Homer17762

New Member
You're probably rolling your eyes because it seems like every PT worker come here to complain. I have a situation and I'm not sure how to handle it.

I work preload in a small town. Our building is pretty small. Just two belts for loading and one sort isle of maybe 5 workers. I have been in my current work area for over a year now. I don't want to go into too much detail about it but essentially, the 4 car pull I work, two of the cars I have to load by memory, not by the spot label because they are incorrect. It's not a big deal. I just pushed through it and memorized the routs. (the driver loves it because its in exact order).

The problem is that lately I've been getting a lot of extra work. Well everyone has. Before I was averaging roughly a 900 to 1000 package pull which is perfectly fine. It fits my work speed and everything is okay. But lately multiple routs have been cut out and I've been averaging a 1300 package pull. The same for all the other workers.There are so many packages on the belt (they're for my pull)that they literally fall off. Not to mention I have to deal with everyones recycles. (by now you're probably thinking "get to the point.") The problem is that I literally have a mountain of packages in front of all my trucks. The past few days, I literally ran out of room to even walk. Everyone's pull is like this. Today not a single person could keep up because of the rate of packages. The delivery trucks are packed up the isle. Safety is a joke in my building. Whenever I ask a PT Sup about safety my safety concerns, they say there is nothing they can do because they don't control the flow. Also, management always seem to know when there is a safety audit. Then they run the building the "correct" way, then when the auditor leaves its back to crazy speeds. Honestly, peak is cake compared to this. Not to mention that all the PT Sups work. Also all this is done in roughly 3 hours. (I know about the 3.5 hour guarantee, I'm the only one that asks for it.)

I don't mean to come off like i'm complaining, I'm just trying to paint a clear picture for you. Almost all the PT workers in my building is terrified to file a grievance because they're afraid of becoming a target. I'm not, I'm not looking for a FT career. I want tho help resolve this problem not only for myself but for the PT workers who are looking to go FT. It's a shame that the building is run like this. I'm a college student, the only reason why I work for UPS is because the hours work great with my classes and I'm getting tuition reimbursement. How would you go about handling this? How do I file a safety pertaining to safety? Like today, I literally saw people climbing the mountain of packages and crawling into their trucks.

If you've made it this far. I appreciate you taking the time to read this. It really means a lot.
 

542thruNthru

Well-Known Member
First work at a safe pace. If they want to slam you that's their problem.

Second start filing for supervisors working. This will force them to either slow down the flow or hire more people in the long run.

Keep filing. Don't worry about a target on your back and just do the job right.
 

Maple Grove MN Driver

Cocaine Mang!
1st Call OSHA
2nd Shut off belt whenever egress is blocked.
3rd Tell management to get bent when they tell you to do anything that is not safe
4th Ignore the numbers they want you to hit
5th Never sign anything they tell you to sign
6th Work at a safe pace and make sure you go home to your family
7th Work Safe
8th File a Grievance when they threaten you
 

Box Ox

Well-Known Member
Turn belt off whenever you run out of eggress

Turn belt back on after eggress is cleared

Don’t work unsafe

What else you wanna know

This 300%. When a supervisor comes to you freaking out, or yells down the belt asking who stopped the belt, tell them so everybody else can hear that you absolutely refuse to work unsafely.

If a supervisor is of at least minimal intelligence, they will not :censored2: with you if you play the “S” card. I wasn’t seriously challenged a single time that I stopped the belt and pointed out that a situation obviously was not safe. It’s not worth it for a supervisor to fight you over it. They just want you to think it is.

Don’t hesitate with this. It’s seriously dangerous when the belt is cranked up and nobody has room to move. Tomorrow might be the day you trip or fall and crack your face or head open.
 

Homer17762

New Member
This 300%. When a supervisor comes to you freaking out, or yells down the belt asking who stopped the belt, tell them so everybody else can hear that you absolutely refuse to work unsafely.

If a supervisor is of at least minimal intelligence, they will not :censored2: with you if you play the “S” card. I wasn’t seriously challenged a single time that I stopped the belt and pointed out that a situation obviously was not safe. It’s not worth it for a supervisor to fight you over it. They just want you to think it is.

Don’t hesitate with this. It’s seriously dangerous when the belt is cranked up and nobody has room to move. Tomorrow might be the day you trip or fall and crack your face or head open.

Thanks! I'll definitely be doing that. Its too bad management doesn't care. When I first researched UPS, I looked on youtube and I found multiple corporate videos that talks about how much they value safety and their employees. Then after I was hired I quickly found that not to be true.
 

