How bad will the next master contract be?

I was hired in late 2013 on the last contract before this current one. I got really screwed and at the time I was a dumb 18 year old kid who thought working for a union was everything. Turns out after months of studying and finding out the real truth, teamsters and ups both suck. I had to wait over a year to get my benefits and still have not gotten a raise. I just had gotten my benefits in December and they are okay I suppose for a part timer. But talking to people with seniority with 20 plus years they said that with each contract it gets worse and worse. I mean hell I'm making 11 an hour for 3 and a half hours a day. I mean come on what is that extra half hour to make it four hours a day. I just want to quit because it's not at all worth it, my back hurts so bad and I'm working for peanuts. I have no choice but to stay though because being a driver is a good gig but what else am I going to do. Go to college and rack up debt? And also be brainwashed by a liberal college professor? Any thoughts?
 

HardknocksUPSer

Well-Known Member
Go to college and get a degree, rack up debt, get out of college and have a hard time finding a job for what you got a degree in, meanwhile your still in debt, ahhhh screw it just stay at UPS, I'm kinda in the same boat as you, I wana drive one day, I don't want to go to college, UPS is a slow painful uneasy job with 4hrs of work a day, I guess just buckle up and hang in there, find a 2nd job till you go full time, then you'll be able to make that big paper $$ all the older guys at my center tell me to go back to school and get a degree because UPS could fire me at any point in time for whatever they want to, and then I'm screwed, but I guess it's a gamble you have to take. Tomorrow's another day.
 

Oak

Well-Known Member
.....I had to wait over a year to get my benefits and still have not gotten a raise.

I mean hell I'm making 11 an hour....

my back hurts so bad and I'm working for peanuts.

If you're currently making $11 hourly, you have gotten a raise since being hired in late 2013.

If your back hurts, you're not lifting correctly.
 

Jackburton

Gone Fish'n
I was hired in late 2013 on the last contract before this current one. I got really screwed and at the time I was a dumb 18 year old kid who thought working for a union was everything. Turns out after months of studying and finding out the real truth, teamsters and ups both suck. I had to wait over a year to get my benefits and still have not gotten a raise. I just had gotten my benefits in December and they are okay I suppose for a part timer. But talking to people with seniority with 20 plus years they said that with each contract it gets worse and worse. I mean hell I'm making 11 an hour for 3 and a half hours a day. I mean come on what is that extra half hour to make it four hours a day. I just want to quit because it's not at all worth it, my back hurts so bad and I'm working for peanuts. I have no choice but to stay though because being a driver is a good gig but what else am I going to do. Go to college and rack up debt? And also be brainwashed by a liberal college professor? Any thoughts?
You failed at "the benefits are ok for a part timer". Name somewhere else with these kind of bennies for a pt job, I dare you. As for everyone complaining about the contracts getting worse, UPS could :censored2: gold eggs on the trucks dash every morning for a driver and some would still complain. Look around at other jobs and get some perspective, UPS isn't bad for the compensation.
 

Mugarolla

Light 'em up!
I was hired in late 2013 on the last contract before this current one. I got really screwed and at the time I was a dumb 18 year old kid who thought working for a union was everything. Turns out after months of studying and finding out the real truth, teamsters and ups both suck. I had to wait over a year to get my benefits and still have not gotten a raise. I just had gotten my benefits in December and they are okay I suppose for a part timer. But talking to people with seniority with 20 plus years they said that with each contract it gets worse and worse. I mean hell I'm making 11 an hour for 3 and a half hours a day. I mean come on what is that extra half hour to make it four hours a day. I just want to quit because it's not at all worth it, my back hurts so bad and I'm working for peanuts. I have no choice but to stay though because being a driver is a good gig but what else am I going to do. Go to college and rack up debt? And also be brainwashed by a liberal college professor? Any thoughts?
That extra half hour is $5.50 extra that UPS does not need to pay. They only need 3 1/2 hours of work from you. They do not have more work to give you.

Now multiply that $5.50 times the thousands of PT employees and that becomes a staggering amount of money. If they had to pay every PTer 4 hours, stock would take another 10% hit.

There are places where PTers get more than the 3 1/2 hour guarantee, but does not look like it in your case.

Stick around. Things could change. Or not.
 

llamainmypocket

Well-Known Member
Oh, kids.

Scoring insurance for a 20 hour gig with career potential, job security, and rules regarding your treatment is a pretty sweet deal. How did you think life was supposed to work? Major in liberal arts and pick up a job out of college for 80k a year? No sir. You got to earn your keep in the real world. UPS will let you do that. That's more than any old college education can guarantee.
 

sailfish

Master of Karate and Friendship for Everyone
It's true UPSers are better off than most, but it is still naive to not agree that the contracts keep getting worse and worse. And who knows where they could end up twenty years from now.
 

nayrsiem

Well-Known Member
Either man up and stop complaining about how hard the job is or quit. Full benefits for a part time gig is rare. Is it all rainbows and butterflies at UPS? No. But it's pretty good compared to what else is out there. I worked the preload for 7 years while maintaining another full time job before I went full time driving. It can be done.
 

UPS4Life

Well-Known Member
I was hired in late 2013 on the last contract before this current one. I got really screwed and at the time I was a dumb 18 year old kid who thought working for a union was everything. Turns out after months of studying and finding out the real truth, teamsters and ups both suck. I had to wait over a year to get my benefits and still have not gotten a raise. I just had gotten my benefits in December and they are okay I suppose for a part timer. But talking to people with seniority with 20 plus years they said that with each contract it gets worse and worse. I mean hell I'm making 11 an hour for 3 and a half hours a day. I mean come on what is that extra half hour to make it four hours a day. I just want to quit because it's not at all worth it, my back hurts so bad and I'm working for peanuts. I have no choice but to stay though because being a driver is a good gig but what else am I going to do. Go to college and rack up debt? And also be brainwashed by a liberal college professor? Any thoughts?
Sounds like you want a full time job handed to you.... You should probably just quit while your ahead. If you started late 2013 is it possible you were seasonal and don't get your yearly until January or February of 2015?

You're 20 making roughly 11.50 an hour getting FREE benefits. Try pricing those out once and find another job comparable.

The kids I went to school with who were to good to start at $8.50/hr that went out and got a 14$/hr job max out at 16$ and get laid off in the summer or winter.

FedEx is hiring at $12.75 to start why not try there?


Sent using BrownCafe App
 

wage EARNER

Well-Known Member
With solid organizing, steadfast leadership, and the determination that made the teamsters great, we will definitely get a jar of vaseline with the next contract.
 

Morsi

Active Member
I dont think he ever said a thing about being handed anything he was just talking about a well known fact that all of us know which is that UPS and the union constantly screw us over for their own benefit. Zepphead i cant tell you what to do as far as your life is concerned. What i do know, is that no employee owe this company a damn thing as hard as we slave in the trenches everyday if anything the exact opposite is true. My best advice; work at your own pace, pay attention whenever a sup is trying to screw you over I.E dont sign anything except your W2s and use the union grievence process whenever nessesary. But most importantly make friends find ways to have fun even when it seems impossible. It helps me out alot whenever im feelin bored and or tired of all the bs and preserve some kind of sanity.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
I wouldn't count on your contracts getting any better as long as people are willing to vote for "the first offer". Those who didn't vote at all ---go lay down. You have no reason to complain.
 

raceanoncr

Well-Known Member
Good, better or worse...my question to the OP is this:

Are you IN the union, and, if so, DID YOU VOTE?

If you are and you voted...fine.

If you are or are NOT and DIDN'T VOTE....I don't want to hear any complaints.
 
Top