Black workers describe details of 'living hell' at UPS center in Ohio
By Mallory Simon and Sara Sidner, CNN
Pamela Camper cries herself to sleep at night.
That's how hard she says it is for an African-American to work at the UPS facility in Maumee, Ohio. She's been there for 30 years, but the racist atmosphere still feels like the 1960s, she says.
Pamela Camper is still only part time, though shes been at UPS for 30 years. I've been overlooked.
Pamela Camper is still only part time, though she's been at UPS for 30 years. "I've been overlooked."
"I work with employees that I know that don't like my skin color, but yet, and still I have to deal with it," Camper says.
She says she reported it under UPS's zero-tolerance policy, but the driver was not disciplined.
Now, she calls working at the UPS facility "a living hell."
Camper and 18 other workers at the same center have filed a lawsuit against the parcel delivery company alleging racial harassment and discrimination. They also allege management either ignored or encouraged the behavior.
Sixteen of 19 UPS workers who are suing the company gathered at a law office to outline their claims.
Sixteen of the 19 workers suing UPS gathered and shared how they all felt neglected at the company because they were black, and that they were passed over for jobs because of the color of their skin.
"I've been here for 30 years," Camper says. "I've had problems getting promoted because of the color of my skin. I've worked in different departments and yet I'm still part time."
She cares for her 86-year-old mother and has been part time her entire three decades at UPS, she says.
The group of 16 says nobody took their complaints about any of these issues seriously. All said they had experienced or been aware of harassment based on race at the plant. All 16 also felt that nothing would change, even with the lawsuit.
Camper calls working at the UPS center demeaning -- 30 years of hurtful frustration. She began crying as she explained the pain and frustration she says she has endured.
She and others stayed because they needed and wanted a good job.
"You're fighting just to exist. Just to be able to walk inside a facility and feel like, you know what, I'm important. I belong here," she says.
It cuts just as deep for Lino.
He has one request for his company: "To treat me like I'm a grown man, not a little boy, to treat me like I earned my job, my 25 years," Lino says, growing emotional.
"I've been working there since I was 18, one week out of high school, and still get treated like I'm nothing every day.
"I just want to work, pay my bills, take care of my kids, my wife."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/14/us/ohio-black-workers-sue-ups/index.html
