tougher than it looks

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

It would not be appropriate to announce deaths over the intercom. Our center uses PCMs for this purpose.

 

[anonymous4]

Why would it not be appropriate for a moment of silence to be given? Yet they can announce supervisors birthdays while we sweat our souls away in a truck? Intercom, fair enough. But there are specific instructions handed down to NOT discuss such things as a topic for PCMs (when they don't have us work threw them). We recently had a young guy who was killed in a house fire. Unless you knew what had happened or saw it on the news there was SILENCE on the subject. An employee has a heart attack over the weekend? You find out two weeks later when you realize a face is missing. Yet I am supposed to give two ****s about a supervisor turning 29?

 

[Inthegame]

I'm a realist. The bottom line is no matter how much I participate nothing is being enforced by my "brothers". The contract isn't worth the paper it's written on and we both know it, so crawl away. Does voting matter when the majority purely vote for a name? Do grievances matter when they aren't resolved in a timely matter and in doing so you become the one for management to chuck spears at, until you leave or they find a reason to get rid of you? Change is not up to one person and it is so awful right now it will take a walk to even regain hope of real change. Tell me what good my union is doing for me right now Upstate. Please, tell me what I can do different. Tell me what I can do if I try and enforce the contract as the lone solider and end up in the pits of my building until I have no will to continue Upstate. You know nothing. Personal opinion, of course.

I am prepared to walk the line or outright leave this "union" if true enforcement doesn't come soon.

Swords, Your brothers are enforcing that contract everyday, all over the country against a company that wants those brothers to go away. The problem being those brothers are like the kid holding back the flood with his finger in the dike (calm down boys). UPS knows they can outspend the union easily so they push issues to panels that should be resolved locally or force arbitration where possible. Why would your local agents/officers intentionally bog down grievances? To get re-elected? Irritated members aren't what career union leaders strive for.
The majority of that contract is being followed every day. Of course there is nut case managers with superiority syndrome issues that get off on aggravating the troops but the winners are the ones that figure this out quick and don't give them the shallow victories they feed off. The process might not work fast but it works a hell of a lot better than no process and that's what's coming when people forget how fast it can all disappear.
I filed grievances for over thirty years for others and never thought twice about some target on my back. I welcomed having spears chucked at me because I was confident the nimrods throwing would miss. They did. Every time and soon they stopped throwing.
Margaret Mead once wrote, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Get involved, stay involved, stay pissed off and be smart. You walk away and you're letting the bad guys win.

 

[menotyou]

I understand exactly what it would mean, Upstate. Don't attempt to label me as selfish because I am fully aware our union is weak. I have admitted in the past it is in part weak because of people like myself who will not enforce it like it should be. There is another side to that coin. The target one gains along with the inability for the grievance process to work in it's current state means I have zero interest in getting myself fired until real change happens (which it won't). Change you or I on an individual basis are not capable of seeing out. I have no job bid inside, meaning if they want me gone my future inside is bleak at best. I have seen where you go if they decide you are a problem and I will not be the sacrificial lamb while still changing nothing in the way things currently work.

Any way you care to slice it, you would not vote for a two tiered wage if you weren't already in your full time slot. Don't be a hypocrite. Says the guy who needs to have a pity party before he stops posting on an internet forum, before his triumphant return several days later.

Ouch! I felt that bite down here!!!


What annoys me is when people are willing to be the target because they feel a moral debt to their coworkers because of basic cajones and people still mock them as 'uncooperative' or 'rocking-the-boat'. If I am rocking the boat, shut up, sit down and enjoy the ride or exit stage left, baby!

