Please Help

Char

Well-Known Member
Where do I begin? I am an 8 year employee with UPS and was working in ODC/Internationals. HR offered an EAM driver job to me that is part time. I asked the HR rep if I had to take a pay cut as I made $15.32/hr. She said I think you would stay at that rate and progression would take its course. I asked her to verify that. The next day she called me back and said she had spoke to center managers and others in HR and that I would stay at the $15.32 rate. So I accepted. After getting my checks I noticed that I was being paid $12.50 & $13.00 per hour depending on whether they were EAM packages or 10:30 or 12:00 committ packages. I showed my center manager and he said it looked wrong and bring to his supervisor that does payroll and he would get it fixxed and that I receive a check for backpay for underpaid hours worked which included overtime. This went back and forth for some time. After about 2 months of EAM driving, the payroll supervisor showed me a message from the main payroll site saying that $12.50 is the correct rate and the $15.32 rate has closed and no back pay would be paid. Quite naturally I was pissed since I just took a $2.82/hr paycut and was reassured up and down that $12.50 was incorrect. I decided becasue the hours were agreeable 6am till sometimes 2pm on avg til 12pm. I told the EAM supervisor that I would no longer take exception or late air, I would just do EAM and that was it as that is what I was required to do and I had another job I had to go to since I was only making $12.50/hr now. That same week or the next, they laid me off from EAM driving saying another center laid off 2 people and they bumped me out because I was the lowest senior person. (Retaliation Maybe?) 2 weeks later, I went back to work inside the hub on the twilight shift. I had to go unload on the metro as my ODC job had been filled. I thought since I was back in the building I would be making my old rate of $15.32/hr but it seems I am still making $12.50/hr. One steward I talked to regarding the air driver pay said I should have known better and that they can tell me whatever they want to and I had no recourse because of the contract. So I ate the $1000 in back pay that I was assured I would receive when my pay was fixxed and took it as a lesson learned. It would also seem to me that I am stuck with the $12.50/hr on the twilight shift. I have been unable to locate a steward to take this issue with. I have worked my ass off for 8 years to get to $15.32/hr. I feel like I was an hourly part-timer who started making too much and was conned into accepting a lower paid job only to have it taken away and put back into a worse job on the same crappy shift with a $2.82 pay cut. Was I a victim of bad union representation? Do I have any recourse or hope with any of the situations I outlined above? Doing full time driving is not an option. I just had my 1st baby and whatever the pay is for a driver is not worth the lost time with my family. Not to mention it is 115 - 120 degrees in the summer and I imagine that package cars get to be 130 - 140.

I work out of the Tempe, AZ hub. I don't know much about how the union works and there are no resources to find a steward. Any help on anything mentioned would be great.

At this point I feel like I have wasted 8 years of my life and am considering quitting if I am stuck at $12.50/hr I also think that $4000 in union dues has been a waste as well if I can't get represntation or a wrong righted.

