but this was quickly resolved.

In the most absurd example of retaliation, UPS directly told Madonna they would be removing work from her due to a grievance she had filed over supervisors working. To make matters worse, they said this while her Business Agent from Teamsters 89, James DeWeese, was with her!

When asked to comment on what he had seen and heard, DeWeese had this to offer. “After witnessing management threatening Madonna, and following through with it, I knew we had enough to prove their illegal actions against her.”

In response to UPS’s bully-tactics, Madonna worked with DeWeese to file several charges against the company via the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for harassment and retaliation for her union activities.

Once the charges were filed and the NLRB began to review the evidence, they gave clear indications they believed Madonna’s case to be very serious. Despite this, UPS continued to harass and retaliate against her at almost every turn. The mounting evidence led to the NLRB adding additional charges against UPS on Madonna’s behalf. The NLRB stated that the thorough notes taken by Madonna about everything that had transpired was instrumental to their understanding of the situation. DeWeese agreed, adding that Madonna’s notes gave them “the ammo we needed to win”.

For her part, Madonna was relieved to know that the NLRB was thoroughly investigating her case. According to her, she knew she had always been in the right thanks to training seminars she had attended at Teamsters 89 where she had been educated about her rights as a steward.

Yet despite the NLRB’s involvement, UPS wasn’t finished playing their games. Things finally came to a head in early 2015 when the company placed Madonna into a difficult trailer unload job, and used it to accuse her of not keeping up with the workload. Knowing her rights, she filed an article 37 grievance for the company attempting to hold her to a non-negotiated production standard without taking into account her age and physical condition.

UPS then took things even further by claiming that Madonna could not perform her job safely, and attempted to use the wording of her own grievance, describing her age and physical condition, against her. The company then demanded that she receive a doctor’s authorization to prove she could do her job with no restrictions. Madonna complied, but when she returned with her doctor’s note clearing her for work, the company accused her of lying about the details of the ordeal, sparking an argument that UPS used to terminate her for insubordination.

This termination was taken to the state panel where a mountain of facts, prior grievances, and labor charges were submitted as evidence to show the company’s history of retaliation against Madonna. Yet, despite over 150 exhibits of overwhelming evidence against the company, the IBT members on the state panel failed in their duties to uphold Madonna’s rights as a steward! They instead voted in agreement with the company that the termination was valid, and said no retaliation had occurred!

For most members, a panel decision against them is the end of the line. However, in this particular case Madonna and Teamsters 89 knew this panel decision was wrong and had the evidence to prove it. With the truth on their side, they ignored the failings of the panel system and continued the fight on a legal basis. Upon notifying the NLRB of the panel’s poor decision, the board renewed their investigation with vigor. DeWeese and Madonna then contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and four charges were filed against UPS through that organization as well. Additional NLRB charges were filed as well, including one involving UPS management placing cameras in the Campbellsville facility without negotiating with Teamsters 89. This charge was later withdrawn when the company agreed to remove the cameras.

When asked what kept her going, even after the state panel had ruled against her, Madonna explained that it wasn’t just about her. She said she wanted to show her former co-workers that the union still had teeth and that they “still have someone on our side when big business gangs up on us like that.”

After a nearly two-year fight, with mounting pressure from the NLRB and EEOC and evidence piling up higher and higher against them, UPS finally realized that they were beaten. After a nearly two-year fight, the company agreed to a settlement with the NLRB and Teamsters 89 that gave Madonna the justice she had long sought.

In the settlement, Madonna chose to waive her right to reinstatement and in exchange the NLRB and Teamsters 89 negotiated with the company to qualify her for a thirty-year part-time employee pension. This allowed her to retire with a very substantial boost of about $700 dollars more in her monthly pension. In addition to this, UPS was required to pay Madonna an astonishing $32,550 dollars in back pay, interest, and adverse tax penalties for the period of time when she was terminated, and damages for all the work that had been taken away from her in retaliation for her union activities.

“The settlement means a lot to me,” said Madonna when asked about the substantial sum of money she received. Then, she gave a wry smile and continued, “but this was always about our union, our ability and rights to use our union.”

Her Business Agent had nothing but praise for his former steward.

“Madonna came to a point where she was fed up with how management was treating her and her co-workers,” said DeWeese. “Instead of caving in or bending to the company, she chose to stay the course and fight for what was right for everyone in the building.”

He added, “She stood like a statue, and she won what was owed to her.”

UPS was required to post a multi-page notice displaying the details of the settlement agreement and the federally guaranteed rights of union members where all of Madonna’s former co-workers could read it. This posting serves as a staunch reminder to all Teamsters in the Campbellsville center that their voices cannot be silenced.

Even with UPS towering over her, and with the IBT State Panel turning a blind eye, Madonna and Teamsters 89 were able to prevail and make sure that justice was served.

Note: As part of the settlement, UPS signed into a “non-admission clause”, meaning the company is not admitting it violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).


-
Teamsters Local 89
3813 Taylor Blvd
Louisville, KY 40215
  502-368-5885


Top of Page image
© 2024 Teamsters Local 89 | Privacy Policy & Terms of Service | Powered By UnionActive