A possible MLK Holiday Solution?

[noril]

I have been following the contract updates and it is my understanding that making MLK Day a holiday is one unresolved issue.

I believe that anyone who really and truly wants to have MLK Day off should be granted their wish.

That said, I also respect the reasons against pausing all operations at UPS for yet another day since this past Labor Day, traditionally one of the "major holidays" I saw Amazon drivers out delivering.

The solution I am informally proposing here, speaking for no one other than myself, but hoping to win other people over, is to have an additional discretionary day added to the contract which someone may choose to take on MLK day, or any other occasion, or receive a payout for the day at the end of the year.

As a general rule, I believe that the more options we give each other, the better off we will all be ultimately.

Some time ago, I started a thread asking if those in leadership at UPS or the IBT check out what is being posted here. Right now, I am really hoping they do though I am curious what even people who aren't in leadership think of my idea...and I figure I will find out soon enough...

 

[bumped]

I have been following the contract updates and it is my understanding that making MLK Day a holiday is one unresolved issue.

I believe that anyone who really and truly wants to have MLK Day off should be granted their wish.

That said, I also respect the reasons against pausing all operations at UPS for yet another day since this past Labor Day, traditionally one of the "major holidays" I saw Amazon drivers out delivering.

The solution I am informally proposing here, speaking for no one other than myself, but hoping to win other people over, is to have an additional discretionary day added to the contract which someone may choose to take on MLK day, or any other occasion, or receive a payout for the day at the end of the year.

As a general rule, I believe that the more options we give each other, the better off we will all be ultimately.

Some time ago, I started a thread asking if those in leadership at UPS or the IBT check out what is being posted here. Right now, I am really hoping they do though I am curious what even people who aren't in leadership think of my idea...and I figure I will find out soon enough...

In my center only 1 driver is approved a personal day each day. In your scenario would you allow for instance, 50% of the drivers off if they chose to take MLK Day off?

 

[noril]

You raise a valid concern... 50% of the drivers taking a day off would surely create problems, but something even as high as 25%, I believe would be manageable. We get little spikes in volume right around Mothers' Day, or Valentines Day, or Amazon Prime Days where people end up doing some serious overtime and it all somehow works out. In this case, it would be a getting through a day of normal volume with a smaller staff.

Though its a bit speculative on my part, I don't believe there are all that many people who have a burning desire to get MLK Day off. And I can totally see where pausing operations for another day when our competition is working is not a good road to be going down either.

 

[R1wonder]

I certainly don’t think the strike will happen because of mlk day . But let them try and get us an extra day lol. Bargaining ammo . I’d love day after thanksgiving back

 

[542thruNthru]

So wait. Let me make sure I got this right. You're hoping that the big wigs are reading this and your idea is... "anyone that really wants the day off should get it."

Someone get this man to the negotiation tables immediately!

 

[PT Car Washer]

You raise a valid concern... 50% of the drivers taking a day off would surely create problems, but something even as high as 25%, I believe would be manageable. We get little spikes in volume right around Mothers' Day, or Valentines Day, or Amazon Prime Days where people end up doing some serious overtime and it all somehow works out. In this case, it would be a getting through a day of normal volume with a smaller staff.

Though its a bit speculative on my part, I don't believe there are all that many people who have a burning desire to get MLK Day off. And I can totally see where pausing operations for another day when our competition is working is not a good road to be going down either.

In my building 25% of hourlies taking the day off would be such a disaster that UPS would have management from across the Midwest coming in to bail us out.

 

[retired2000]

My vote is to get Veterans Day off

 

[UnionStrong]

I have been following the contract updates and it is my understanding that making MLK Day a holiday is one unresolved issue.

I believe that anyone who really and truly wants to have MLK Day off should be granted their wish.

That said, I also respect the reasons against pausing all operations at UPS for yet another day since this past Labor Day, traditionally one of the "major holidays" I saw Amazon drivers out delivering.

