Gay Marriage: July 2007 Archives

I received this tonight in my email after filling out the online form at the UPS site.

Same old crap, just explained away with a bunch of excuses.

Dear Mr. Cannon:

I got your email that you sent to our customer service dept. I wanted to respond personally to let you know that UPS does indeed provide benefits to domestic partners. Some of the media you may have seen is not giving the full picture.

As a matter of corporate policy, UPS currently offers same sex benefits to all non-union employees -- management as well as administrative workers. This includes all such employees in New Jersey, even though the state has failed to recognize gay partners as married spouses. Beyond health care, UPS also offers benefits such as medical leave, pension rights, funeral leave, relocation and transfer benefits. We recently added same-sex benefits as part of a new union contract with UPS pilots too.

UPS doesn't legally have the right to give same sex benefits to package car drivers (like Ms. Brazier who was cited in some of the media reports) because she is part of the Teamsters and any changes to benefits have to be done as part of the collective bargain process. The contact expires in 2008. Absent a law that specifically categorizes same sex partners as married spouses such as in Mass., UPS cannot unilaterally change a union contract to offer same sex benefits. We have already brought up this issue to the Teamsters for consideration. The situation regarding Ms. Brazier and her partner is just as disappointing to UPS as it is to them. But for unionized employees, we can only address the issue through the union at contract renewal time.

Hopefully, this will help you feel better about doing business with UPS.

Sincerely,

Lynnette McIntire
UPS Public Relations

Anyway, if anyone cares, here's the contact information for UPS.