The article includes details surrounding a suicide.
The gargantuan UPS Worldport is the largest automated packaging sorting facility in the world. Covering 5.2m sq ft in Louisville, Kentucky, with 70 aircraft docks and 155 miles of conveyor belts, the site is larger than the Mall of America, employs about 11,000 workers and is capable of handling 115 packages a second.
But for all its impressive stats, working conditions at UPS Worldport have recently come under scrutiny in the wake of a recent workplace suicide of a pregnant worker, with claims from workers that she had recently been fired.
No one can ever know the true reason why someone takes their life. Workplace suicides in the US have risen dramatically in recent years and reached a record level in 2019, the last year for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has data. The worker’s death, which happened on 5 October, is under investigation by Louisville Metro police.
In a statement Teamsters Local 89, the union representing package handlers, drivers and other rank-and-file UPS workers in Louisville, said: “Although we do not know the cause behind this heartbreaking decision, our Local Union grieves for this terrible loss. To all of those affected, our hearts go out to you as you mourn.”
After news of the death broke, workers at UPS Worldport spoke to the Guardian about conditions at the site under anonymity for fear of retaliation for speaking with the media. They claim intense productivity and quota pressures on workers, common injuries on the job, an unclean environment, worn-out equipment, and understaffing of sections all take a heavy toll on staff.
“The working conditions are tragic,” said a UPS worker who has been at the site for a year. “She was pregnant, I believe she was in her second trimester, and she got fired because she fell asleep on the job and instead of being walked out, because whenever a person gets fired, the manager who fires them has to walk them off into the property and that manager didn’t do that. She said that she has to collect herself in the bathroom and he didn’t make sure that she came out of the bathroom, so she was given free rein of the property.”
She was found dead at the facility later that evening.
The company declined to comment on the specifics of the case. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our employee and extend our sympathies to her family and friends. We do not share personal employment and health-related information about our employees, although you should know that there are a number of inaccurate posts on social media about this tragedy.”
One worker who spoke to the Guardian said they weren’t surprised something like this had happened at the facility. They said workers at the site were under immense pressure, with threats of termination for being late, for going to the bathroom one too many times, all while under constant surveillance and scrutiny. The worker is recovering from having their hand smashed by heavy packages. They said losing fingernails, smashing fingers and bruised toes from heavy package loads are a common occurrence that workers have to work through.
“We’re constantly being watched and scrutinized and everything that we do is never good enough,” they added. “I have walked out of the building in tears before because I’m just so physically and mentally exhausted.”
A second UPS Worldport worker emphasized the need for better mental healthcare services for workers, especially in grueling work environments like at UPS.
“A lot of people talk about how the younger generation seems like they can’t keep a job or that they’re lazy or they don’t want to work. But the thing is, a lot of us are exerting every ounce of our mental energy to go to work every day and deal with the work conditions that we’ve been put into,” they said. “If workers are not in a good mental state, they cannot work, and if they are forced to continue to work in those conditions, things like this will continue to happen.”
Another worker argued that UPS Worldport, as the biggest employer in Louisville, has a lot of power over workers because it offers the highest-paying opportunity for entry level work and many workers are initially hired part-time, with benefits such as healthcare coverage not kicking in for months into their employment.
“They’re just taking people off the street just to be potentially abused by supervisors unless you really put your foot down and say no, I cannot do this, but some people don’t have that power because they’re worried they’re gonna get fired. They don’t realize that they have the power to stand up for themselves,” the worker said.
An additional worker said management was constantly hounding workers to increase productivity, despite already handling heavy workloads without enough staff.
“Supervisors are constantly on the employees about not doing enough when most of us are running two to four lanes of packages coming through already as best as we could. Some people can’t handle that and there’s nothing wrong with it, but UPS makes it wrong,” they said.
A fifth UPS Worldport worker claimed supervisors dismissed or neglected issues workers have brought up and said poor working conditions were compounded by the physical demands of the job, understaffing and the rough working environment.
“I blow my nose sometimes and what comes out is brown and black from the dust that does not get cleaned up in there,” they said. “The machinery is old. Stuff falls on people. Stuff is always breaking like guardrails, lockdown belts have holes in them.”
They also said there is no air conditioning in the building, which makes heat unbearable during the summer months and that they have experienced mental health problems and pushback on requested accommodations.
“People at UPS don’t feel like they have any power over their lives or ability to sustain themselves with their work and that with how demanding, physically and emotionally, it is to be working at a place with zero accountability, thankfully I have mental health care but there are other people who live with conditions like mine who are at a greater risk of suicide and in workplace conditions like this, it can only exacerbate that,” they added. “I would like to see UPS actually take better care of its employees and treat them like human beings instead of robots that just shuffle packages all night at enormous volumes.”
UPS denied understaffing complaints, asserted the facility was maintained and cleaned on a regular basis, and that all employees are provided with mental health resources and counseling. They did not provide comment on heat or complaints about productivity pressures and quotas or complaints about not enough breaks.
A spokesperson added in an email: “The health and safety of our employees is our first priority, and Worldport has best-in-class safety standards. In addition to our dedicated health and safety, and occupational health teams, we also have a dedicated employee-led health and safety team through our comprehensive health and safety process (CHSP). The CHSP provides our employees with a formal way to share their concerns, ask questions, and take an active role resolving their concerns about work practices. This is a very collaborative process between our front-line employees and management.”
In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. A list of prevention resources can be found here. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