Char
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
Where do I begin? I am an 8 year employee with UPS and was working in ODC/Internationals. HR offered an EAM driver job to me that is part time. I asked the HR rep if I had to take a pay cut as I made $15.32/hr. She said I think you would stay at that rate and progression would take its course. I asked her to verify that. The next day she called me back and said she had spoke to center managers and others in HR and that I would stay at the $15.32 rate. So I accepted. After getting my checks I noticed that I was being paid $12.50 & $13.00 per hour depending on whether they were EAM packages or 10:30 or 12:00 committ packages. I showed my center manager and he said it looked wrong and bring to his supervisor that does payroll and he would get it fixxed and that I receive a check for backpay for underpaid hours worked which included overtime. This went back and forth for some time. After about 2 months of EAM driving, the payroll supervisor showed me a message from the main payroll site saying that $12.50 is the correct rate and the $15.32 rate has closed and no back pay would be paid. Quite naturally I was pissed since I just took a $2.82/hr paycut and was reassured up and down that $12.50 was incorrect. I decided becasue the hours were agreeable 6am till sometimes 2pm on avg til 12pm. I told the EAM supervisor that I would no longer take exception or late air, I would just do EAM and that was it as that is what I was required to do and I had another job I had to go to since I was only making $12.50/hr now. That same week or the next, they laid me off from EAM driving saying another center laid off 2 people and they bumped me out because I was the lowest senior person. (Retaliation Maybe?) 2 weeks later, I went back to work inside the hub on the twilight shift. I had to go unload on the metro as my ODC job had been filled. I thought since I was back in the building I would be making my old rate of $15.32/hr but it seems I am still making $12.50/hr. One steward I talked to regarding the air driver pay said I should have known better and that they can tell me whatever they want to and I had no recourse because of the contract. So I ate the $1000 in back pay that I was assured I would receive when my pay was fixxed and took it as a lesson learned. It would also seem to me that I am stuck with the $12.50/hr on the twilight shift. I have been unable to locate a steward to take this issue with. I have worked my ass off for 8 years to get to $15.32/hr. I feel like I was an hourly part-timer who started making too much and was conned into accepting a lower paid job only to have it taken away and put back into a worse job on the same crappy shift with a $2.82 pay cut. Was I a victim of bad union representation? Do I have any recourse or hope with any of the situations I outlined above? Doing full time driving is not an option. I just had my 1st baby and whatever the pay is for a driver is not worth the lost time with my family. Not to mention it is 115 - 120 degrees in the summer and I imagine that package cars get to be 130 - 140.

I work out of the Tempe, AZ hub. I don't know much about how the union works and there are no resources to find a steward. Any help on anything mentioned would be great.

At this point I feel like I have wasted 8 years of my life and am considering quitting if I am stuck at $12.50/hr I also think that $4000 in union dues has been a waste as well if I can't get represntation or a wrong righted.

Char


You must have started about the same time I did because we make about the same $15.32/hr. I usually get skilled pay on top of that though. The HR rep told you wrong. All of the Air Drivers I've ever known, including me, started at $12.50/hr regardless of what their hub pay was. I was initially a Saturday Air Driver so even $12.50/hr was good for me. The problems for me started when I would have to cover for the PM Air Driver when he wasn't working so I would take the pay in cut like you were. I think your HR should be reprimanded for what they did but other than that you are screwed.

One other thing you should be aware of is the difference in pay for Air Exception delivery and picking up Air. For some reason the drivers that pick up air packages (such as letter boxes)in the evening are stuck at $12.50/hr. On the delivery side you would progress after 2.5 years. Me for example: I am up to $20.62/hr (contract says $20.50 but the COLA raise is factored in now) when I deliver Air but only $12.50/hr if I only make pickups.
 

brett636

Well-Known Member
Unfortunatly your situation highlights why its important to know the contract. Any job that is considered an "air" job has a differnt pay rate than in the hub because it falls under Article 40 which is a special section in the contract just for air workers. Pay rates and even garaunteed hours are different from those who work in normal centers or hubs. The only good thing about this is you are now in a different wage progession schedule, meaning you should get bumped to the top air rate($20.50/hr. on 8/01/07) 24 months after you began doing EAM driving. After all this is said and done you will be making more money, but you will have to settle with the pay cut until that point.

As far as working in the hub is concerned I do not know how that should work. I am a combo air driver and I work the PM air driving position. All of our routes are run by combo employees such as myself, but we do have 3 part time air drivers who work as swing drivers. When there are no routes for them to drive they work in the center and I assume they earn whatever their air pay is, but when I work in the hub on my 2nd shift I earn what my hub rate is which is higher than my air driver rate.

Its too bad you didn't have good information up front about this new position you took, but take it as a lesson learned to look up the info rather than rely on a manager or HR rep. From my experience they are wrong most of the time, and its hard telling if they are giving out that bad info out of ignorance or malice. My best advice to you is to get a copy of the contract and read it until you understand it so this doesn't happen again.

Goodluck!
 
J

Just Say No To Article 40

Guest
Unfortunatly your situation highlights why its important to know the contract. Any job that is considered an "air" job has a differnt pay rate than in the hub because it falls under Article 40 which is a special section in the contract just for air workers. Pay rates and even garaunteed hours are different from those who work in normal centers or hubs. The only good thing about this is you are now in a different wage progession schedule, meaning you should get bumped to the top air rate($20.50/hr. on 8/01/07) 24 months after you began doing EAM driving. After all this is said and done you will be making more money, but you will have to settle with the pay cut until that point.

