Above photo: UPS Teamsters from Local 135 confront company CEO Carol Tomè at Plainfield, Indiana hub. Fight Back! News.
Indianapolis, IN – More than 60 members of Teamsters Local 135 rallied outside the UPS facility in Plainfield on Tuesday, August 19, as company UPS CEO Carol Tomé visited the site. The action put the company’s top executive face-to-face with UPS workers’ anger over rampant contract violations, illegal buyout schemes, and building closures that threaten job security and working conditions.
“Local 135 has a simple message for Carol Tomé,” said Dustin Roach, president of Teamsters Local 135. “We’re done tolerating corporate games and illegal practices.”
The rally took place outside the UPS Plainfield hub, the largest in the Indianapolis metro area. Teamsters quickly raised a giant “greedy pig” inflatable, said to represent Tomé’s tenure as CEO, and carried signs reading “No way Tomé” and “UPS lies.”
Local 135 organized the rally in response to UPS’s pattern of ignoring the national contract, including violations of the 9.5-hour work protections for package drivers, excessive overtime, building closures and layoffs, heat safety violations and more. Members also singled out the company’s attempt to push an illegal buyout scheme as a direct attack on workers’ rights and livelihoods.
“UPS cannot claim to be a world-class company while engaging in blatant disregard for the contract it signed with its workers,” said Roach. “Our members deliver for this company every single day, and we will not stand by while management tears down the standards we’ve fought to secure.”
For several hours, workers gathered out front chanting, “Who are we? Teamsters!” and “Teamsters make the business run, Carol Tomé contributes none!” In addition to the main demonstration, smaller groups of workers with signs posted themselves at two other entrances to the facility, determined to confront the CEO wherever she might try to enter.
Shortly after noon, a black Cadillac Escalade carrying Tomé was spotted driving past the building’s entrances. Teamsters at the main rally site saw her filming the demonstration, greedy pig inflatable and all, with her phone as the SUV passed without entering. Rallygoers cheered, raised their fists and chanted, “Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power! What kind of power? Union power!”
About an hour later, Teamsters near the truck entrance gate reported the vehicle with Tomé finally entering the facility.
Her visit was brief. Teamsters at a little-used back gate reported her Escalade leaving the premises about 30 minutes later. Once again, she was confronted by workers chanting and carrying signs in protest.
The demonstration underscored both Local 135’s commitment to enforcing the contract and the larger fight by UPS Teamsters across the country to hold the company accountable. Workers at the rally emphasized that their stand in Plainfield is part of a national struggle to defend the contract gains secured in the historic 2023 Teamsters-UPS agreement.
“If UPS wants to move forward, they need to start respecting the contract and respecting the people who built this company into what it is today,” said Roach.
