November 12, 2009: Anticipating a visit by CEO Scott Davis, Local 177 booked a plane to circle UPS’s Edison hub with a banner: “UPS Stop Mistreating Your Employees.”

Outside the hub, Local 177 officers distributed leaflets in the parking lot with the same message. Click here to see video footage on You Tube.

Local 177 members are fed up with contract violations and company stonewalling in the grievance procedure.

The local has thirty arbitrations scheduled on supervisors working violations—each one dealing with serial violations by individual supervisors. Management has dragged the first hearing out for five days with no end in sight. And that’s just on the first arbitration. There are 29 to go!

Production harassment and ridiculous write-up of package drivers is another major issue—just like it is across the country.

As the plane circled the building, top regional management descended on Edison in a panic. (You can see their worried faces and cell phone scramble and worried faces in the video.)

It shouldn’t take an airplane banner to get management’s attention.