As far as working in the hub is concerned I do not know how that should work. I am a combo air driver and I work the PM air driving position. All of our routes are run by combo employees such as myself, but we do have 3 part time air drivers who work as swing drivers. When there are no routes for them to drive they work in the center and I assume they earn whatever their air pay is, but when I work in the hub on my 2nd shift I earn what my hub rate is which is higher than my air driver rate.

Its too bad you didn't have good information up front about this new position you took, but take it as a lesson learned to look up the info rather than rely on a manager or HR rep. From my experience they are wrong most of the time, and its hard telling if they are giving out that bad info out of ignorance or malice. My best advice to you is to get a copy of the contract and read it until you understand it so this doesn't happen again.

Goodluck!

Your problem hilights the entire problem with article 40. Why, if we're one company facing stiff competition, do we create these kinds of problems for ourselves? The air driver vs. ground driver language prevents us from really being competitive and also creates many problems like the problem you're having. I hope article 40 is done away with in the next contract so we can give the operations a chance to be competitive. Just think of the staff jobs we could eliminate in IE and payroll if they didn't have to plan and pay all the air scenarios. Not only that, but the operators could service the customers without one hand tied behind their backs.

I wish they hadn't messed up your payroll, but the union and company have complicated this air driver/ground driver scenario so much that it's almost impossible to get right. We're one company - lets act like it!
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
Char, I am no expert in contract language, but if I were you, I would contact your Local's Business Agent and see what he says. With all due respect to you folks who are Job Stewards, sometimes there are bad ones who don't know what they are doing. I don't know if you can win a greavience on this, but if you are upset enough to quit, it may be worth a shot. Maybe someone in the Brown Cafe community with more experience can offer you better advice.
 
C

call it whatever

Guest
Im on the east and when you go back to the inside you get paid your inside pay...Just like when the air is late and you were to help load or unload..you code it out as local sort or preload,so theyre charged...as far as our air delivery and p/u are paid the same...here you wouldnt have received a pay cut you wouldve been circled...

sounds to me like you got shafted in more ways than one
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
Another thing I forgot to touch on was your pay that you are recieving now that you are back in the hub. It should not be $12.50/hr. It should be what you were making before you became and EAM Driver. You should only make Air Driver pay for all hours worked ON ROAD. Your hub pay is the original pay you were making. The flip side to that is that if you were to work as an Air Driver for two or three years then for some reason have to come back in the hub you'd still go back to the pay you had before. I've seen it happen. A guy in this area was topped out as an Air Driver (back then it was around $18/hr) and his job was eliminated for a few months. He came back in the hub and was making his original wage from three years before but without the raises. So, as you can see there are allot of holes and cracks in the contract and most of it is in Article 40.
 

Channahon

Well-Known Member
HR generally does not have anything to do with union openings, except for hiring needs for an operation.

I think to blame this on HR as a union employee is unfair, before your decision was made, you should have contacted your union steward or business agent.

I'm sure being with UPS for 8 years and making over $15 an hour in your previous position, unless you received additional hours, not sure why you would have agreed to take the new position.
 

Harry Manback

Robot Extraordinaire
Good advice, scratch. I had this same problem when I moved from Air driving to full time. I was at top pay for that job (same one you have, EAM/NDA)and at the time, top pay was $17.80. They tried to cut me down to starting driver pay which was $14 and some change. Luckily, I had a fairly agressive shop steward, who was well versed in the pay language of the contract , to help me remedy my situation quickly. If your local is close, I would go there and ask to talk with your B.A.. Call if they arent. It's your B.A.'s job to help you. Besides, a second opinion never hurts. I think you're entitled to some back pay, and not only that, but I also you should be entitled to some penalties for the lack of action on your management team's part. I believe it's an hours pay for every couple of days the problem isn't corrected. (I could be wrong) Trust me, UPS hires the payroll folks straight from the winner's circle at the Special Olympics. It's quite possible they're totally wrong and your mangager is too lazy or unconcerned to fix this for you. I hope this helps. Best of luck!
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
HR generally does not have anything to do with union openings, except for hiring needs for an operation.

