View from Above

Right now, Leticia Acosta is in an airport.

If it’s morning, she’s probably at the UPS hub in San Antonio or Austin, Texas. If it’s evening, she’s on the phone in her hotel room.

But if it’s the afternoon, she’s at the airport, waiting on a flight and returning a phone call to Teamster Magazine to talk about her work, her union and how she got to where she is today.

Climbing the Ladder
“I’m always on the go. I’m never in one place,” Acosta said. “It’s my life.”

Leticia Acosta wears many hats. A 25-year Teamster, she started out as a part-timer at UPS, became a package car driver, then went to work at Local 657 as a business agent. She’s now Secretary-Treasurer of Local 657 in San Antonio and the first woman to take part in the UPS panels as a chairperson. She chairs a UPS grievance committee for the Southern Region, which covers 11 states. Acosta hears an average of 500-600 cases a week, on a light week, perhaps 400. She also sat on the national UPS negotiating committee, the Southern Region negotiating committee and on the national health and safety committee.

“I’m proud to be on the grievance committee, and to be the first female that has chaired,” Acosta said.

It wasn’t always easy, Acosta admits, to be a woman in the work force and in the union. Her father had been President of Local 657 and was retired when Acosta announced that she wanted to become a business agent with the local.

“My father said there had never been a woman business agent or officer in the local. My father and brother didn’t think I could do it,” Acosta said. “I told him, ‘Dad, you always taught me to fight for what I believe in.’ He came around and helped me out a lot with his experience.”

In the beginning of her career, Acosta had some doubts, being the lone woman in her position.

“There were times I thought, ‘I’m in the wrong job. I can’t do this.’ But I was wrong to think that and I never quit,” Acosta said.

Acosta’s local now has a female Executive Board member, who is a feeder driver for UPS, and there are several female business agents who Acosta says are “good at what they do because they care and get very involved.”

While Acosta makes a difference for the members in her roles at Local 657 and on the grievance committee, it is her home life that she is just as proud of. She has been married 35 years to a supportive husband with whom she has four sons and 12 grandchildren.

Despite a hectic schedule, Acosta manages to balance family time with work. After all, work doesn’t always seem like work.

“I really enjoy my job,” Acosta said. “That makes the difference.”