UPS workers busier than ever
STRATFORD — For package sorters like Joe DeFilippo at the UPS hub on Honeyspot Road, the coronavirus crisis had made business there like Christmas in May — only this time the mood is more solemn than celebratory.
“We make the sign of the cross going in, we make the sign of the cross going out,” DeFilippo said.
At this time of year, DeFilippo said employees at the facility would normally move about 50,000 to 60,000 packages during the “twi shift” from roughly 5 to 9:30 p.m. on its busiest days.
Now, that number is 80,000 to 90,000, and it doesn’t seem it will go down anytime soon. “Nothing is slowing down,” DeFilippo said. “Usually after Christmas we’ll get a little busy for Easter and Mother’s Day, then it will calm down a little. Right now we’re running full bore like it’s Christmastime again.”
Next month will mark the Milford resident’s third year working part time there after a 45-year career as an HVAC technician.
DeFilippo now heads up a safety team at the facility, and said the COVID-19 crisis has brought home the benefits of taking employee health and safety seriously. He said he was aware of one person who had to quarantine as a result of exposure to the virus but no cases of serious illness or deaths. “Over the last five, six weeks we’ve taken every precaution we could possibly do,” he said.
Though masks were hard to come by at the beginning of the crisis, DeFilippo, a member of the Teamsters Local 191, said the union passed out masks, and the company has since stepped up its game supplying the 70 to 100 or so employees per shift.
“We have gloves out there, we have masks out there, we have sanitizing disinfectant,” he said.
There are five-gallon buckets with wipes throughout the building, and cleaning crews are constantly disinfecting work spaces. Signs and orange tape on the floor advise employees to keep six feet apart when possible. “They’re doing the best they can do,” DeFilippo said. “We are a trucking outfit. We get 300 to 500 people walking through this building daily.”
He said the company also has a 1-800 number for employees dealing with anxiety or other mental health issues. “Not only are we dealing with the virus, we’re also trying to deal with the psychological impact,” DeFilippo said. “Right now we are ramped up and overwhelmed. We are all running double shifts trying to get these packages out to the people.”
The frenetic pace has pluses and minuses. “It’s cut into a little bit of the social life,” DeFilippo joked.
On the other hand, he said, “I’m not getting cabin fever.”
When he gets home after work, he said he strips out of his work clothes in his garage first thing.
Though his wife worries, DeFilippo said he’s no stranger to serious health scares — a year ago Friday, he had a triple heart attack.
The 63-year-old, who also has diabetes, said he has been eating and sleeping better since. “The good lord didn’t want me yet,” DeFilippo said. “When it’s not your time, it’s not your time.”