Intent to Terminate

[raceanoncr]

I'm a preloader and I got an Intent to Terminate letter today at work. It was for 2 misloads that I had yesterday. Our center had a total of 14 yesterday, but if there's a total of 5 for the day..no one gets written up. Management is NOT consistent with write-ups. They do it when they feel like it. Anyway, I go to work everyday. If I'll be a couple minutes late I'll call. I'm a loyal employee. I do the best I can with not getting misloads. I had 1 last Friday....my first in 2 weeks at that time. I may have 2-3 misloads a week at the most...and that's not every week. Like I said, I hardly got any BS for em. I have my grievance form...and I have 10 days to return it to the steward. What are the chances of me getting my job back if I do get fired?

No advice here on what do do about the, supposed, "intent to terminate" but a little commendation.

When I was a package driver yrs ago, I would've offered up my firstborn to have a pre-loader like you--ONLY 2 MISLOADS YESTERDAY!!! Geez, I must have had 5-10 EVERY DAY on my car and nothing was ever done. In that day, we had to hand sheet everything. We had to hand write all out misloads that were oncar. I would have to take 2 sheets every day just for that. Pre-loader got to hate me for that but nothing was ever done! Go figger!

I'm here to just say hang in there and keep doing a good job!!

 

[UnconTROLLed]

How can you use progressive discipline on mis-sorts? This job is something that is not constant! Due to egress being blocked, packages falling off of belts, flow to heavy at times, others helping to load package cars, trailers etc. To many variables to set a standard.

Original poster pm me your address and i will send you arbitration rulings from local 705 that say you can not be discipline for mis-sorts. There is no negotiated standard on disciplining this!

If you worked in the hub this way, you would understand. The conservative nature allows management and union to make whatever deals they want. If they want to fire for not tieing your shoes, it's as good as done. And you aren't getting yoru job back.

 

[705red]

If you worked in the hub this way, you would understand. The conservative nature allows management and union to make whatever deals they want. If they want to fire for not tieing your shoes, it's as good as done. And you aren't getting yoru job back.

Because i am a driver i do not understand what a part timer goes through? I worked my way up through the part time ranks for 5 years. I loaded/unloaded air planes, sorted, pulled/loaded trailers and cans, de-iced air craft, drove tugs, even loaded on the preload for a while. I have been there!

If you allow your union to carry on this way, you have no one else to blame but your self!

Vote your union out if they are not doing their jobs!

 

[UnconTROLLed]

Because i am a driver i do not understand what a part timer goes through? I worked my way up through the part time ranks for 5 years. I loaded/unloaded air planes, sorted, pulled/loaded trailers and cans, de-iced air craft, drove tugs, even loaded on the preload for a while. I have been there!

If you allow your union to carry on this way, you have no one else to blame but your self!

Vote your union out if they are not doing their jobs!

nono, that wasn't my point at all. I can't speak for 705, IL or etc and their politics. The problem is, if you try to vote out the union here, you won't have a job in 2 weeks. It's pretty bad, that's all I was saying, wasn't implying you didn't earn your way through UPS at all!

 

[705red]

nono, that wasn't my point at all. I can't speak for 705, IL or etc and their politics. The problem is, if you try to vote out the union here, you won't have a job in 2 weeks. It's pretty bad, that's all I was saying, wasn't implying you didn't earn your way through UPS at all!

We thought the same thing. But enough was enough and yes we did lose several people in doing so. Here nominations are in October and the election ballots are counted first week in December. If yours is the same, i recommend that people that are running use all of that year vacation during this time and really cover their rears!

This is a perfect time to do so. With a new union friendly president, the nlrb and dol are more fevorable to us then the company now adays. You do have protected rights. It can be done and it is not for the weak to attempt.

Feel free to pm and i will help if you would like. Crap i will use my vacations and come down and help if you would like!

 

[browniehound]

Your misloads leads to missed packages.
Missed packages lead to service failures.
Service failures lead to paying back customer their shipping charges.
Service failures affect all managements bonuses (on the center scorecard)

I know a couple here and there don't mean much to you, but screws up the drivers and pisses off the sups. Try to improve on these areas. "Intent to terminate" is basically a way to tell you how important this is.

C'mon Heff, please spare us the dramatics. Misloads are a very important issue but I have never witnessed an employee discharged for good on misloading packages. Hence the laughable "intent to discharge" letter.

If you want and can discharge an employee, why not just do it? If you don't want the employee loading packages anymore just let him go before he makes senority.

The problem is, the company can't find anyone else to take his job. You are paying him $9.50 an hour. At that hourly rate would you care about misloads and our customers?

To steal a phrase from a former center manager of mine when EDD was first implemented: "you put garbage in and you will get garbage out". How can you expect anything less? At $9.50 they don't care if they lose their job. UPS is inputing garbage and are recieving the fruits of that in the form of misloads.

 

[McLeod]

In the last month other drivers in our center have told me that they are instructed to sheet missloads as......you guessed it Future. Met a fellow driver from out of state passing through my area at a fast food rest. He asked me about how things were in our district and so forth. He told me he had 2 misloaded NDA on one day as was told to sheet as Future. That is just wrong!! My wife tells me to just do as told, and the chips will fall on those who are in the wrong.

