UPS Pilots Union Sues FAA Challenging New Anti-Fatigue Rules

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) — The union representing United Parcel Service Inc. pilots is challenging the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to exempt the crew of cargo planes from rules aimed at combating fatigue.

The Independent Pilots Association filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington seeking to have cargo operators covered “because of the safety benefits provided by the rule,” William Trent, the union’s general counsel, said in an e-mailed statement.


The FAA yielded to “unprecedented industry pressure” when it exempted cargo airlines in the new rules, Robert Travis, president of the pilots group, said yesterday after the regulation was published.


Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman, didn’t immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment on the lawsuit.


The FAA rules, which take effect in two years, require that passenger-airline pilots work shorter shifts and get longer rest periods. It was the first revision of rest rules since 1985.


While the agency had proposed applying the new measures to cargo-carrier pilots, the final rule exempted them because the costs were too steep, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said yesterday.


The pilots’ union argued that the FAA let cargo operators submit information about costs of complying with the rule after the comment period ended, and the data weren’t subjected to public scrutiny.


“The rule is wholly and utterly opaque when it comes to providing any factual support for the cost benefit conclusions,” Trent said in the statement.


Mike Mangeot, a UPS spokesman, declined to comment on the union’s lawsuit.


“The bottom line is that the FAA made the right decision,” he said in an e-mail. “Cargo flying is different than passenger flying.”


The case is Independent Pilots Association v. Federal Aviation Administration, 11-1483, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (Washington).


Editors: Fred Strasser, Steve Geiman

No Refunds For UPS Customers

              UPS Says Weather To Blame For Packages Not Delivered By Christmas

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — After initially telling customers it might refund their money, UPS said Tuesday there would be no refunds for those who purchased “guaranteed delivery” by Christmas.

 UPS said there will be no refunds because the delays were caused by last week’s snow storm.


 “We cannot control the weather,” said UPS spokeswoman Natalie Godwin.


 As 7NEWS first told you last week, nearly 50,000 packages were not delivered by Christmas because UPS trucks were halted during last week’s snow storm that dropped a foot of snow in some areas of metro Denver.


 The debacle resulted in hundreds of people lining up outside the Commerce City UPS Customer Center on Christmas Eve. Most who showed up at the customer center were turned away without their packages.


 UPS said all the packages that weren’t delivered on-time would be delivered by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.


 Frustrated customers vowed to get their money back, saying UPS had no excuse for the massive delays. UPS’s main competitors, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service, did not experience the same delays and reported few problems with delivering packages during the storm.

7NEWS

Watch the video


DENVER – Delivery service UPS scrambled Tuesday to clear a backlog of 50,000 packages delayed right before Christmas in the Denver area.

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 DENVER – Delivery service UPS scrambled Tuesday to clear a backlog of 50,000 packages delayed right before Christmas in the Denver area.


A winter storm that struck Colorado last week made delivery unsafe, according to UPS officials.


On Christmas Eve, hundreds of people stood in line outside the UPS customer service center in Commerce City, hoping to get their packages before the holiday.


Many weren’t successful, including Michael Kearns, who’s been frustrated by the sparse information UPS has provided about what’s happening with his package.


“They just didn’t seem to be prepared to deal with this and didn’t seem to be prepared to deal with the communications issues that have come up since then,” Kearns said.


Kearns had purchased a pair of books for his wife online a week before the holiday.


He opted to print out a photo of the books and put it under the tree for her.


Like many who had delayed shipments, Kearns wonders whether UPS was simply caught off-guard by the higher-than-expected amount of online sales this holiday season.


The company says that is not the case; the weather simply made it unsafe for UPS drivers to get all of the packages out in time.


A company spokeswoman says UPS apologizes to anybody affected and says the delayed packages should all be delivered by Wednesday.


(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

Irate Customers Demand UPS Packages

                      Customers Wait Outside Warehouse After UPS Fails To Deliver 50,000 Packages


COMMERCE CITY, Colo. —
Hundreds of people lined up outside a United Parcel Service building on Saturday morning, demanding packages that UPS were delayed in delivering.

