LF friendly Steward to answer a question

[sciatic]

Hello,
I'm a cover driver in a very small center. We only have 1 steward and although hes a cool guy, hes very young ( age and experience ). So i hope someone can answer this 4 me.
Okay... we have one combo guy in our center. He took his vacation last week, and i did his route. I look at my pay check this week and was stunned to see i got paid my pre-load pay for doing his route. I talked to the center manager Friday and he said 'You are only a helper when you do that route, since you are not driving'.
I called my steward about it and he said i should of been paid my cover pay. Now since my cover pay is 14 more dollars an hour ( not including the 6 hours of OT ) ill be happy. But i noticed that helpers get over 2 dollars more an hour in the offseason than my usual cover pay.
So the question is ...where do i stand, what should be my pay-rate? pre-load,cover, off-season helper?
I appreciate any advice, thank you.

 

[DS]

I think your center manager is full of crap.You should get your preload pay while preloading,and driver pay for driving.Your immediate sup should have showed you how to code it properly in the diad to get the higher rate.
Grieve it ASAP.

 

[UPSGUY72]

If your driving you should be getting driver pay. You should be getting cover driver rate at where ever your are in your progression.

Antways when you sign on to your DIAD and put your Name and ID# make sure its say D for driver. But as it sounds your PT SUP thinks they know more than they actually do and changed this on you.

See your center manager and have this corrected.

Do you have a UNION BOOK ?? YOu should have gotten a new one last year. If not get one and read it. The more you know the better off your going to be. It won't tell you everything but it will give you a good start.

 

[sciatic]

Thank you both for your replies. I do have a meeting with the steward and center manager set up for Monday morning ( i will ask steward for the handbook ). Now both of you mentioned driving. I didn't drive last week.I dont know what combo guy does in other centers, but in mine the 1 combo loads his own truck and then is a helper to the driver till he gets his 8 or 9. So really i didn't drive at all. When i meet the center manager on monday should i grieve for the off-season helper rate which is what 27 or my cover which is 25. Thanks again for any advice.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Thank you both for your replies. I do have a meeting with the steward and center manager set up for Monday morning ( i will ask steward for the handbook ). Now both of you mentioned driving. I didn't drive last week.I dont know what combo guy does in other centers, but in mine the 1 combo loads his own truck and then is a helper to the driver till he gets his 8 or 9. So really i didn't drive at all. When i meet the center manager on monday should i grieve for the off-season helper rate which is what 27 or my cover which is 25. Thanks again for any advice.

This is not what you said in your OP. Your center manager may be correct.

 

[DS]

Usually a combo job involves preloading and delivering air.Sorry if I misintrepreted this.Driver helper pay may be higher than preloading where you are,at the least,you should have seen the 6 hours @ time and a half on your check.

 

[UPSGUY72]

Hello,
I'm a cover driver in a very small center. We only have 1 steward and although hes a cool guy, hes very young ( age and experience ). So i hope someone can answer this 4 me.
Okay... we have one combo guy in our center. He took his vacation last week, and i did his route. I look at my pay check this week and was stunned to see i got paid my pre-load pay for doing his route. I talked to the center manager Friday and he said 'You are only a helper when you do that route, since you are not driving'.
I called my steward about it and he said i should of been paid my cover pay. Now since my cover pay is 14 more dollars an hour ( not including the 6 hours of OT ) ill be happy. But i noticed that helpers get over 2 dollars more an hour in the offseason than my usual cover pay.
So the question is ...where do i stand, what should be my pay-rate? pre-load,cover, off-season helper?
I appreciate any advice, thank you.

Thank you both for your replies. I do have a meeting with the steward and center manager set up for Monday morning ( i will ask steward for the handbook ). Now both of you mentioned driving. I didn't drive last week.I dont know what combo guy does in other centers, but in mine the 1 combo loads his own truck and then is a helper to the driver till he gets his 8 or 9. So really i didn't drive at all. When i meet the center manager on monday should i grieve for the off-season helper rate which is what 27 or my cover which is 25. Thanks again for any advice.

You whould really read both of your post because the first one sounds as if your actually did a route ie delivered packages.

I'm comfused are you a full time cover driver. Or do you work most of your time loading trucks and cover drive once in a while. I suspect its the latter if your not driving (ie sitting in a seat shifting gears your not getting cover driver pay).

 

[UnconTROLLed]

He covered a combo employee that loads a truck, then is a driver helper for the reg driver.

Therefore you do not get driver pay because you did not drive. You get helper pay.

That may or may not be in your contract, but it sounds right.

 

[sciatic]

First again thank you for the replies.Sorry if my first post implied that i was driving. The only sentence that i think implies that i drove was 'He took his vacation last week, and i did his route'. Like i have said i am from a small center (only have one belt).We only have that one combo guy ,who loads his truck then helps the driver till he gets his eight.I thought that was what a combo guy does.DS--thank you for the info about combo guys just doing preload and airs.Since my center is so small we dont have daily air drivers...if thats what u meant....
If my background helps here it is : i am the second in cover seniority and the second in pre-load seniority. I have driven almost everyday since November, with maybe 10 pre-load shifts since then. Last week i preloaded the combo guy's truck, then went out with driver. Yes i understand that i should get paid preload rate those first 3 hours i loaded, its the 5-7 hours i was helping the driver that i am unsure about.
To upstatenyupser..You think center manager is right? even if i was a helper, its off season and in my center theres teamster memos on the wall and one says off-season helper pay is 27+..my preload is just under 12..i dont know if that 27/hour is different in other cities, but doesnt pay go up if u help off season.
To Upsguy72.. we dont have any full-time cover drivers at our center.
Again ,Thank you all for your time, sorry i had to clarify things more.