 

[gandydancer]

...take the extra 5 seconds to re read the package...

What are you smoking? That's not in the Methods. He isn't allowed time to do that. His job is to work as directed. And he's not directed to double-read packages.

 

[kingOFchester]

Don't rely on the PAL label--always check it against the address label.

Sounds great!

However, where I work the loaders have from 4:50am- to 8ish to load 3-4cars. 300 packages x 3 cars =900. 900 packages divided by 180 minutes = 5 packages a minute. This gives the loader 12 seconds to find the Spa label, lift said package using the 8 keys, go into the right truck, find the correct shelf and place the package. Also need to leave time for irregs and also shifting the load on the truck when that 1 of 1 package turns out to be 1 of 50.

Given the little training that UPS gives their part timers, be happy that they showed up to do the work. This is a problem that UPS needs to fix.

 

[trplnkl]

What are you smoking? That's not in the Methods. He isn't allowed time to do that. His job is to work as directed. And he's not directed to double-read packages.

The loader is however directed to get the packages on the right shelf (at least) and in the right car.

 

[local804]

What are you smoking? That's not in the Methods. He isn't allowed time to do that. His job is to work as directed. And he's not directed to double-read packages.

The title of this thread is intent to terminate.....I would rather listen to them btch and whine that I am taking too long than deal with a problem that affects the the service of "their" company. Procedure when there is a problem is to circle the service icon with a crayon, well Sir, there is your free time to double read the packages.....

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

There have been other threads on this subject and others have mentioned that their loaders are instructed to write the sequence number on the pkg. To me, that is a waste of time which could be better spent comparing the PAL to the address label. As a driver, I would never look at the number that the loader wrote on the pkg. I look for the PAL, compare it to the label, and deliver it. Writing the sequence number of the pkg is simply taking the number off of the PAL--so, what if the PAL is different from the address label? Does writing the sequence number on the pkg suddenly make it the right PAL for that pkg? We had a "out of sync" day on Tuesday in which a number of pkgs had the wrong PAL affixed to it. I had 2 pkgs which both had WalMart PAL labels but one was going to our industrial park and the other to a town 45 minutes away. I simply sent an ODS and set up a drop point so that they could P/U the pkgs and shuttle or deliver them.

 

[browniehound]

. To me, that is a waste of time which could be better spent comparing the PAL to the address label. As a driver, I would never look at the number that the loader wrote on the pkg. I look for the PAL, compare it to the label, and deliver it. .

Good point Upstate as I think this is the most effective and efficient to prevent misloads. I have a phenomenal preloader because he reads both labels. If the labels don't match or he reads something peculiar he leaves the package outside of the truck for me to verify.

When I say phenomenal, I mean it. It the last 13 months that I have been doing the route he has had a grand total of 0 (ZERO!) misloads. Not one. He just doesn't misload because he reads both labels. So it can be done.

If I can't find a package on the truck that is in my EDD I don't leave the stop until I find it because 99.99999% of the time the package is on my truck. The only time its not is if it was mis-PALed or sorted to the wrong cage by someone other than my wonderful pre-loader. I don't know what I will do with out him once his graduates from college.

 

[HEFFERNAN]

C'mon Heff, please spare us the dramatics. Misloads are a very important issue but I have never witnessed an employee discharged for good on misloading packages. Hence the laughable "intent to discharge" letter.

If you want and can discharge an employee, why not just do it? If you don't want the employee loading packages anymore just let him go before he makes senority.

The problem is, the company can't find anyone else to take his job. You are paying him $9.50 an hour. At that hourly rate would you care about misloads and our customers?

To steal a phrase from a former center manager of mine when EDD was first implemented: "you put garbage in and you will get garbage out". How can you expect anything less? At $9.50 they don't care if they lose their job. UPS is inputing garbage and are recieving the fruits of that in the form of misloads.

I'll agree and disagree with your evaluation of my post.

I agree with the pay being an issue. Low wages don't bring in the smartest or most competent employee. But something happens when you join the brown team. You realize that a career here will take care of you for the rest of your life. The money, benefits, pension are there for people who see past that $9.50 start rate.

I disagree with you saying that misloads are NOT IMPORTANT enough to terminate for. If it costs the company every day to fix your screw up, it gets their attention. We both agree "Intent to Terminate" is a low ball effort to get results. I believe a little extra time to check labels is better. The fact is we both agree MISLOADS ARE IMPORTANT. They ruin a drivers day, sups running around WASTING gas shuttling packages, missed packages are basically lost revenue for UPS, as well as making the company look bad when we fail a customer.

Should the guy get fired? Hell, no
Should he understand how responsible (and important) he is in the chain of events? Yes

Maybe I did make the post sound dramatic, but where did I lie?

All I know is that preloading is way better than being an unloading trailer monkey. His job could be in jeopardy but not his career. It gets pretty hot in thoses trailers in a couple months.