Investigators have not yet determined what caused the two-alarm fire at Lakewood’s UPS facility on Vassar Avenue on Wednesday (though it appears to have started from lithium batteries in a package), but that has not stopped conspiracy theories from spreading on the internet.
Some social media accounts have begun suggesting that the conflagration was an act of sabotage, possibly a bombing, carried out by UPS workers attempting to terrorize the company into meeting their demands.
Tens of thousands of UPS employees who are members of the Teamsters union are threatening to go on strike at the end of July if their demands for better working conditions, including no more excessive overtime, no more two-tier pay, higher part-time pay, more full-time jobs, job security for feeders and package drivers, and video camera and harassment protection.
On Wednesday, the Teamsters union walked away from negotiations with UPS after the company presented a new deal that didn’t meet their demands, and the union is saying that a strike is “inevitable” if a deal isn’t reached by this Friday.
With the above in mind, some are suggesting that Wednesday’s UPS fire was an act of sabotage – a move by Teamsters UPS workers to force the company’s hand into agreeing to meeting all of their demands. The theorists suggest that a UPS truck was loaded with hazardous materials and then purposely set ablaze.
There is of course no evidence for any of this, but conspiracy theorists do their thing with or without evidence.
