On Friday the 13th (August 13 1999) driver messengers from Professional Messenger and members of the South Bay ILWU met with reporters to discuss the firing of Pro-Mess Route Driver Mohinder Singh. This noontime rally to support Mohinder was held at Kiely Park, also known as Central Park, across from the Kaiser Hospital complex in Santa Clara, where Mohinder had a route.
Evidently when Mohinder was finished with his normal full day route, Pro-Mess managers demanded that he do a second route. Mohinder politely said he was too tired and declined, and for this he was fired.
Maybe his support of a Union workplace had something to do with it.
Is the messenger biz the only business where managers can force you to work overtime?A DMS driver was heard on the air pleading, "I don't want to work 3 fifteen hour days in a row!"
When are Drivers going to wake up and demand a normal 8 hour day? How safe are Drivers that work for 15 hours straight? For protesting these poor and unsafe working conditions, we get fired, or starved out.
A cameraman at the Kiely Park rally heard that drivers have to work long hours without breaks, sick pay and benefits and remarked, "Isn't that illegal?"
Maybe not - but it is immoral to sit back while your employer takes away basic workplace rights such as breaks, and forces you to work overtime. So hats off to Mohinder Singh for standing up and refusing to get stepped on.