 

[sciatic]

sleeve --thank you

 

[JonFrum]

Sciatic,

Sounds like you are under a Supplement that allows off-season Driver's Helpers, and pays them pretty well too! My Supplement only allows Driver's Helpers during Peak and they only get $9.50 if hired from the outside. Current part-time UPSers used as additional Driver's Helpers get $11.00. This $11.00 rate is new in this Contract and UPS uses outsiders first. Not sure if any insiders have even gotten the new $11.00 rate.

The UPS Master Agreement & Regional Supplements are here:
http://tdu.org/node/1617

Incidentally, although an Article 22.3 Combo person has a split pay rate for each of his two segments, you are not an Article 22.3 person, even when covering for one. Here in my area, the New England Supplement says if you work at two pay rates during the day, and are not an Article 22.3 person, you get the higher pay rate all day long. Maybe your Supplement has similar language?

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

There is no way they are going to give you $27/hr to sit in a jump seat and run off some pkgs. You were paid your preload rate and, if this is the higher of the two, this is the rate that you should have been paid. Sorry to burst your bubble but if your center is paying $27/hr to be a helper please let me know where I can apply.

 

[dannyboy]

.I called my steward about it and he said i should of been paid my cover pay.

Lets see, you called your steward, who knows your situation better than anyone else on this board, and by the sounds of your posts, better than even you, and you are asking for advice here?

If I were your steward, I would recommend you get your "adviser" from the BC to represent you in front of the center manager.

He already told you what to expect under your area's contract. And yet you posted it here, where no one knows what contract supplement you are under?

You remind me of a customer a couple of years ago. Wanted to build a beautiful pond in front of the house. Had me come out to give him an estimate. I even wrote the specs for him if he wanted to do it himself.

He got on the internet and found this "expert". He never knew the guys real name, but he decided to do it his way. Got it built, and we were contracted to fill it. Pumped close to 3 million gallons from the creek. As it was near full, it blew a hole that night. 1.5 million gallons gone in 4-5 hours. Talk about pissed off neighbors who ended up with muddy water in their basements.

So we pumped it out, and he did it again, per the expert's advice. This time it blew before it was full, in another spot.

This happened 4 more times. All on the advice of an internet expert.

several of these holes are pictured below. Bottom line was that he spent almost 3 times what it would have cost to have us to it right the first time, and now with all that money spent, it will forever only be half way full.

Deal with the steward. He is the one that knows best your situation. If he does not represent you correctly, then post back. Till then, do it the right way.

d

d

 

[dannyboy]

And this is what could have been, a week before the first problem, as the pond was filling up

 

[JonFrum]

Seems we need to change the title of this thread to:
"Looking for [-]friendly[/-] grouchy Steward to answer a question"

The (real) Steward appears to be saying that Sciatic should be paid the Cover Driver rate, even though he is not Cover Driving. The Steward may be correct, but there's nothing wrong with asking for a second opinion.

But what really surprises me is that this thread has remained in the "UPS Discussions Forum" instead of being moved to the "Labor Relations Forum." I would have thought the Moderators would have been tripping over each other in their eagerness to scold Sciatic by saying, "Shame on you Sciatic. The nerve!!!"

 

[dannyboy]

JF

I find it interesting that to put your heart and soul into representing people and their best interests, only to have the ungrateful person take a poll about what they should do. Problem is that the poll is pretty much worthless, as shown by the response from your view.

The best person to represent him is his steward. That steward knows what classification the guy falls under, if he is actually classified as a driver, and what supplements govern their area of the USA.

So unless the steward does not represent him properly (how much better does it get than "yes, they need to pay you drivers wages for that time"), I dont see a need to get another outside opinion.

As for the mods, sorry you feel they are so much of a pain for you.

d

 

[Catatonic]

JF

I find it interesting that to put your heart and soul into representing people and their best interests, only to have the ungrateful person take a poll about what they should do. Problem is that the poll is pretty much worthless, as shown by the response from your view.

The best person to represent him is his steward. That steward knows what classification the guy falls under, if he is actually classified as a driver, and what supplements govern their area of the USA.

So unless the steward does not represent him properly (how much better does it get than "yes, they need to pay you drivers wages for that time"), I dont see a need to get another outside opinion.

As for the mods, sorry you feel they are so much of a pain for you.

d

I agree ... I never get a second opinion or try to learn more on my own.

 

[over9five]

I agree ... I never get a second opinion or try to learn more on my own.

Me too. I always blindly follow the first person I ask.

 

[dannyboy]

Second opinions are great........from someone with a name. Someone that can be held responsible should you decide to go with what they recommend.

Cant wait to hear what the response would be that, I quoted Hoax and Over 9.5 in my grievance.

d

 

[over9five]

Cant wait to hear what the response would be that, I quoted Hoax and Over 9.5 in my grievance.

d

LOL, me too!