A UPS driver is fired after being caught on camera making racist remarks.
What We Know:
- A few days before Christmas Day, a UPS delivery driver went on a racist rant about a Milwaukee Latino family. The Latino family doorbell camera caught the man’s rant. A spokesperson for UPS told NBC News that the man has since been terminated. The name of the terminated UPS employee will not be released due to privacy concerns.
- On December 17th, the camera footage shows a white man in a UPS uniform ranting about the family while writing what is most likely a failure to deliver slip. He rants, “Now you don’t get f—— nothing…You can’t read and write and speak the f—— English language.” One occupant of the household is a police officer.
Shirley Aviles, the mother of the officer, commented, “UPS is huge, they’re global, and this serves for any other businesses that are delivering packages, you can’t do that. You can’t just look at a package and make these crazy assumptions.”
- After multiple failed attempts by the family for UPS to respond, Forward Latino, an advocacy group for Latinos, organized a press conference Tuesday. At the conference President of the group, Darryl Morin, exclaimed, “The only information this driver had that could serve as a trigger for this deep-seated hate was the name on the package.”
- The doorbell camera footage does not show the UPS worker ever ringing or even knocking on the door during the delivery. Aviles said that the gift was eventually delivered after Christmas but shared her disappointment at the prospect of intentionally not receiving the gift.”So what we have here is a very intentional act to ruin Christmas for somebody, for someone to spew this hateful rhetoric, and quite honestly to deceive their employer.” Morin said of the incident.
- Matthew O’Connor, senior manager of media relations at UPS, discussed that the family was immediately contacted and apologized upon learning of the incident. “There is no place in any community for racism, bigotry, or hate. This is very serious, and we promptly took action, terminating the driver’s employment. UPS is wholeheartedly committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” O’Connor said.
- After learning of the employee’s termination, Aviles still shared her disappointment. “This is about the things people do when they think no one is watching them. That’s important because that’s when you see people’s true colors, and that’s what’s scary.”
Aviles and Forward Latino have urged UPS to focus more on their employees and their relationships with customers. Believing the company would benefit from anti-bias and inclusion training.
