UPS Employee Cries Foul After Alleged Assault

Earlier in the month, for the second time, according to former UPS employee Lea Belmont she attacked at work, as was her daughter, also at the time employed at the UPS 206 Grove Street Facility.

The incident happened on November 8 at about 8 or 8:30 am, said Belmont.

Why?

Belmont said she had worked for the facility for about a year and was asked to help train another, newer female employee, which she did. “Then, we had a verbal altercation about 2-3 months ago and she sent her daughters [not employees] after me,” Belmont explained. That incident did get the Franklin Police on site.

The November 8 incident happened shortly after Belmont’s 18-year-old daughter was hired and ended up assigned to work with the “other woman.” Then, again, according to Belmont, woman #2 had her daughters come into the facility, attacking both Belmont and her daughter. Franklin Police came and this time, she said, she was terminated by UPS because of a no-fighting policy and the fact that she ‘pushed back’ in one of the incidents.

Kristin Gutauskas Donovan, who handles administrative and record matters for the Franklin Police confirmed that there had been incidents but couldn’t share much more. “Both of those reports have open charges and there has been no arraignment or disposition on the charges; they are not public record while still pending charges that may be dropped or changed,” she wrote.

A call to Belmont’s union representative in Franklin, Carlos Pina, was referred to the Teamster’s Local 25 Business Agent Joe Foti, who has not yet responded to a mid-week phone call.

According to the UPS web site, more than 70% of of the company’s 443,000 U.S. employees are represented by unions. Indeed, UPS's Teamsters-represented employees are the largest private sector bargaining unit in the U.S., having grown from 100,000 to about 330,000 in the last 25 years, even as overall Teamsters' membership declined.

As for Belmont, who lives in Rhode Island, she said she is trying to figure out whether she can file an unemployment claim and whether it has to be in Massachusetts or her home state. And, she is hoping UPS or the union will ‘do the right thing’ and help her get her job back, at least pending a court resolution of the competing claims.

“My daughter and myself was fired as we are the victims and now I am a single mom of three children that had my income ripped from her right before the holidays for being attacked,” she said.