Do Union Stewards make good UPS mgmt. personnel

[Big Duke 6]

What are your experiences with union stewards making the jump to mgmt. ie.
H.R. personnel,Loss & prevention, Ops. supervisor, etc...

Are these individuals frowned upon by their brothers and sisters?
What would the District managers think of this move?
Who would benefit from the long term (14 yrs) steward being in mgmt.
The Union or The Company(relationship with both can be shaky at times).
I am looking for your thoughts on this issue.

Thanx in advance.

 

[New Englander]

Depends upon the steward. If you were an ass to management it would be a pretty stupid move.

Pretty stupid move fro ma stewards point if he went into management then started violating the contract as "he would know better".

Seems like a lose lose.

 

[HEFFERNAN]

How 'bout this scenario

He gets hired into management.
After 3 months, gets fired for no reason.
It's called downsizing to UPS, union can't help you anymore

Your only course of reaction could be to become a business agent at your local to get back at them. That's if you didn't burn your bridges.

 

[NJ12hrday]

Only a sh**y steward would ever think of that move.

 

[trickpony1]

It would be a feather in management's cap as far as psych ops go.
The now "not represented" populace would be undermined.

Management would get the feeling sorts like the feeling you get during a chess game when you say, "check".

 

[MD Dan]

Hard to imagine a dedicated shop steward going into management where it would be his job to enforce unrealistic performance standards and to find ways to get rid of "underperformers". Also hard to imagine someone who has seen how unreasonably lower management is treated would put him/herself in that position.

 

[Camping Nana]

If I remember correctly, many years ago - a mgmt person told someone I know that they liked to promote stewards because it indicated leadership capabilities.....???? Of course, this was some time back when all mgmt personnel was promoted from within.

I never really understood that concept of promoting someone who fought mgmt tooth and nail and suddenly are their best friend. They would pass over good people who were loyal and hard-working - to promote some guy who had given them grief for years.... I'll have to stop to think about how many of those people are still in mgmt....

 

[705red]

The question here is why would a 14 year steward be interested in going in to management?

As a veteran employee with at least 14 years under his belt at least as a steward he should know that management people are not allowed to think on their own. While some might be capable of making a minor decision here and there from time to time, their job is as scripted as a movie that we watch.

During our last contract negotiations a lot of employees showed up at the contract meetings in support of bidding down language. We addressed this here so now when a package driver cant do package any more because of his/her body being destroyed from years of package they can now bid down in to 22.3's, porter jobs, etc giving them the additional time to reach their pension goals.

Out side of not being able to do the job any more i do not see any positives that come out of going in to management, you will actually have to wait longer in most cases to retire, and while you think the hours are long in package at least we get paid overtime while the sup gets a salary that can not compare to what we make.

Now if he was going in to a labor management job, maybe he would be better at that because he would have an upper hand to argue his cases against the union agent/stewards, which in turn would be nothing short of stabbing the very people he defended over his 14 years, this is what you call a smack in the face!

I would never do it!

 

[Babagounj]

I recall we have one do it some years ago, can't say I've seen him anywhere for quite sometime.

 

[dannyboy]

Personally, I think that it should not happen.

We had one several years back. Was never really that much as a shop steward. Represented me several times, a hubcap had more intelligent responses to management violations. Happens when the BA appoints those buddys instead of members electing those that have the desire to represent them properly.

When one does go into management, all his cases should get a review to make sure he did not sell out cases to management to get his promotion. That would have opened a lot of eyes here.

Anyway, as a sup he was one of the most reviled managers I can remember. And he always tried to cross the contract line, after all he was an "expert" in where that line was.

So in this case, it was a bad scene having him as a steward, made into a nightmare by his Ascension to the throne of management, where he misused the power UPS gave him.

He finally got transfered up into another state and then forced into retirement.

I would also suspect there would be issues surrounding confidentiality issues as well.

d

 

[anonymous6]

You were around during the 97 strike and are considering going into management?

I don't wanna know you.

Sicilians never forget

 

[Big Duke 6]

Thank you for your input. I feel the same way, all of it.

 

[trplnkl]

We had a steward go into management, you could tell almost immediately when he put his letter in. His attitude about questions from other members changed, his approach became wishy-washy and to get a grievance filed you had to go through one of the other stewards. I had a smae problem come up right after his letter went in and I refused to let him represent me. He asked me why in front of the center manager and I told him strait up that I no longer felt I could trust him because of his obvious conflict of interest. He lasted almost two years as an OC sup before he got himself in a jam that made his future with UPS a little cloudy and he resigned.