Teamsters Local 804 urges UPS workers to fight heat and pressure

Teamsters Local 804’s summer newsletter puts three cover lines side by side: “Staying Safe in the Heat,” “CEO Carol Tomé is Wrecking UPS,” and “Taking the Fight to Amazon.” Its table of contents also points to a report on the XXXI Teamster Convention, a steward spotlight, and members at City Harvest winning a new contract. For a UPS worker loading cars in a hot building or running a route in full sun, heat safety is already a live issue. Add layoffs, building closures, and a shrinking network, and the cost of speaking up can feel higher than the temperature.

Heat safety is a contract fight, not a personal test

The central message for UPS workers is that heat protection lives in the contract, not in a supervisor’s mood. The UPS national master agreement runs from August 1, 2023 through July 31, 2028, and Article 18 contains heat protections that members can enforce. Drivers are entitled to a one-gallon water bottle and clean drinking water to refill it each day, and UPS must keep ice machines working or deliver ice when needed.

In June 2025, Teamsters asked UPS for data on heat protections, overtime violations, and staffing, treating heat as an enforcement problem, not just a seasonal warning. The issue is whether the company is actually honoring the rules at the building and on the route.

• Know the contract language tied to heat.

• Keep track of water, ice, and break access.

• Push the issue through the steward and grievance process when those basics are missing.

What the union is telling members to do

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has been telling UPS workers to “beat the heat” and enforce the contract, and Local 804 carries that same line into the summer issue. Teamsters training has included webinars, wallet cards, fact sheets, and parking-lot meeting guides, all aimed at turning heat rules into something workers can use in real time rather than after someone gets sick. A June 9, 2026 webinar from Teamsters for a Democratic Union focused on enforcing heat safety rights under Article 18 and on real stories and tips from members who are already doing it.

The newsletter’s “Staying Safe in the Heat” cover line turns the shop-floor details that keep a shift from turning dangerous into an organizing issue. For workers inside a Teamsters building, the practical lesson is to use the contract early, before a small violation becomes a discipline issue or an injury claim.

Tomé’s strategy is the other half of the problem

Local 804’s decision to put Carol Tomé on the cover makes clear that heat is only one pressure point. The local called her approach “better not bigger,” and its spring 2025 messaging tied that strategy to layoffs, split shifting, stonewalling, deadlocked grievances, building closures, and automation. Workers are being asked to absorb more pressure while the company narrows the network around what it wants to keep.

Job insecurity changes safety behavior. A driver who thinks a stop list could disappear, or an inside worker who worries about the next closure notice, is less likely to push back when a building is too hot or a break is denied.

Amazon, cuts, and the shrinking network

UPS said in 2025 that it would reduce Amazon volume by more than 50% by the second half of 2026, and Local 804 summarized that as a plan to cut the number of Amazon packages it delivers in half by the middle of next year. Less Amazon volume is not just a Wall Street story; it is a route-design story, a dispatch story, and a staffing story. When the company changes what flows through a building, workers feel it in hours, workload, and the pressure to do more with less.

If the network is being thinned out, workers need to know which routes, buildings, and jobs are at risk, and how that affects the heat and pace they face every day. UPS announced plans to cut about 20,000 jobs in 2025. Later plans called for up to 30,000 operational jobs to go in 2026 through buyouts and attrition. The overhaul was also tallied at at least 48,000 jobs cut and 93 facilities closed, and at least 68,000 jobs eliminated through early 2026.

The enforcement fight now runs through heat relief

In February 2026, Teamsters sued UPS for breach of the national contract. By June 2026, air-conditioned package cars were being rolled out, the union told members in an update on contract enforcement and heat relief.