 

[CRASH501]

I'm a realist. The bottom line is no matter how much I participate nothing is being enforced by my "brothers". The contract isn't worth the paper it's written on and we both know it, so crawl away. Does voting matter when the majority purely vote for a name? Do grievances matter when they aren't resolved in a timely matter and in doing so you become the one for management to chuck spears at, until you leave or they find a reason to get rid of you? Change is not up to one person and it is so awful right now it will take a walk to even regain hope of real change. Tell me what good my union is doing for me right now Upstate. Please, tell me what I can do different. Tell me what I can do if I try and enforce the contract as the lone solider and end up in the pits of my building until I have no will to continue Upstate. You know nothing. Personal opinion, of course.

I am prepared to walk the line or outright leave this "union" if true enforcement doesn't come soon.

.
If half of you guys would grow a pair of b@((Z and file, "DO YOUR JOB BY THE BOOK" the target on your back would mean absolutely nothing! you want to talk about the sacrificial lamb. "IM IT" this companies sole purpose on unions and organization of the members is to break us at all costs! If you do your job, they have nothing on you ! " FILE FILE FILE"

 

[menotyou]

Don't file a grievance because you want a check out of the deal. File a grievance because your contractual rights have been violated. File, so someone else doesn't have to endure what you are grieving.
File, for your brother.

 

[anonymous4]

So I start filing (like I used to), I am then moved into an area of the building that you don't walk away from. What do I do? As I said I have no job bid, my option is to work as directed. I have seen where they put people who go against the grain and can't bid out of the area. For what I am paid, being the one on the chopping block does not seem acceptable.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

So I start filing (like I used to), I am then moved into an area of the building that you don't walk away from. What do I do? As I said I have no job bid, my option is to work as directed. I have seen where they put people who go against the grain and can't bid out of the area. For what I am paid, being the one on the chopping block does not seem acceptable.

So you talk the talk but are unwilling to walk the walk?

 

[menotyou]

Swords, I hate to say this to you but,
SUCK IT UP!

Not trying to be rude, but if I can do it, I won't listen to the whining.

 

[anonymous4]

Suck it up? Again, give me a break. I was 1 out of maybe 3 people on a shift of 200+ who would routinely file on supervisors working. I ended up in an area no one walks away from without quitting. I had a supervisor IN THE TRUCK with me every single day for 90% of the shift. I was written up for several things while following all methods and had no idea what I could possibly due to get out of that situation without quitting. My option was to leave or behave. I chose to behave as I saw zero benefit to being the lone wolf who went against the grain. No additional teamsters filed because I "stood up" to the man, no one gave me advice on what my next move should be and almost all of the grievances I had filed did not come to fruition. Don't attempt to tell me I didn't do my part. If you can tell me exactly what my course of action should be in the situation I WILL BE PUT IN, I will GLADLY accept being in that hell hole again if it means sticking it to those idiots. The power is not in our hands until the grievance process is SWIFT and HARSH and it is NEITHER.

 

[CRASH501]

Suck it up? Again, give me a break. I was 1 out of maybe 3 people on a shift of 200+ who would routinely file on supervisors working. I ended up in an area no one walks away from without quitting. I had a supervisor IN THE TRUCK with me every single day for 90% of the shift. I was written up for several things while following all methods and had no idea what I could possibly due to get out of that situation without quitting. My option was to leave or behave. I chose to behave as I saw zero benefit to being the lone wolf who went against the grain. No additional teamsters filed because I "stood up" to the man, no one gave me advice on what my next move should be and almost all of the grievances I had filed did not come to fruition. Don't attempt to tell me I didn't do my part. If you can tell me exactly what my course of action should be in the situation I WILL BE PUT IN, I will GLADLY accept being in that hell hole again if it means sticking it to those idiots. The power is not in our hands until the grievance process is SWIFT and HARSH and it is NEITHER.

IF the sepervisor was in the truck with you for more than 1 shift.... guess what FILE, its now harassment! if they write you up, refuse to sign it, have the union dispute it and once again DO YOUR JOB! any one here who knows me knows there is no bigger bullseye than the one on "MY BACK"

 

[anonymous4]

Crash, what is so hard to understand? The contract does not give you a blueprint of what harassment is just like it doesn't explain what anything else is. FILING does nothing if it doesn't GO THROUGH. If it doesn't go through, then what? DO you see what I am saying? It is easy to tell me to do this, but if that doesn't work and I don't know the next step, I am by myself. I think every teamster has this issue and it begs the question why aren't we informed?

