UPS Worker Fired After Racist Rant While Delivering to a Latino Household
A UPS worker was fired after a racist rant he made while delivering a package to a Latino household in Milwaukee days before Christmas Day.
Footage recorded on the home's video doorbell camera on the night of Dec. 17 showed a white man wearing a UPS uniform on the family's porch while holding a package.
According to an NBC News report, the recording also showed the UPS worker to seem to be writing a "failed to deliver" notice on the package.
"Now you don't get f------ nothing... You can't read and write and speak the f------ English language," the UPS worker said. He was heard saying this as he pastes the notice on the home's door.
The supposed recipient of the package was a young Latino police officer, who was not home to receive the package.
Shirley Aviles, the mother of the Latino officer who lives in the house, noted that UPS is a huge and global firm, and "this serves for any other businesses that are delivering packages, you can't do that."
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Aviles said delivery workers could not just look at the packages and make crazy assumptions. The name of the terminated UPS worker was not released to the public due to privacy concerns.
Latino Group Response
Forward Latino, a Latino advocacy group, organized a press conference after several failed attempts to get UPS to respond to the incident, Yahoo News reported.
The Latino officer, who was not identified, was not present at the press conference on Tuesday.
"The only information this driver had that could serve as a trigger for this deep-seated hate was the name on the package," Forward Latino president Darryl Morin said in a report.
The recorded footage did not show the UPS worker ringing the doorbell when he delivered the package to the Latino household. The organization's president further noted that there is also no evidence he knocked on the door.
Aviles said the package was a Christmas gift that they eventually received after Christmas. She added that what if the package happened to be with time-sensitive content such as an epipen.
Aviles, who works at a locally-known social service agency, said the issue here is about things people do when they think no one is watching them because that's when you see people's true colors, "and that's what's scary."
Morin said the worker's act seemed to be intentional to ruin someone's Christmas and deceived the employer.
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UPS on the Issue
Meanwhile, UPS senior manager of media relations, Matthew O'Connor, said that the company immediately contacted the family and offered their apologies when they learned about the incident.
O'Connor noted that there is no place in any community for racism, bigotry, or hate.
The UPS official said the company is wholeheartedly committed to diversity, inclusion, and equity, according to an Ampgoo report.
O'Connor added that UPS drivers go through a series of training, including professionalism and anti-harassment training for the position.
UPS remains to be one of the largest and most trusted shipping and logistics company worldwide.