NJ Asks UPS to
Recognize Gay Couples
By Geoff Mulvihill,
AP from biz.yahoo.com/ap on the Web, July 20, 2007
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. -- Gov. Jon
S. Corzine sent a letter Friday to United Parcel Service of America urging the
shipping giant to respect New Jersey's civil unions law and offer gay employees
the same benefits for their partners that married workers get.
The company is one of many that gay rights advocates say is not treating gay
employees and their partners the same as married employees and their spouses
despite a state law requiring employers to do so.
UPS has said the New Jersey law does not apply to its union employees because
the company's employee benefits are governed by federal law.
Corzine said the company should change its policies anyway.
"Surely, as a company with a long-standing commitment to its employees and the
community, UPS would not want to make its employees and their families face
these difficult choices based on the subtleties of the interaction of federal
and state law," the governor wrote.
UPS does provide full benefits for partners of gay administrative employees who
are not covered by union contracts. It also provides the full benefits in
Massachusetts, the only state where gay marriages are legally recognized.
Lambda Legal, a gay advocacy law organization, initiated a legal process to try
to force UPS to offer the benefits to couples in New Jersey on behalf of two
couples.
In the meantime, Lambda lawyer David Buckel said he appreciates the governor's
letter.
"It's quite a governor who reaches out to help a couple families like this," he
said. "We don't know if we'll get a letter from the governor for each
family and each company."
Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, says
UPS is far from the only company doing business in New Jersey that isn't
following the state law.
"When you have hundreds of companies in New Jersey refusing to respect this law,
there's something wrong with the law itself," Goldstein said.
In February, New Jersey became the third state to offer civil unions to gay
couples. The law was a reaction to a state Supreme Court ruling last year
that ordered the Legislature to treat gay couples as married couples in many
ways -- including requiring employers to offer the same health insurance
benefits to partners of gay employees that they do to spouses. But the ruling
stopped short of legalizing gay marriage.
Goldstein's group has been asking lawmakers to pass a new law that would allow
gay marriage. He said that out of about 1,350 couples who have been joined
in civil unions since February, nearly 200 have complained that their rights are
not being fully recognized.
A spokesman for UPS did not immediately return a call on Friday to The
Associated Press.
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