Production termination!

[brownIEman]

II would be curious to see the arbitrators findings. Any chance you could just post the entire Adobe file? Is it considered public information at this point? If not, I certainly understand that would not be cosher.
A couple points for every one to keep in mind based on what Red has said -
The production this driver was compared to is not based on any PAS calculation for expected SPORH, and is not based at all in any way on an IE time study. It is based on actual demonstrated performance during a three day production ride.
Also, as Red said, there were several days in which his SPORH after these lock in rides was 3 or more less. Not one day, and not .3 SPORH less. Several days of 3 or more SPORH less. All else being equal, this points pretty heavily toward a driver not giving a fair days work. If he was giving a fair days effort, the obvious question is what happened on these several days? Was there inclement weather that did not exist during the lock in ride days? Was there road closures? etc. Hopefully if any such incidents occured, the driver was able to provide evidence for it.

 

[UPSNewbie]

II would be curious to see the arbitrators findings. Any chance you could just post the entire Adobe file? Is it considered public information at this point? If not, I certainly understand that would not be cosher.
A couple points for every one to keep in mind based on what Red has said -
The production this driver was compared to is not based on any PAS calculation for expected SPORH, and is not based at all in any way on an IE time study. It is based on actual demonstrated performance during a three day production ride.
Also, as Red said, there were several days in which his SPORH after these lock in rides was 3 or more less. Not one day, and not .3 SPORH less. Several days of 3 or more SPORH less. All else being equal, this points pretty heavily toward a driver not giving a fair days work. If he was giving a fair days effort, the obvious question is what happened on these several days? Was there inclement weather that did not exist during the lock in ride days? Was there road closures? etc. Hopefully if any such incidents occured, the driver was able to provide evidence for it.

What you state here comes back to that "Little Black Book."

 

[UnconTROLLed]

Red as someone else wrote here before. Work as if your boss were monitoring each activity. Did you follow methods, Did you follow SWM etc? If so, there shouldn't be anything to worry about. Note this goes for both hourly and mgmt.

Jut my 2 cents......

Not good to hear about the driver and steward, first of all. Hopefully if there was any injustice it will be righted

I have to disagree with the above. I have been fired for sitting at the end of a bulk slide AFTER a shift by a prev DM. It was deemed "unsafe behaviour". Yes, the unload was down, and I was sitting at the end of the slide drinking some water, the temperature was around 90 degrees. Ironically it was maybe 2 weeks to 2 months after filing and winning a few grievances and also about 6 months after being hurt in the sort and going thru Liberty Mutual. I got my job back interestingly after the firing.

 

[Hawaii50]

Hope things get better.

 

[New Englander]

After reading through all of it, which is just about 40 pages, he did have several days were he was off by 3 stops an hour.

This arb, really stepped over the line, and in my opinion the union did a real bad job in its case.

I'm guessing his 3 stops per hour off days was the "stick it to UPS" days that some drivers do?

I'm guessing to fire them they need to show a regular problem of it happening repeatedly.

Sorry but every center has drivers that should be fired for this.

 

[Hawaii50]

arbitration decisions are precedent. Thanks for that information.

 

[trplnkl]

II would be curious to see the arbitrators findings. Any chance you could just post the entire Adobe file? Is it considered public information at this point? If not, I certainly understand that would not be cosher.
A couple points for every one to keep in mind based on what Red has said -
The production this driver was compared to is not based on any PAS calculation for expected SPORH, and is not based at all in any way on an IE time study. It is based on actual demonstrated performance during a three day production ride.
Also, as Red said, there were several days in which his SPORH after these lock in rides was 3 or more less. Not one day, and not .3 SPORH less. Several days of 3 or more SPORH less. All else being equal, this points pretty heavily toward a driver not giving a fair days work. If he was giving a fair days effort, the obvious question is what happened on these several days? Was there inclement weather that did not exist during the lock in ride days? Was there road closures? etc. Hopefully if any such incidents occured, the driver was able to provide evidence for it.

There are other "obvious" questions also. Was the load massaged by a sup to provide of a stop for stop load? (seen it happen for time studies) Was there any assistance provided for the driver by the sup riding with him, i.e. opening doors, pulling up packages to the front of the self or stacking packages on the HT while the driver put them on the steps? I've seen versions of this before also. Once during a stated " safe work methods" ride, after the sup had gotten all the info he wanted he began to help me in little ways so we could get finished. The next day he began to talk to me about my "performance" I stopped him in his tracks with the reminder that I would not have him around to help me everyday, so if he wanted to address performance he needed to ride with me another day with helping in any way, then we would start from zero.
Something is stinking about this whole thing with this driver/steward and the company and the arbitrator. From what we (as a message board) know it seems there was a dedicated effort by the company to get this guy for his union activities which is not only a contract violation but is also illegal. Why and arbitrator could not see this is beyond me.

