How UPS has nearly destroyed my life...

[ZeroCool1995]

You can call me Paul and this is my story at UPS and how today I am struggling to get by.

I joined UPS almost a year ago. I quit a fulltime job and took a pay cut to work here because of the oppertunities and I thought UPS cared about its work force.After the first two months I had averaged 100 pieces per hour more then what was asked of me 150 pieces per hour over the Hub average. This along with the fact that I have never been late or missed a day got me near fulltime hours extreamly quick.

I was raised that if you work hard you will be rewarded so I took that attituied with me to UPS and at first I thought I my hard work was paying off. I had been warned by some friends that worked at UPS that it was differnet here that "the harder you work the harder they will work you" I sonn began to see that as I was being taken of my load to help others and then to close out up to 12 trucks for the last hour of the day by my self.

They decieded that insted of me helping the same person everyday that I would just take his heaviest truck. At this point I thinks its important to tell yu that I am not a big guy in fact im rather small stand 5'9 130-135 doing a all industrial city 1200-1600 with the average box wieght being 30lbs. Eregs often where heavier then I.
This is where the trouble began.

I told my sup that I felt that this was to much wieght for me but he assured me I would get help when I needed it. LOL I should have got that in writting. My piece count drop drastically with the extra truck. At the same time I was watching the guy next to me with only 3 trucks who started his load before me with have 2 people helping him. He was not a small guy.

After about a month or 2 of this I began having pain in one of my arms. I told my sup about it and was told to go see my own doctor. Now its peak and Im working 8-10 hours a day then going to school for 4 hours. Finally peak ends and I get my insuranse all cleared away and can go see a doctor. He said I may have torn ligaments in my arm and need atleast 2 weeks of light duty. So i go back to work with the doctors note and they tell me I cant do light duty because I saw my own doctor. I tell them that they told me to and I get a sorry cant help. So never being hurt before on the job and never being in a Union before I took two weeks off of work.

I came back to work and almost after picking up the first box the pain came shooting back. I stoped working but didnt see my sup I thoguht Id actually see what my union said. From the shop stewrd to the sup to the manager to the saftey guy to the head manager we went. I had reported it when it first happened so after long talks I was takin to the doctors. 6 more weeks light duty but now I would be getting paid sorta.

2 weeks without pay 4 weeks of 2.5-3 hours and oh yes because I was doing a skilled job they took a dollar away from my hourly pay because I'm not doing that job. So I went from 35-50 hours a week at $10 a hour to 10-15 hours a week at $9 a hour. I have taken such a drastic lose in my wages that I couldnt pay for my next semester tuition. I have had to drian my bank account to pay for rent and all the extra gas form driving to the doctors and phisical theropy nearly everyday. In fact while i still have over 2 weeks of physical theropy left I had to ask my docotr for a early release because I wont be able to make my car insurance next week with out working more hours so abck to work I go pain and all and all for nothing. 6 weeks still not better 6 weeks of lost wages and for what? This is how UPS takes care of its hard workers? Some one show me that list of best companies to work for.

I write this in anger and in hope that people will read this and realize that we hub workers make great sacrifices for this company and deserve more.
I live in California where it is likely the minimum wage in the state will be higher then the wages in the new contract. How can I make it to driver or managment if I can hardly afford to eat more then once a day. Don't you wonder why you turnover rate is so high? Working graveyard shift and near minimum wage hours is hard. You can do more with those 6 billion in profits and so can the Teamsters

Paul
Sory about poor spelling and grammer it was hard to type this all with one hand.

[ImpactedTSG]

Originally Posted by ZeroCool1995

I was raised that if you work hard you will be rewarded so I took that attituied with me to UPS

Here's a little secret. At UPS its all about seniority not how good of a job you do. That is the "union mentality". Also being a minority doesn't hurt if you are interested in management.

Look at the bright side,you learned this lesson and where UPS places any value on you within your first year. Get yourself on comp until your healed and then put UPS in your rearview mirror because it will NEVER get any better.

[brett636]

You have learned a valuable lesson in that the harder you work, the more hard work you are rewarded with. Now I have no problem with doing a good job. I will do my personal best everyday when I go to work, but it sounds like you went beyond just working hard. You allowed your supervisors to walk all over you with accepting so much work. I work hard, but my supervisors respect me and know better than to abuse me.

[jds4lunch]

It didn't take me long to learn that at UPS the harder you work, the more work you have to do. Now don't get me wrong, I am by far not the laziest driver in my centre and I don't mind doing my share of the workload, but somedays management is just plain rediculous. I always keep this in the back of my mind and everytime I get constant pages from office personel reminding me that I have to hurry so they can dump more work on me before it's time to go home, I think to myself "where is my motivation?". Just remember this next time your sup is up your ass to do more than your share of the workload:

"Barring a nuclear holocaust, those buisnesses will be open again tomorrow...and if there is one, well we won't be able to deliver to them, now will we?"

