Ive been a pre loader for over a year now. Let me preface by saying I have a full time career during the day as a marketing executive for the past 10 years; started pre load to pay off debt faster. Ive never seen a corporation so messed up by Union BS and I have worked with numerous national and international corporations and non profits over my marketing career.

So, after working for UPS for a year as an "hourly" I have to say the Union is more of a detriment than a boon.

First, albeit, Im not familiar with Union style work environments, the Union seems to make our life harder. We have 5 belt supers and all they want to do is help...... but they can't, because the "old school" Union people keep complaining. FYI OLD GUYS, THEY ARE TRYING TO HELP US!!! Its so upsetting when I get stacked out, my supe tries to help catch up and then they have to stop cause some, usually an older driver working pre load, threatened to file a grievance, even after I tried to defend my supe and say I asked for help.

Curious if this is just here or if it happens at multiple locations? Im in a mid size warehouse, 250K city pop. that delivers to about 700K total pop local and surrounding towns.
 

UnconTROLLed

perfection
UPS agrees to use contracted workers to move cardboard, therefore your disagreement is with UPS (unfortunately?) signing the contract they did -and not necessarily the union defending the said contract.
 

Netsua 3:16

AND THAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE
Why can't management be union? That's on UPS, not the Teamsters. Stupidest thing ever to basically pit management vs. hourly. Invites conflict
 

Netsua 3:16

AND THAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE
To answer your question; in my preload days I had a difficult spot on the line, and got help from the pt sups all the time. They would "pull" for me while I caught up loading.
 
Ours try to do that too (pull and us load), but apparently even touching a package to move from X to Y is a grievance issue. Its gotten to the point that Ill try to keep an eye out for a supe helping just so I can provide a counter statement for "it was an over 70 pound " or "new employee first day" to help our supes. Our supes really try to help; Ive read alot of the posts on here and I guess our supes are in the minority as they are all great. We are in TX though, lol, we all have a help you're neighbor attitude in these parts.
 
It maybe my inadequate experience in this kind of field.... but just seems silly to punish the Union employees by saying "no, management can't help you, that's stealing work from you" when Union knows (or should know) how hard asks physically intensive our job is.
 

Mst3k

Well-Known Member
If they hired more people so that you did not have to work so hard, then they would not have to help you as much. But until that happens you should keep having their back, I am sure they will remember all you have done for them when you get injured or finally grow a backbone.
 
Also now "our union" is pushing for 7 day work weeks??? Am I misunderstanding that; please excuse if I am but why would a group looking out for us try to push for MORE HOURS? I mean what is the logistic behind that (again, if I understand the new negotiations right, if not, disregard) .
 
We hire ppl every week, but they don't stay. And people apparently dont have very good work ethics when they know getting fired takes an act of Congress (ie we are usually short 3-5 ppl in our warehouse daily). Ill admit the overall system (for at least preload) needs a massive update on the corporate end (ex. employing cubic foot analytics for bulk stops on load charts). And before someone can say, "well just quit" ufortunately in my city there isnt another job I can work 4am to 9am and make over 15 an hour to get ahead of my debt in addition to my day job.
 

Been In Brown Too Long

Ex-Package Donkey
Ive been a pre loader for over a year now. Let me preface by saying I have a full time career during the day as a marketing executive for the past 10 years; started pre load to pay off debt faster. Ive never seen a corporation so messed up by Union BS and I have worked with numerous national and international corporations and non profits over my marketing career.

So, after working for UPS for a year as an "hourly" I have to say the Union is more of a detriment than a boon.

First, albeit, Im not familiar with Union style work environments, the Union seems to make our life harder. We have 5 belt supers and all they want to do is help...... but they can't, because the "old school" Union people keep complaining. FYI OLD GUYS, THEY ARE TRYING TO HELP US!!! Its so upsetting when I get stacked out, my supe tries to help catch up and then they have to stop cause some, usually an older driver working pre load, threatened to file a grievance, even after I tried to defend my supe and say I asked for help.

Curious if this is just here or if it happens at multiple locations? Im in a mid size warehouse, 250K city pop. that delivers to about 700K total pop local and surrounding towns.
I'm an old guy, and no they are not trying to help you. They are trying to make a number the upper management has asked for, and they can't make that number with the number of employees currently being used. You are stacked out because of management in the first place! More work, less employees, less time...that's their objective. The contract specifies that management is there to manage, not do bargaining unit work. Under your scenario, what would stop UPS from just hiring more people, call them managers, let them do all the work, and eliminate your job. If you've worked for UPS for a year, and haven't seen in your head what it would be like to work there without union protections, then you haven't been very observant. The union's responsibility is to protect and grow union jobs. That work that your part time supe is doing, is effectively eliminating another union job, or cutting hours of one of your fellow Teamsters. If you don't get that, you don't get the concept of a union at all.
 
Also now "our union" is pushing for 7 day work weeks??? Am I misunderstanding that; please excuse if I am but why would a group looking out for us try to push for MORE HOURS? I mean what is the logistic behind that (again, if I understand the new negotiations right, if not, disregard) .

You mean, other than keeping up with the industry? I mean, our competitors are now working 7 days, let them have the work, right?