“We’re getting mixed message about what’s going from people out here, people in there,” said Gary Stull.

UPS was delayed in delivering about 50,000 packages because of Thursday’s snow storm. Those packages are now sitting in a Commerce City warehouse.

UPS said the storm impacted operations, delayed deliveries and just about maxed out the limit drivers are allowed to be behind the wheel for a week.

Stull told 7NEWS that he’s been waiting three days for a friend’s gift.

“We’re standing in line because there was 10 inches of snow,” said Stull.

“Not a way I’d like to spend Christmas Eve, but I didn’t expect the line to be this long,” said David Hawman.

Hawman and his girlfriend waited more than an hour to get a surprise gift.

“When one of every 20th person has a package, that’s not a good sign,” said another customer.

At 3:20 p.m., a 7NEWS viewer reported UPS employees being verbally abused by customers and said police had been called to the warehouse.

7NEWS

Faux News, Fair and Balanced?


 LONDON—Rupert Murdoch’s News International has paid out settlements to seven more prominent figures in the wake of the phone hacking scandal at its now-shuttered News of the World​ tabloid.
The company said in a statement Tuesday it had settled claims brought by Princess Diana’s former lover James Hewitt, ex-Liberal Democrat lawmaker Mark Oaten, TV presenter Ukrika Jonsson, model Abi Titmuss, and Paul Dadge, who helped rescue victims of the 2005 London transit bombings.
     Theatrical agent Michelle Milburn and Calum Best, the son of soccer legend George Best, rounded out the settlement list.
     The scandal over phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid boiled over after it emerged that journalists at the paper had routinely hacked into the phones of celebrities, politicians, sports figures and even crime victims.
      The now-defunct tabloid has already settled with several prominent figures, including actress Sienna Miller​ and the family of murdered British schoolgirl Milly Dowler​, whose phone was broken into by the paper soon after her disappearance in 2002.
     The Dowler case in particular revolted Britons and was instrumental in pushing Prime Minister David Cameron to set up an inquiry into U.K. media ethics, which is still hearing from witnesses.
     The terms of the new payments announced Tuesday were not disclosed but they are likely to be substantial. Miller received 100,000 pounds (nearly $157,000) in damages; the Dowlers were awarded 2 million pounds ($3.1 million) plus 1 million pounds ($1.6 million) from Murdoch himself, which was earmarked for charity.
     The scandal has hit News International parent company News Corp​. hard, most notably by scrapping the company’s multibillion-pound bid for full control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB. 
    


 

Top Ten Quotes of the Year


The list:
     1. “We are the 99 percent.” — slogan of Occupy movement.
     2. “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.” — U.S. Sen. candidate Elizabeth Warren, speaking in Andover, Mass., in August.
     3. “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.” — Billionaire Warren Buffett, in a New York Times op-ed on Aug. 15.
     4. “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.” — Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman in an Aug. 18 tweet.
     5. “Oops.” — Presidential candidate Rick Perry after unsuccessfully attempting to remember the third federal agency he would eliminate during a Nov. 9 debate.
     6. “When they ask me, ‘Who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?’ I’m going to say, ‘You know, I don’t know. Do you know?'” — Then-presidential candidate Herman Cain in an interview by Christian Broadcasting Network on Oct. 7.
     7. “I am on a drug. It’s called ‘Charlie Sheen.’ It’s not available because if you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.” — Actor Charlie Sheen in a February interview with ABC News.
     8. “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.” — Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ last words on Oct. 5, as reported by his sister Mona Simpson in her eulogy.
     9. “I can’t say with certitude.” — Then-U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner on June 1 when he was asked whether a lewd photograph was in fact him.
     10. “Instead of receiving the help that she had hoped for, Mr. Cain instead decided to provide her with his idea of a stimulus package.” — Lawyer Gloria Allred on Nov. 7 discussing Herman Cain’s alleged sexual harassment of her client.

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