DHL Pilots to UPS Management: Don?t Pick Up Our Cargo

Pilots to Picket at UPS Headquarters: Proposed agreement would destroy 10,000 American jobs

ATLANTA, July 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The crewmembers of ASTAR Air Cargo, formerly DHL Airways, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), will conduct informational picketing Thursday outside the UPS World Headquarters in Atlanta. This demonstration will protest a proposed agreement between UPS and DHL managements that would hand over all of DHL’s North American air cargo operations to UPS, one of its chief competitors.

This move is bad business for DHL and will devastate thousands of working American families, destroying communities in the process.

Picketing will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 24, at the UPS World Headquarters, 55 Glenlake Parkway NE, Atlanta.

Pilot leaders representing the union will be available for interviews.

“We’re urging UPS to do the right thing—for American workers and American consumers—and stop this deal now,� said Captain Pat Walsh, chairman of the ASTAR unit of ALPA. “UPS has a long history of delivering packages and business solutions. It should say ‘No!’ to delivering 10,000 pink slips to hard-working Americans.�

UPS’s long and proud history of corporate social responsibility hangs in the balance. Calling itself one of “The World’s Most Ethical Companies,� UPS touts its Welfare to Work program, among other contributions. This deal would put a deep dent in its reputation of helping people in U.S. communities achieve better lives.

ASTAR pilots every night carry roughly 50% of the weight out of Wilmington, Ohio, for DHL, the world’s largest international air express network. DHL is a 49% owner of ASTAR and is represented on ASTAR’s Board of Directors. ASTAR has been providing air cargo services to DHL for almost 30 years.

Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s largest pilot union and represents 55,000 pilots at 40 airlines in the U.S. and Canada, including more than 500 pilots at ASTAR. Visit the ALPA website at http://www.alpa.org.