 

[trplnkl]

Bringing every hourly to his side to fight the good fight against UPS, basically.

I wouldn't know, but it seems like this steward is not doing that. Seems like he was upholding the contract that BOTH UPS and Teamsters agreed upon, making sure all of the employees file for every wrong-doing, instead of laying down and taking it.

Don't know if it is still part of the contract but at one time it was under the Steward duties and responsibilities section that a steward was not to solicit grievances. Which would be a contract violation. Why wasn't he fired for that if that is why they wanted him gone?

 

[brownIEman]

There are other "obvious" questions also. Was the load massaged by a sup to provide of a stop for stop load? (seen it happen for time studies) Was there any assistance provided for the driver by the sup riding with him, i.e. opening doors, pulling up packages to the front of the self or stacking packages on the HT while the driver put them on the steps? I've seen versions of this before also. Once during a stated " safe work methods" ride, after the sup had gotten all the info he wanted he began to help me in little ways so we could get finished. The next day he began to talk to me about my "performance" I stopped him in his tracks with the reminder that I would not have him around to help me everyday, so if he wanted to address performance he needed to ride with me another day with helping in any way, then we would start from zero.
Something is stinking about this whole thing with this driver/steward and the company and the arbitrator. From what we (as a message board) know it seems there was a dedicated effort by the company to get this guy for his union activities which is not only a contract violation but is also illegal. Why and arbitrator could not see this is beyond me.

You are right on with the other immediate questions. I would assume that as an experienced driver and steward, he would be able to avoid most of the problems you mentioned. It should have been made clear to him that the rides were performance rides, and as you told the sup in your example, it is quite clear in the contract that any ride in which a sup assists a driver cannot be used as a performance ride. I may be assuming too much though.

It does sound like the center management targeted the guy specifically. But if that is the case, I cannot understand why he could either not demonstrate that to the arbitrator or they just could not see it. If he was targeted for union activity, not only would that be wrong and illegal, I consider it weak on the part of management that does it. Targeting someone for filing grievances is assinine. I have had grievances filed against me for doing hourly work. Some were valid, some were not, but none would I allow myself to take personally or look for "payback". That, as I said, takes a weak management team. Just my 2c.

 

[705red]

II would be curious to see the arbitrators findings. Any chance you could just post the entire Adobe file? Is it considered public information at this point? If not, I certainly understand that would not be cosher.
A couple points for every one to keep in mind based on what Red has said -
The production this driver was compared to is not based on any PAS calculation for expected SPORH, and is not based at all in any way on an IE time study. It is based on actual demonstrated performance during a three day production ride.
Also, as Red said, there were several days in which his SPORH after these lock in rides was 3 or more less. Not one day, and not .3 SPORH less. Several days of 3 or more SPORH less. All else being equal, this points pretty heavily toward a driver not giving a fair days work. If he was giving a fair days effort, the obvious question is what happened on these several days? Was there inclement weather that did not exist during the lock in ride days? Was there road closures? etc. Hopefully if any such incidents occured, the driver was able to provide evidence for it.

Have you ever driven package car? Somedays you can walk through your truck easily, and some days its a game of hide and seek. Now if your playing a game of hide and seek looking for packages than its very easy for your spoh to go down by 3 stops. What should we do on days like this? Dont spend time digging and continue on and just drive back through the route later on in the day, which will also lower your spoh due to the extra miles.

This company had an agenda, i have been the steward that the company wanted to make an example of to get the rest of the drivers inline and fearing for their jobs. I didnt give in! I refused to accept a suspension for it 3 times over a 34 day period, and eventually was put back to work with my back pay!

The union did a real piss poor job on this arbitration, and should be removed for failing to repesent all of us in this precedent seeting debacle that they allowed to happen!

 

[dilligaf]

I was posting while you typed the followup regarding nlrb and eeoc going hand in hand dilligaf. Nice catch. thanks

Pickup, I know this because I have had an EEOC against the company for discrimination. I had no choice but to learn it to protect myself. It's true what's said, "A violated employee makes a great steward.". At the time I filed I had been working for less than 2 years. It's pretty fricking sad!

 

[dilligaf]

II would be curious to see the arbitrators findings. Any chance you could just post the entire Adobe file? Is it considered public information at this point? If not, I certainly understand that would not be cosher.
A couple points for every one to keep in mind based on what Red has said -
The production this driver was compared to is not based on any PAS calculation for expected SPORH, and is not based at all in any way on an IE time study. It is based on actual demonstrated performance during a three day production ride.
Also, as Red said, there were several days in which his SPORH after these lock in rides was 3 or more less. Not one day, and not .3 SPORH less. Several days of 3 or more SPORH less. All else being equal, this points pretty heavily toward a driver not giving a fair days work. If he was giving a fair days effort, the obvious question is what happened on these several days? Was there inclement weather that did not exist during the lock in ride days? Was there road closures? etc. Hopefully if any such incidents occured, the driver was able to provide evidence for it.

