Empty Files and Computer Sabotage

Imagine running a union without computers or grievance files. That’s exactly the situation we found when we took office on January 1.

After the election, the outgoing Local 804 officials removed hard drives from our union’s computers. We demanded that they be returned.

When we walked into the union hall to start our new term, the vast majority of the computers didn’t work because they had no software or operating systems. The hard drives were completely blank.

It cost thousands of dollars to get these computers up and running.

Grievance Records Gone

Computer hard drives weren’t all that were missing from Local 804. The Local’s grievance records were also nowhere to be found.

We inherited a backlog of nearly 300 unresolved arbitration cases—but almost no grievance files or documentation of the union’s case.

Today, Local 804 is back in action.  Our computers are up and running.  By working with shop stewards and making UPS comply with union information requests, we’re putting together the grievance records we need to win our arbitration cases.

Local 804 belongs to the members. And we are moving ahead.