- A former DHL manager said he overheard other supervisors calling workers "inmates," per The Guardian.
- Ryan Doyen said the conversation prompted him to quit his managerial role, the outlet reported.
A former DHL manager says he resigned from his post at the logistics company after he overheard other managers calling their workers "inmates" as though they were in a prison, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Ryan Doyen, who has worked at DHL for five years, said he stepped down from his supervising role after he overheard a conversation between two unnamed managers, The Guardian reported.
Doyen told The Guardian that the managers were discussing their disapproval of a union drive at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky international airport (CVG).
"I kept hearing ill speaking of the hourly employees," said Doyen. "Then one day I overheard a conversation between two managers that they needed to take back the hub, that they referred to as a prison, and that they are the 'wardens' taking back the prison from the 'inmates.'"
Doyen told The Guardian that he took issue with the language used during this conversation. He added that he could not "sit idly by and allow managers to speak ill of the people I called my friends and colleagues."
After this incident, Doyen says he stepped down from his position as a ramp lead at DHL's main operations hub at CVG, and took on a job at the company with hourly pay, per The Guardian. As a ramp lead, Doyen was likely tasked with supervising DHL's flights and managing a team in charge of offloading freight packages from planes, per DHL's job descriptions on YouTube and Wizbii.
After he resigned from his managerial post, Doyen joined the DHL union effort at CVG, The Guardian reported.
In September, the National Labor Relations Board ordered a union election for 900 of the CVG hub's employees, who asked to join the Teamsters. However, the vote has been delayed by multiple disputes.
When contacted by Insider, a DHL spokesperson said they could neither confirm nor deny The Guardian's report.
"We can't provide information on individual employees," the spokesperson wrote in an email.
However, the spokesperson issued a statement saying DHL has in recent years raised wages, increased paid time off and parental leave for all employees, and recognizes Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday at CVG.
"Additionally, we recognize our employees' right to unionize within the confines of the law and are fully committed to all agreements we have with our local, national, and international labor partners," the spokesperson added.
Employees at other DHL worksites in the US have already formed unions. The Teamsters say 6,000 workers at the company are represented by their organization, out of DHL's 10,000 workers in the US.