NO!!!!!!!!!!! Can't do that. I guarantee both parties signed a non-disclosure. The only thing that can be said is that there was a case and the outcome was thus.

 

[dilligaf]

......................................Something is stinking about this whole thing with this driver/steward and the company and the arbitrator. From what we (as a message board) know it seems there was a dedicated effort by the company to get this guy for his union activities which is not only a contract violation but is also illegal. Why and arbitrator could not see this is beyond me.

It seems to me they sand-bagged him. Pure and simple, set him up. I would be curious to see how many times this so called arbitrator sided with the company on decisions. Although arbitrators are supposedly randomly picked, if this arbitrator has a history of siding with UPS, UPS might have gotten lucky with this 'random' choice.

 

[dilligaf]

Don't know if it is still part of the contract but at one time it was under the Steward duties and responsibilities section that a steward was not to solicit grievances. Which would be a contract violation. Why wasn't he fired for that if that is why they wanted him gone?

You are right Trpl. I don't know if it is in the contract, but stewards aren't supposed to solicit greivances. But any good steward knows how to work around that by asking questions in a certain way.

 

[brownrodster]

It's pretty easy to go down a stop or two an hour. Terrible load job by the preloader will do it every time. Huge bulk for terribly inconvenient stops. Pickups take longer than usual. However, if management was targetting me for going slow I'd cut the service and cut every corner I could safely. Like DR in driveways instead of walk up a long driveway. Leave pickups if they aren't finished early enough, etc. And document everything of course. Check load quality as unacceptable if one damn box is out of place. Or maybe I'd sit at the center after PCM and go through my entire load before I start my route. You can definately think of ways to go faster if your damn job is on the line. And any sort of unusual stop must be documented. If you have a 15 minute stop that totally screws you then it must be documented somehow.

 

[dilligaf]

Also COD's affect the rte. I know we get a time allowance for it, but have you ever had one of those customers that absolutely take forever to write a check. Very frustrating. Customers with special needs. There are a gazillion things in a day that affect SPORH's. And yes, even a drivers attitude. My sup got on me the other day about keeping my keys on my finger (I keep them on my clip unless I'm doing resi, generally). What he doesn't see is the dozen times that I drop my keys off my finger while trying to handle pkgs. It saves me time to clip them. Esp. while doing business.

 

[BigUnionGuy]

Hey Red,

What's the case number ??



-Bug-

 

[trickpony1]

The company can influence arbitrators.
The company district nurse can influence the company doctor to DQ drivers.
The company can influence lawmakers for favorable laws.
The company can influence the DOT to look the other way when overweight loads drive by the weigh station. I have seen an impromptu weigh station stop weighing UPS trucks and disappear after some phone calls were made.

I, personally, would like to see the affected driver do an interview with one of the TV documentary shows (example: 20/20, 60 minutes) and expose the underhanded, chicken#### tactics of this company that so espouses honesty and integrity to the world.

BTW, is this the same company that pats the employees on the bottom to get them to contribute to the United Way so they can splash the sensationalism across the media screen and print?

 

[ih8tbrn]

I'm guessing his 3 stops per hour off days was the "stick it to UPS" days that some drivers do?

I'm guessing to fire them they need to show a regular problem of it happening repeatedly.

Sorry but every center has drivers that should be fired for this.

100% agreed. The drivers in our center say they "are proving a point." I'm not sure who they think they are hurting but the only people it affects is those of us on the sort that get home an hour or 2 later than we would if they would just do their jobs. I for one hope they do start cracking down on that particular behavior and put an end to that crap. I've noticed that the biggest whiners are the ones that bid the routes with the longest day because of the overtime and then bitch about it every single day.

 

[Omega man]

The key is, if the driver demonstrates a specific level of performance while the supervisor is on car for consecutive days then it's reasonable to expect that same level of performance when he is by himself. For example if the driver runs 17.5 SPOHR on the ride along and suddenly runs 17.2 SPORH when by himself then there is an obvious problem. As a reminder these rides are done over a period of consecutive days so the statistical samples are more reliable. I cannot recall a production termination in my district usually something else is going on as well this driver in question may have been promoting a contentious and divisive personal agenda very few companies big or small will tolerate that behavior.

Statistically, a three day ride is too small of a sample to inver any reliable average production outcome. SPORH not only varies throughout the week, but also throughout the year. UPS is simply fooling arbitrators with no knowledge of this into thinking this is a fair way of judging a driver's performance. After all, this is why they try to use the over/under as a gauge. That at least gives credit to the day-to-day variation in a delivery route. Also, with PAS, they are constantly changing a driver’s delivery area. One day the route may contain a split that may have a totally different allowance than the base route. UPS got lucky on this one because they had an ignorant arbitrator. Every Local must learn how to properly make their case to defend against injustices like this. And yes, I do hold a degree in mathematics.