[Cementups]

^^^^like when I send in a messge saying I'm not going to make 9.5 and a half hour later I get a message saying to make sure I call in when I'm done because my fellow coworkers need help. God luck with that

[over9five]

First mistake:

"...and I thought UPS cared about its work force."


Second mistake:

"I had been warned by some friends..."

Why wouldn't you listen to your friends????


Third (biggest) mistake:

"I thoguht Id actually see what my union said."

Why in the world did you wait to do this?? You should have done this FIRST!!!!
Get yourself healed and move on. UPS is not the place for people like you. No offense, but your working that hard is gonna get you injured (like it did). The runners and gunners always end up hurt.

[Fnix]

I work hard and then when they give me more work I just slow down. Thats all you need to do.

[disneyworld]

Take advantage of the tuition reimbursment at UPS.

[steamroll]

Originally Posted by ImpactedTSG

Here's a little secret. At UPS its all about seniority not how good of a job you do. That is the "union mentality". Also being a minority doesn't hurt if you are interested in management.

welcome to the world of a union shop. look at the collective bargaining agreement regarding seniority. i guess it was designed to eliminate favortisim. what's is a minority to you? are you referring to people of color? in the part time ranks they get promoted, as some get promoted to full time. you see less & less. it's just the good ol' boy network of corporate america.

[Fnix]

There are alot of minorities in UPS. Many hold high positions of Division and District roles on up.

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

Work hard and when more work comes to you, slow down a bit. supervisors, managers, etc will try to intimidate, belittle and outright threaten you; but it doesn't matter in the end because they can't make you work faster. only you can make yourself work faster.

There are no numbers in the contract, so when you're performing below the "average load" or aren't meeting their numbers, they'll just move you if it isn't satisfactory and they find out you aren't flexible and fall into their trap.

[ImpactedTSG]

Originally Posted by steamroll

what's is a minority to you?

Non-white males. Our district was full of excellent white males that got passed over for women, asians, blacks with a lot less experience or ability. Minorites in management is a balanced scorecard element so you can't tell me that it has impact on who gets promoted.

[big_arrow_up]

Originally Posted by ImpactedTSG

Non-white males. Our district was full of excellent white males that got passed over for women, asians, blacks with a lot less experience or ability. Minorites in management is a balanced scorecard element so you can't tell me that it has impact on who gets promoted.

How do you think UPS get's it's praises for hiring minorities? When I first started at UPS (10 years ago) the HR people spent plenty of time showing off UPS's awards for hiring so many. The kept calling it "diversity" but those of us that sees it for what it really is calls it discrimination.

I tell the other cover drivers...just walk everything at a pace do not run!!! This will keep you from running over 1 hour under everyday. Try to keep yourself at .3 to .5 over, they never say anything about that and it helps your stop count. Also you are making upto $20 day more times 5 is ....$100 per week!! All for walking makes sence doesn't it!!!!

[jds4lunch]

Originally Posted by big_arrow_up

How do you think UPS get's it's praises for hiring minorities? When I first started at UPS (10 years ago) the HR people spent plenty of time showing off UPS's awards for hiring so many. The kept calling it "diversity" but those of us that sees it for what it really is calls it discrimination.

Let me ask you this: If a white person was hired over a minority, the minority might cry racism. Now could a white person play the race card if the shoe was on the other foot? Absolutley not. I'm not being racist here, I'm just saying that there is a double standard here. Am I wrong?

[over9five]

Originally Posted by jds4lunch

Am I wrong?

No.

You whiteys are full of bull****!

[toonertoo]

Originally Posted by jds4lunch

Let me ask you this: If a white person was hired over a minority, the minority might cry racism. Now could a white person play the race card if the shoe was on the other foot? Absolutley not. I'm not being racist here, I'm just saying that there is a double standard here. Am I wrong?

No. It is called reverse discrimination. And there isnt a thing you can do about it.

[toonertoo]

Originally Posted by Anonymous one

You whiteys are full of bull****!

Register and have a real discussion.

[tieguy]

Some honest feedback

1) you've worked here for less then a year. Many fine upsers have done tough jobs a lot longer. I'm not sure what you expected fromt his company after working a p/t job for less then a year.

2) With injuries there has to be a specific event. Wear and tear causing ripped tendons does not normally happen with most people after working for us for less then a year. The fact that you ended up getting some light duty out of this is unusual. We don't generally do that. Someone must have liked you or thought they owed you something. Union representation in this case would still normally be a loser because we don't normally provide light duty for what is basically classified as normal wear and tear.

3) Perhaps you had some other hard jobs that contributed to your ripped tendons before you came to work at ups? If not then you should seriously consider leaving ups. Its not usual to rip tendons in so little time. You may have a physical body structure that is not compatible with this type of work.

[Dirty Savage]

Originally Posted by jds4lunch

Let me ask you this: If a white person was hired over a minority, the minority might cry racism. Now could a white person play the race card if the shoe was on the other foot? Absolutley not. I'm not being racist here, I'm just saying that there is a double standard here. Am I wrong?

Nope, absolutely not.