“By nature, I like to help people.” That’s what Renee Wilson says both about why she enjoys working at UPS and why she’s gotten involved in her union, Teamsters Local 431 in Fresno.
Wilson has worked as a UPS package car driver in Fresno for 20 years and has had the same route — a mix of residential and business stops — for the past 15 years. She makes about 135 stops a day.
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Felicisima Horcabas, also known as Emma, has worked at the University of California, Davis Health System for 25-plus years.
Her job title might be administrative assistant, but her work is interesting and diverse. She currently works at the UC Davis Chaplaincy Department, fulfilling requests from people of various faith groups asking for prayers, ceremonial healing, baptisms, blessings, etc. “I get to observe that religion crosses all races, genders, and cultures, and I get to schedule their meetings with their mutual faith group,” she says.
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By Rob Roth and KTVU staff
Published May 21
KTVU FOX 2
SANTA ROSA, Calif. – An 86-year-old woman from Santa Rosa says a UPS driver came to her rescue in the middle of his workday.
On her way to a medical appointment, Magda Vahey fell and broke her wrist while crossing the street near Providence Santa Rosa Hospital last month.
UPS spokeswoman Amanda Catala said Devon Brooks saw the woman lying in the middle of the street bleeding and ran to help.… Read more »
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Trina Johnson has worked for UPS at the Bayside hub in Richmond for 21 years, and she loves her work and her union. “I’m a gal in brown. With the uniform that you wear, you’re proud. During the pandemic, when everyone was in shutdown, we were out there, bringing good things.”
Dealing with different people each day is one of the most interesting aspects of Trina’s job. “You bond with your customers. It’s like we’re all family.
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As he waited for his school bus in 1980’s San Francisco, Luis Estrada would watch the garbage men running with their pack cans and picking up garbage every morning. Those Teamsters Local 350 members inspired young Luis to become a garbage man.
On August 2, 2000, Estrada began his career at Allied Waste Services of Daly City and as a member of Teamsters Local 350. “I was working full-time at the San Francisco Produce Markets and part-time with UPS in South San Francisco.
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Samuel Styles has been a member of Teamsters Local 70 and worked as a delivery driver for Pepsi in Hayward for nearly three years. He’s out delivering Pepsi products every day to Safeway and Lucky stores, 7-11s, neighborhood corner stores, and restaurants. “I’ve delivered to every city in the Bay Area in one week. It’s great because I get to see different things, like restaurants that I’d like to try.”
The benefits he appreciates most about being in the union are the medical and dental.
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For 36 years, Greg Doench has been a package car driver for UPS, first in Concord and then in Oakley. What he enjoys most about his work is being outside and being active.
“My job allows me to work in the city I grew up in and that I still reside in,” he says thinking about the residential route he’s had for the past 18 years. “I get to see a lot of people that I grew up with,
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Eric Wright calls himself a “jack of all trades and master of none,” but after 24 years of working for the City of Hercules as a Maintenance II lead worker, he’s really a renaissance man with a wealth of skills who has a strong dedication toward achieving his job duties.
Wright works with an 8-person maintenance crew and they take care of the parks, trees, irrigation, concrete, roads, and basically whatever needs maintenance and repair.
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(May 26, 2021) This morning, a gunman killed eight Valley Transportation Agency (VTA) workers and himself at a union meeting of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 in San Jose.
Teamsters Local 853 also has members who subcontract to the VTA. The following is a statement by Teamsters Joint Council 7 President Rome Aloise:
“Fortunately, our members were safe from this horrific event. However, this is yet another devastating mass shooting that has snatched the lives of working people in the course of their day.
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The Ten Point Commentary
(Sung to the tune of A Horse With No Name, by America.)
I drive through the city on a car with no name
Giving space, visibility.
Safe by choice is not by chance…A way to be accident free.
La la, etc.
This is one of several songs that Matthew Whaley wrote to promote safety for the drivers at UPS when he served as co-chair of the safety committee.
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