Originally published on June 29, 2023.
Happy Pride Month! In this bonus episode, we're sharing the efforts that LGBTQ+ Teamsters are engaging in to fight for liberation at UPS, other Teamsters employers, the union itself, and beyond.
We spoke with Andrew Rivas, a UPS package car driver and political coordinator of Teamsters Local 533 in Reno, Nevada. He is also on the board of the relatively new Teamsters LGBTQ+ caucus. Andrew told us about the initiative, what it's like to face and fight against discrimination in the workplace, and specifically what the LGBTQ+ Caucus is demanding in the UPS contract negotiations.
*
Hosted by Teddy Ostrow
Edited by Teddy Ostrow & Ruby Walsh
Produced by NYGP & Ruby Walsh, in partnership with In These Times & The Real News
Music by Casey Gallagher
Cover art by Devlin Claro Resetar
**
Support the show at Patreon.com/upsurgepod.
Follow us on Twitter @upsurgepod, Facebook, The Upsurge, and YouTube @upsurgepod.
***
Show Notes
- Teamsters LGBTQ+ Caucus website.
- Marc Steiner, "The Anti-LGBTQ Backlash Can't Crush 50 Years of Pride," The Real News, June 27, 2023.
- Kim Kelly, "How LGBTQ Activists Transformed the Labor Movment," Teen Vogue, June 7, 2019.
- Ann Balay, Semi Queer: Stories Gay, Trans and Black Truckers (UNC Press: 2020).