M
Mike23
Guest
I've seen three posts about Calgary in the past, I thought I'd write a new one. I'm sure I can be tracked down being one of the few Mike's in the depot and only been there for a little over a year. I'll give everyone a brief run down on how things were done when I first started and now.
When I first started I failed my physical, got a doctors note from another doctor and was allowed to work for UPS. I was then 'trained' for three weeks on a run done by a driver for 12 years. I use trained loosely because it involved doing between 100-120 stops from 9am to 5pm and was mostly my on road sup doing the driving, sorting the truck and me delivering the pkgs when he was doing that. We had 150% turnover rate in the 1st 3 months of employment. Everyday we'd check the white wash board and see a looooooong line of code 16's (ppl who quit). They were 12 hour days, code 5's everyday (because no one wanted to stay out for 13 hours) with resi splits given after already doing 100 stops by 5 but unable to do 120 stops by 5.
Times slowly got better, we were given a reliability bonus (for new drivers especially it helped) of about $400 a month just for showing up to work. I know this probably seem unfair to quite a few but the average wage in Calgary is $15 an hour and $15 an hour, 12 hour days weren't working because people could make $15 an hour for 8 hours down the street. Things got better over the next six months pretty quickly.
I've heard we haven't hired a full time driver since November. We lost A LOT of part time drivers. Why, do you ask? Well, they were used to working a minimum of 8 hour days and when full time drivers started applying off the streets they saw their hours dwindle to 4 hours a day. Some say it's fair and some say it's not. The part time drivers did have the oppertunity to stay home after working their 20hours a week though which the full time drivers did not.
That brings us to the present time. Things were rolling along pretty good. We're getting a new building in Sept/Oct this year and we actually have enough drivers to work relatively regular hours. We still work from 0900-1830 most nights but it's better then 0900-2100 every night. I'm not too sure if those are regular hours for a UPS driver or not. I know it was extremely messy when we had too many full time drivers because UPS was trying to save a buck by having part timers still work their 8 hours shifts but that's been stopped. The only problem I really percieve in the future is UPS doing away with the bonus' that were given. These were extremely important to getting and keeping full time drivers as well as having full time drivers not calling in sick every second day. They're being done away with because UPS claims that we have a full staff and it's no longer needed. This means many drivers are going to be down to $16 an hour again. It also means they can go down the street and work 9-5 everyday once this recession ends. I can see it all happening again which, honestly, has me a little nervous.
I asked a sup how well we're trained in Calgary. He told me 25% do things well most of the time, 50% do things right 75% of the time and the other 25% do nothing right at all. It's mostly because we were given the answers during our training to make sure we passed and just not given proper training. It's deffinately been a rough go and I pity the poor people who stuck it out since it first started in 2007.
So, it's been 1 year and a month and I'm already half way up on the seniority list of about 300+ drivers (scary, isn't it?). I'm going to be losing $300 income in a society where it costs my girlfriend and I about $120 a week for groceries and $1200 rent a month. I think everyone knows UPS is using the recession just to save the buck and not really caring how it effects their employees.
Anyways, that's how it's been. Hope it clarifies some things about Calgary and what a different type of animal it is in this town. If you're wondering on the reasons, it's due to fort mcmurry and the big oil boom there which = A LOT of money in wages.
What does all this have to labor relations you might ask? Well, our union guy is trying to get a clause in the Canadian contract so that Alberta can make it's own wage seperate from the rest of Canada so that it doesn't revert back to hell again. Is this doable or just a pipe dream? I have no idea.
Also during those 12 hours days we have a part in our contract about unfair over time. What is defined by unfair over time? Is this going to be remedied in the 2010 contract in Canada? If every driver is working 12 hours is it still unfair over time or just regular over time?
When I first started I failed my physical, got a doctors note from another doctor and was allowed to work for UPS. I was then 'trained' for three weeks on a run done by a driver for 12 years. I use trained loosely because it involved doing between 100-120 stops from 9am to 5pm and was mostly my on road sup doing the driving, sorting the truck and me delivering the pkgs when he was doing that. We had 150% turnover rate in the 1st 3 months of employment. Everyday we'd check the white wash board and see a looooooong line of code 16's (ppl who quit). They were 12 hour days, code 5's everyday (because no one wanted to stay out for 13 hours) with resi splits given after already doing 100 stops by 5 but unable to do 120 stops by 5.
Times slowly got better, we were given a reliability bonus (for new drivers especially it helped) of about $400 a month just for showing up to work. I know this probably seem unfair to quite a few but the average wage in Calgary is $15 an hour and $15 an hour, 12 hour days weren't working because people could make $15 an hour for 8 hours down the street. Things got better over the next six months pretty quickly.
I've heard we haven't hired a full time driver since November. We lost A LOT of part time drivers. Why, do you ask? Well, they were used to working a minimum of 8 hour days and when full time drivers started applying off the streets they saw their hours dwindle to 4 hours a day. Some say it's fair and some say it's not. The part time drivers did have the oppertunity to stay home after working their 20hours a week though which the full time drivers did not.
That brings us to the present time. Things were rolling along pretty good. We're getting a new building in Sept/Oct this year and we actually have enough drivers to work relatively regular hours. We still work from 0900-1830 most nights but it's better then 0900-2100 every night. I'm not too sure if those are regular hours for a UPS driver or not. I know it was extremely messy when we had too many full time drivers because UPS was trying to save a buck by having part timers still work their 8 hours shifts but that's been stopped. The only problem I really percieve in the future is UPS doing away with the bonus' that were given. These were extremely important to getting and keeping full time drivers as well as having full time drivers not calling in sick every second day. They're being done away with because UPS claims that we have a full staff and it's no longer needed. This means many drivers are going to be down to $16 an hour again. It also means they can go down the street and work 9-5 everyday once this recession ends. I can see it all happening again which, honestly, has me a little nervous.
I asked a sup how well we're trained in Calgary. He told me 25% do things well most of the time, 50% do things right 75% of the time and the other 25% do nothing right at all. It's mostly because we were given the answers during our training to make sure we passed and just not given proper training. It's deffinately been a rough go and I pity the poor people who stuck it out since it first started in 2007.
So, it's been 1 year and a month and I'm already half way up on the seniority list of about 300+ drivers (scary, isn't it?). I'm going to be losing $300 income in a society where it costs my girlfriend and I about $120 a week for groceries and $1200 rent a month. I think everyone knows UPS is using the recession just to save the buck and not really caring how it effects their employees.
Anyways, that's how it's been. Hope it clarifies some things about Calgary and what a different type of animal it is in this town. If you're wondering on the reasons, it's due to fort mcmurry and the big oil boom there which = A LOT of money in wages.
What does all this have to labor relations you might ask? Well, our union guy is trying to get a clause in the Canadian contract so that Alberta can make it's own wage seperate from the rest of Canada so that it doesn't revert back to hell again. Is this doable or just a pipe dream? I have no idea.
Also during those 12 hours days we have a part in our contract about unfair over time. What is defined by unfair over time? Is this going to be remedied in the 2010 contract in Canada? If every driver is working 12 hours is it still unfair over time or just regular over time?