 

[CRASH501]

Crash, what is so hard to understand? The contract does not give you a blueprint of what harassment is just like it doesn't explain what anything else is. FILING does nothing if it doesn't GO THROUGH. If it doesn't go through, then what? DO you see what I am saying? It is easy to tell me to do this, but if that doesn't work and I don't know the next step, I am by myself. I think every teamster has this issue and it begs the question why aren't we informed?

.
when you are trying your best to do your job BY THE METHODS THAT WE WERE TAUGHT , and a supervisor is standing over your shoulder day after day, shift after shift making you feel uncomfortable and mentally stressing you out causing an unsafe working environment "THAT'S HARASSMENT"

 

[anonymous4]

Time for some of you to put your money where your mouths are! I am not a whiner, nor a complainer. I am the hardest worker amongst hard workers in my building. I wish to be informed of the intricacies and not just the grey areas contained in the contract. I have a lot of questions that need answers about the little things and wish to be informed. Please, PM me a phone # or method for real time chat and give me some of your time. I will pass what I can along to others and we will see what happens.

 

[menotyou]

Time for some of you to put your money where your mouths are! I am not a whiner, nor a complainer. I am the hardest worker amongst hard workers in my building. I wish to be informed of the intricacies and not just the grey areas contained in the contract. I have a lot of questions that need answers about the little things and wish to be informed. Please, PM me a phone # or method for real time chat and give me some of your time. I will pass what I can along to others and we will see what happens.

No offense, but why do we have to do anything? You know the players here. Contact any steward you can, and find a way the you can start things changing at your center.

 

[uber]

The strength of the union is different from local to local. I'm glad I work in a super tight union here in Portland, Oregon. Local 162. Nobody screws us blatantly and gets away with it.

What part of the country are you in Swords?

 

[anonymous4]

Why should you help me? Because you are the ones telling me not to whine and to take action to better our union. My stewards don't exist. We have interm stewards who are clueless. I know more than them and I don't know much. Again, you want to call me a whiner yet when I ask for advice you turn me away? Hypocrites, the lot of you.

 

[anonymous4]

Zags, New England.

 

[CRASH501]

Why should you help me? Because you are the ones telling me not to whine and to take action to better our union. My stewards don't exist. We have interm stewards who are clueless. I know more than them and I don't know much. Again, you want to call me a whiner yet when I ask for advice you turn me away? Hypocrites, the lot of you.

.
I never called you a whiner, I clearly stated ba[[ess guys like you are why our locals are weak!.
if your steward sux, "RUN AGAINST
HIM"!

 

[menotyou]

Why should you help me? Because you are the ones telling me not to whine and to take action to better our union. My stewards don't exist. We have interm stewards who are clueless. I know more than them and I don't know much. Again, you want to call me a whiner yet when I ask for advice you turn me away? Hypocrites, the lot of you.

I am sorry for using the phrase that included whining. My local is nonexistent, basically. I had to learn how to stand up for myself in a union/corporate environment. If your having issues, you need to start putting it in writing. make sure you cc all correspondence with your local union hall to your state's teamster council. If your BA thinks you are telling his bosses that you can't get any help in your center, they will come down on him. I have witnessed Business Agents taken out of the office and fired on the spot. It can happen. It shouldn't come to that, though. Put everything in writing. If you have a conversation with your steward in which he won't help, write down exactly what happened and what your steward did and forward that to your local with a cc to the state council. Keep doing that. It will get noticed. I promise. I am willing to help you. Pm me where you are and I will research for you, if you don't have the time to do it yourself. I am willing to help in any fashion I can. Whatever you need, swords. Just let me know.