Seems a bit elementary for an international marketing wiz...
 

Been In Brown Too Long

Ex-Package Donkey
Also now "our union" is pushing for 7 day work weeks??? Am I misunderstanding that; please excuse if I am but why would a group looking out for us try to push for MORE HOURS? I mean what is the logistic behind that (again, if I understand the new negotiations right, if not, disregard) .
The union is not pushing for a 7 day work week. UPS is asking for that. The union sees that the competition is offering 7 day service and is trying to accommodate UPS in this regard in order to stay competitive. And you won't be working 7 days, so it's not more hours. It's that UPS operations can/will run 7 days a week.
 

zubenelgenubi

I'm a star
Ive been a pre loader for over a year now. Let me preface by saying I have a full time career during the day as a marketing executive for the past 10 years; started pre load to pay off debt faster. Ive never seen a corporation so messed up by Union BS and I have worked with numerous national and international corporations and non profits over my marketing career.

So, after working for UPS for a year as an "hourly" I have to say the Union is more of a detriment than a boon.

First, albeit, Im not familiar with Union style work environments, the Union seems to make our life harder. We have 5 belt supers and all they want to do is help...... but they can't, because the "old school" Union people keep complaining. FYI OLD GUYS, THEY ARE TRYING TO HELP US!!! Its so upsetting when I get stacked out, my supe tries to help catch up and then they have to stop cause some, usually an older driver working pre load, threatened to file a grievance, even after I tried to defend my supe and say I asked for help.

Curious if this is just here or if it happens at multiple locations? Im in a mid size warehouse, 250K city pop. that delivers to about 700K total pop local and surrounding towns.

You are a marketing executive, and you don't understand how contracts work? I can assure you, UPS doesn't need the union's help to be messed up. The company agrees to staff their operations properly, then refuse to do so. Because they don't staff properly they can't get people to stick around.

Why can't management be union? That's on UPS, not the Teamsters. Stupidest thing ever to basically pit management vs. hourly. Invites conflict

Management can't be union because that is about as close to the definition of a conflict of interest as you can get. Whose side does the union take when a manager fires an employee for a bogus reason? That would be like hiring a defense attorney who works for the prosecution.
 

WorkingAsDirected

Well-Known Member
We hire ppl every week, but they don't stay. And people apparently dont have very good work ethics when they know getting fired takes an act of Congress (ie we are usually short 3-5 ppl in our warehouse daily). Ill admit the overall system (for at least preload) needs a massive update on the corporate end (ex. employing cubic foot analytics for bulk stops on load charts). And before someone can say, "well just quit" ufortunately in my city there isnt another job I can work 4am to 9am and make over 15 an hour to get ahead of my debt in addition to my day job.

Do you think people don't stay because they are not fairly compensated for their work? How is corporate supposed to acknowledge this problem if supervisors constantly do Union work? Part time supervisors for the most part are hourlies that get paid more and wear nicer cloths.
 

Time for change

Well-Known Member
You are a marketing executive, and you don't understand how contracts work? I can assure you, UPS doesn't need the union's help to be messed up. The company agrees to staff their operations properly, then refuse to do so. Because they don't staff properly they can't get people to stick around.



Management can't be union because that is about as close to the definkoiition of a conflict of interest as you can get. Whose side does the union take when a manager fires an employee for a bogus reason? That would be like hiring a defense attorney who works for the prosecution.
Part time sups aren’t firing anyone.
 
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F

Frankie's Friend

Guest
ufortunately in my city there isnt another job I can work 4am to 9am and make over 15 an hour to get ahead of my debt in addition to my day job.
You've been there just over a year and make $15/hr?

That would be like hiring a defense attorney who works for the prosecution.
You know our BA?
It maybe my inadequate experience in this kind of field.... but just seems silly to punish the Union employees by saying "no, management can't help you, that's stealing work from you" when Union knows (or should know) how hard asks physically intensive our job is.
You dont think the company "doesnt know how hard" your job is when they actually need (for example) 10 loaders in an area to keep the egress legal, load the cars safely, and with less errors for the driver to fix on road because of the loader having to jam the pkgs in to keep up but instead they implement 7 loading positions? The union can only help your situation by filing payable double time grievances to help force the company to hire more hourly workers in the areas they actually need to staff appropriately.

Noting the understaffing and high turnover rate you can easily see that this is a problem created by the only people who can fix it....

The company.

Also, thank the hourly who are willing to file grievances on improperly staffed situations. They get blow back from their supes all the while trying to permanently get you and your coworkers a safe working environment.
 

Slug Life

When do we eat?
Ours try to do that too (pull and us load), but apparently even touching a package to move from X to Y is a grievance issue. Its gotten to the point that Ill try to keep an eye out for a supe helping just so I can provide a counter statement for "it was an over 70 pound " or "new employee first day" to help our supes. Our supes really try to help; Ive read alot of the posts on here and I guess our supes are in the minority as they are all great. We are in TX though, lol, we all have a help you're neighbor attitude in these parts.
Wow you try and keep an eye out. Wish I could come to your pre-load and make your Soup’s life hell.
You sound like a scab/brown noser just so you know.
Have you considered going into management?
It might suit your personality a bit more.
 
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