The solution I am informally proposing here, speaking for no one other than myself, but hoping to win other people over, is to have an additional discretionary day added to the contract which someone may choose to take on MLK day, or any other occasion, or receive a payout for the day at the end of the year.

As a general rule, I believe that the more options we give each other, the better off we will all be ultimately.

Some time ago, I started a thread asking if those in leadership at UPS or the IBT check out what is being posted here. Right now, I am really hoping they do though I am curious what even people who aren't in leadership think of my idea...and I figure I will find out soon enough...

You saw Amazon delivering on Labor Day because they don’t have a union.

 

[noril]

So wait. Let me make sure I got this right. You're hoping that the big wigs are reading this and your idea is... "anyone that really wants the day off should get it."

Someone get this man to the negotiation tables immediately!

I detect some sarcasm... Here is what I am saying... In years past I have tried to get certain days off that were really important to me and found the supervisors reasonably accomodating though sometimes I have had to be more assertive... For me it was days like Good Friday or an occasional day to take care of some personal matter...

Just as I hope the company would accomodate a Jewish person wanting the Yom Kippur holiday off, so I figure a person who said MLK Day was personally very important as a day off would be accomodated.

What I am really advocating for at the negotiating table is that an extra discretionary day be given in the new contract...for use on MLK Day or any other day of an employee's choosing. This gives employees more flexibility and doesn't pause operations at UPS.

 

[UnionStrong]

I detect some sarcasm

Clever

 

[noril]

My vote is to get Veterans Day off

If my idea were adopted, you could make the choice to select Veterans Day instead of MLK Day.

 

[noril]

You saw Amazon delivering on Labor Day because they don’t have a union.

Good point, but I also saw Amazon delivering because we increasingly live in a "I want my stuff right now society" and I think it is unwise for us to just ignore that reality and add another day off for the whole company

 

[UnionStrong]

Good point, but I also saw Amazon delivering because we increasingly live in a "I want my stuff right now society" and I think it is unwise for us to just ignore that reality and add another day off for the whole company

You can sign up for Sunday delivery too. I saw Amazon on Sunday.

 

[noril]

I certainly don’t think the strike will happen because of mlk day . But let them try and get us an extra day lol. Bargaining ammo . I’d love day after thanksgiving back

I like the ammo metaphor...I am just concerned that we not use up too much ammo pushing for MLK Day so that there ends up not being enough ammo left for what I think are more important issues

 

[noril]

You can sign up for Sunday delivery too. I saw Amazon on Sunday.

And maybe Sunday delivery will come to UPS...In my mind the bigger concern with UPS is the excessive overtime rather than which particular days of the week one has to work

 

[UnionStrong]

And maybe Sunday delivery will come to UPS...In my mind the bigger concern with UPS is the excessive overtime rather than which particular days of the week one has to work

Excessive OT has always been a problem. It’s a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon.

 

[PT Car Washer]

Excessive OT has always been a problem. It’s a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon.

The Union and the company just agreed to pass the excessive OT over to lower paid 22.4 delivery drivers.

 

[Cementups]

We have a sup who, when he was a driver, said that we should have Juneteenth off and Juneteenth and MLK were more important than having Memorial Day or Labor Day off. I was like, you do know that without recognizing people who sacrificed their lives for your freedoms on days like Memorial Day, we don’t have discussions about civil rights and such. He didn’t understand that concept.

That being said, be careful wheat you wish for because we will lose something else in return. We are already on the verge of losing Black Friday and it will be a normal paid day.

 

[R1wonder]

Sysco just got mlk day . But ups doesn’t like to stop the operation . They’ll say no , but they’ll say ok we want this then.

 

[noril]

In my building 25% of hourlies taking the day off would be such a disaster that UPS would have management from across the Midwest coming in to bail us out.

A lot of routes get broken out on Monday compared to the other days of the week as it is now.

What people say they want and then what people end up really doing is often two different things. Maybe 25% of people taking the day off might be a disaster, but people can still call in, and we don't have a huge spike in call ins as it is now on MLK Day so quietly adding another discretionary day to the contract might just be a good solution for everyone