Homer17762

New Member
First work at a safe pace. If they want to slam you that's their problem.

Second start filing for supervisors working. This will force them to either slow down the flow or hire more people in the long run.

Keep filing. Don't worry about a target on your back and just do the job right.

I'll definitely be doing that! My patience has run out. I've never filled out a form. What's the best way to write one? On another note, I did request a form today, I placed it down. Didn't get to read one word on it and when I looked back, it was gone.
 

GenericUsername

Well-Known Member
There is a certain je ne sais quoi about being able to stick it to the supervisors. Don't yell. Don't swear. Don't let them get to you. Just stay calm and tell them that you're not in a safe work environment and that the belt will be turned back on as soon as the egress is cleared. Get others to start doing it too. Remember, if you turn off the belt, lock it. If they turn it back on, file a grievance for safety, stating specifically who did what. Make sure you point it out to others as it happens. Example "Hey, Jim, look! So-and-so turned on the belt after I locked it out!" Now you have a witness. Take a quick screenshot of your phone's lock screen if you have it on you so you have the exact time. Then shut it off again if the egress isn't cleared. They'll get the point eventually.
 
There is a certain je ne sais quoi about being able to stick it to the supervisors. Don't yell. Don't swear. Don't let them get to you. Just stay calm and tell them that you're not in a safe work environment and that the belt will be turned back on as soon as the egress is cleared. Get others to start doing it too. Remember, if you turn off the belt, lock it. If they turn it back on, file a grievance for safety, stating specifically who did what. Make sure you point it out to others as it happens. Example "Hey, Jim, look! So-and-so turned on the belt after I locked it out!" Now you have a witness. Take a quick screenshot of your phone's lock screen if you have it on you so you have the exact time. Then shut it off again if the egress isn't cleared. They'll get the point eventually.
Taking pictures inside the building could get you fired. You should file grievances over sups working and unsafe work area but unless your Union Business Agent will back you it will go nowhere. Chances are management will paint a target on your back until you decide the job is not worth it and quit or you are fired. This will solve 2 problems. Get rid of the trouble maker and scare everyone else. Try running for Union Steward and then you will have some legal protection.
 

542thruNthru

Well-Known Member
Taking pictures inside the building could get you fired. You should file grievances over sups working and unsafe work area but unless your Union Business Agent will back you it will go nowhere. Chances are management will paint a target on your back until you decide the job is not worth it and quit or you are fired. This will solve 2 problems. Get rid of the trouble maker and scare everyone else. Try running for Union Steward and then you will have some legal protection.

He said take a screen shot of his phone screen to have the exact time. Not a picture of ups.
 

542thruNthru

Well-Known Member
I'll definitely be doing that! My patience has run out. I've never filled out a form. What's the best way to write one? On another note, I did request a form today, I placed it down. Didn't get to read one word on it and when I looked back, it was gone.

Find out who your shop steward is and talk to him or her. Ask for a grievance form. If you need help filling it out ask him/her. If they are unwilling to help you. Come back here and I'm sure someone will be happy to help you out.
 

Box Ox

Well-Known Member
Chances are management will paint a target on your back until you decide the job is not worth it and quit or you are fired. This will solve 2 problems. Get rid of the trouble maker and scare everyone else. Try running for Union Steward and then you will have some legal protection.

Maybe I was just lucky, but always refusing to work unsafely actually worked out well for me. And management moved on to the softer targets, who weren’t so soft once they decided to do the same.

Think there’s often a difference between what management can see and what they can say. They’ll respect you for what they can see without saying it if you stick to your guns out of reason and not out of just being an :censored2:.
 

Wally

BrownCafe Innovator & King of Puns
Any humor here Shecky?
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Dritalin

Active Member
You have to remember that your local part time and full time supervisors hate you, and they hate the union, but their bosses are terrified that the union will be able to get them to arbitration or a court room on breach of contract. So rather than take the side of a dingy pt sup they're going to enforce your grievance.

Do what others have said and stand your ground. Know the wording in the contract and go in and talk to the union hall. If you are being civil and working as directed, but safely, they can't touch you.
 
Its the same where I am. The last-rev is absolutely brutal, with boxes stacked everywhere and people falling all over everything. My first week I got my lip :censored2:ed up from being hit with a box that someone had gotten pinned against one of the moving bins.

I've had things fall out of top yellow and come crashing down onto the floor in front of one of my Sups and she just laughed it off. The bins are stuffed to the brink and it just keeps coming and coming.
 
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