# ‘Terrified’ Package Delivery Employees Are Going to Work Sick



## FormerTaxiDriver♧ (Apr 5, 2018)

*'Terrified' Package Delivery Employees Are Going to Work Sick*










Hour after hour, day after day, the packages keep arriving: food, medicine, clothes, toys and a million other items brought to the doorsteps and building lobbies of Americans who are hunkering down as the coronavirus sweeps the land.

An increasing number of the workers sorting those boxes, loading them into trucks and then transporting and delivering them around the country have fallen sick.

They have coughs, sore throats, aches and fevers - symptoms consistent with the coronavirus. Yet they are still reporting for their shifts in crowded shipping facilities and warehouses and truck depots, fearful of what will happen if they don't.

"I have been coming in sick because I'm worried that I'll lose my job or just be punished if I call out," said Angel Duarte, a package handler at a UPS hub in Tucson, Ariz. "I am 23, and I have no savings, and I have a 4-month-old son."

UPS, FedEx and XPO Logistics are three of the largest shipping and logistics companies in an industry that collectively delivers about 18 trillion dollars' worth of goods every year. With millions of Americans now on lockdown, home-delivery orders have soared, and the companies have become among the few power sources keeping the lights on in the darkening United States economy. UPS, for example, is one of the main companies that deliver packages for Amazon.

Public health experts said the odds were relatively low that ill warehouse workers or truck drivers would infect the recipients of packages, in part because the virus does not survive on cardboard surfaces for very long.

But as state governments race to contain the fast-spreading pandemic by shutting down businesses and banning gatherings of more than a handful of people, more than 30 employees of UPS, FedEx and XPO said in interviews and emails that they were worried that their warehouses and trucks had become breeding grounds for the virus.

Some warehouse workers said supervisors had rebuffed them when they pleaded for bleach, masks, gloves and a ready supply of hand sanitizer. In some facilities, even hand soap and paper towels are scarce, employees said. Employees continue to be jammed shoulder to shoulder along conveyor belts and required to maintain rituals such as security pat-downs.

Many workers in the logistics and delivery industry get at most a handful of paid sick days a year. That can push them to work through coughs and fevers. Now, with so many people and businesses relying on a functioning delivery system, the pressure to go in has only intensified, workers said.

https://dnyuz.com/2020/03/21/terrified-package-delivery-employees-are-going-to-work-sick/


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## ABC123DEF (Jun 9, 2015)

I was wondering about ALL of this!


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

FormerTaxiDriver♧ said:


> Now, with so many people and businesses relying on a functioning delivery system, the pressure to go in has only intensified, workers said.


Whatever happened to unionised workforces? Now more than ever, union organisers should be doing what they need to do.

.


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## FormerTaxiDriver♧ (Apr 5, 2018)

Who is John Galt? said:


> Whatever happened to unionised workforces? Now more than ever, union organisers should be doing what they need to do.
> 
> .


We are at the point of SELF DEFENSE. DEFCON 5!


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

FormerTaxiDriver♧ said:


> We are at the point of SELF DEFENSE. DEFCON 5!


To deliver toilet paper, or maintain the poor conditions of workers?

.


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## FormerTaxiDriver♧ (Apr 5, 2018)

Who is John Galt? said:


> To deliver toilet paper, or maintain the poor conditions of workers?
> 
> .


I read multiple articles that delivery people are FIRST RESPONDERS / HEROS during these times.

With that being said, our star ratings should increase by greatful customers.


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## _Tron_ (Feb 9, 2020)

FormerTaxiDriver♧ said:


> We are at the point of SELF DEFENSE. DEFCON 5!


Thanks for posting this! It's helpful to always post the link first, so that we know what we're reading. Oh. Defcon 5 is normal peacetime, all is well. We really should be at Defcorona 1 for this bug, but I'm afraid we're floundering at Defcorona 2. Hopefully the country/world will kick it up a notch soon.


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## Uberdriver2710 (Jul 15, 2015)

FormerTaxiDriver♧ said:


> I read multiple articles that delivery people are FIRST RESPONDERS / HEROS during these times.
> 
> With that being said, our star ratings should increase by greatful customers.


I seem to get more respect, theses days. It's getting super busy, too.


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## goobered (Feb 2, 2020)

Uberdriver2710 said:


> I seem to get more respect, theses days. It's getting super busy, too.


I'm noticing that too.


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## Asificarewhatyoudontthink (Jul 6, 2017)

Who is John Galt? said:


> Whatever happened to unionised workforces? Now more than ever, union organisers should be doing what they need to do.
> 
> .


Um, all the union busting and "right to work state" pushes from the GOP for the last 30+ years is news to you somehow?


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## UberBastid (Oct 1, 2016)

Who is John Galt? said:


> Whatever happened to unionised workforces? Now more than ever, union organisers should be doing what they need to do.


Oh, they are.
They are collecting union dues.
That what they do.


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## MontcoUberDriver (Aug 14, 2018)

FormerTaxiDriver♧ said:


> I read multiple articles that delivery people are FIRST RESPONDERS / HEROS during these times.
> 
> With that being said, our star ratings should increase by greatful customers.


I was thanked for my service yesterday. I'm no hero. Just a schmuck trying to make a buck.


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## Thilly Gooth (Mar 15, 2020)

Amazon Flex warehouse felt like a great place to transmit Budweiservirus. Lots of sniffling and suppressed coughs


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## UberBastid (Oct 1, 2016)

Thilly Gooth said:


> Amazon Flex warehouse felt like a great place to transmit Budweiservirus. Lots of sniffling and suppressed coughs


That's from all the coke -- those back-of-the-throat drips is what you pay for.


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