FedEx workers can't carry phones. After Indianapolis shooting, many couldn't call family.

[dalton99a]

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2021/04/16/indianapolis-fedex-shooting-workers-criticize-no-cell-phone-policy/7251546002/

FedEx workers can't carry phones. After Indianapolis shooting, many couldn't call family.
Binghui Huang, Lawrence Andrea, Rashika Jaipuriar, Sarah Nelson
Indianapolis Star

Jose Lopez sat in a Holiday Inn Express for hours waiting for news of his friend at the nearby FedEx facility, where a gunman killed eight people late Thursday night.

“It is hard because if my friend had a phone, he would be able to contact me right away,” said Lopez, who has worked at the facility for about six months. “Even if it’s a message with one letter, you know he is living.”

FedEx prohibits employees from having their phones with them while they are working, a policy that came under scrutiny in aftermath of the mass shooting at the company's Ground Plainfield Operations Center that left eight people dead and dozens of families scrambling to get in touch with loved ones.

The no-phone policy forced many family members and friends to wait overnight in a packed Holiday Inn Express to find out if their loved ones were hurt or killed.

[Hoyt]

1. I tried searching for the reasons Fedex would ban phones in the shipping facility.

My first thought was they don't want people talking during working hours, being cheap assed capitalists.

But I also hit on some other explanations, including have you ever seen videos of FedEx (and UPS, etc.) drivers throwing packages over fences, kicking them, treating packages like crap, etc.

One guy on Reddit said in 2019: "Because someone could just film for like what... a week? and have enough footage of dumbass teenagers throwing TV's and other packages and it'd be a PR nightmare for FedEx."

You decide.

[WHITT]

2. "many couldn't call family"

not to mention 911.

[gratuitous]

3. A couple of thoughts on this report

First, if any of the workers had complained to management, and if they specifically mentioned an emergency situation like an active shooter scenario, Fedex had better have a very good, well-documented answer for that concern.

Second, for any workers who feel like Fedex isn't sensitive to their concerns about workplace safety, you might consider forming a union.

As Pete had it:

The boss won't listen when one guy squawks
But he's got to listen when the union talks
He'd better, be mighty lonely
Everybody decide to walk out on him