I think to blame this on HR as a union employee is unfair, before your decision was made, you should have contacted your union steward or business agent.

I'm sure being with UPS for 8 years and making over $15 an hour in your previous position, unless you received additional hours, not sure why you would have agreed to take the new position.

WRONG. HR has everything to do with openings. It is their responsibility to know the details of the jobs they are hiring for. The guy asked HR about the pay and they told him wrong. Could he of asked his union buddies? Sure. But HR should know the ins and outs of the jobs as good as anyone. That is their job. That is why he took the new position. It would also help if Article 40 didn't have such holes in it. And maybe if management didn't exploit their employees every chance they got.
 

Channahon

Well-Known Member
Char,

You should continue to pursue your rate of pay, now that you are back in the hub. I have never heard of a situation like yours, and if your local steward can't help you, call your business agent, let your current manager know you would like to have your case reviewed with the District Labor Manager.
 

705red

Browncafe Steward
Char, you should get paid your $15 an hour now that you are back in the hub, get with a steward or call your ba. Find out what local you are in and i will get you there number.

When you go from p-time to friend-time your current pay would be frozen until the progression caught up to your pay. I have an air driver whos at $19 and change now, who i just got paid his back pay for this. Now he understands he will not see a raise for 2 and a half years, but he jump up about $10 an hour (current contract) at that time.

You need to file a grievance now for the back pay, ask one of your co-workers, look at your union boards to see who is your steward, call the local directly, but done give up and dont quit until this is resolved, at least get your back pay.
 

705red

Browncafe Steward
Your problem hilights the entire problem with article 40. Why, if we're one company facing stiff competition, do we create these kinds of problems for ourselves? The air driver vs. ground driver language prevents us from really being competitive and also creates many problems like the problem you're having. I hope article 40 is done away with in the next contract so we can give the operations a chance to be competitive. Just think of the staff jobs we could eliminate in IE and payroll if they didn't have to plan and pay all the air scenarios. Not only that, but the operators could service the customers without one hand tied behind their backs.

I wish they hadn't messed up your payroll, but the union and company have complicated this air driver/ground driver scenario so much that it's almost impossible to get right. We're one company - lets act like it!
I will agree with some of this post like, air drivers should not have to work 8 hours to get overtime. If you are p-time then you should only have to work 5 like the rest. Also your 6th day should be automatic ot instead of 40 hours in a week.

Now the rest of your post is out there. If we allowed p-time air drivers to deliver and pick-up grounds to stay competive we would not have any friend-time driver positions, and we would be right back to a ptime work force. Why would the company pay us $27-$28 an hour when they can pay you $12.50 to do the same?

Now i sure hope that you understand that being an air driver is pretty simple work compared to being a package car driver and no one in their right mind would do this job for $12 an hour, so before you rant on about how screwed up article 40 is you need to realize its like that to preserve our full timers jobs at the same time!
 

Char

Well-Known Member
Now the rest of your post is out there. If we allowed p-time air drivers to deliver and pick-up grounds to stay competive we would not have any friend-time driver positions said:
I did not say anything about picking up or delivering ground.
 
J

Just Say No to Article 40

Guest
Now the rest of your post is out there. If we allowed p-time air drivers to deliver and pick-up grounds to stay competive we would not have any friend-time driver positions, and we would be right back to a ptime work force. Why would the company pay us $27-$28 an hour when they can pay you $12.50 to do the same?

I agree that there should be rules limiting the use of p/t drivers so UPS doesn't try to turn everything into a p/t job, but p/t drivers should be able to deliver all packages for a given stop rather than just the air. Fedex has to deliver out of multiple trucks when they have both air and ground at a stop. We could deliver both services together out of the same truck (saving time and money) if we didn't make cumbersome rules for ourselves to follow. It just seems that we're not allowing ourselves to take advantage of one of our main competitive advantages as long as we have this cumbersome rule.
 
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