I choose not to be pushed around by management. The PT sups on my belt are relatively reasonable. A number of weeks ago, I was sent help to wrap up my "area". I don't like other people wrapping up my trucks, as I put effort into my loads and I'd rather not that go to waste. Anyway, I don't have a choice in the matter so help was forced upon me. Very quickly after, I noticed two sups helping the 'helper' bulk out the truck. On my way out, I told my PT sup that he shouldn't be doing that- I said it in a rather serious tone. The following morning he told me it wouldn't happen again. I can't do anything about the help being forced on me, but sups working in such an instance I won't tolerate.
And to be clear, I don't give a rat's ass about sups working during the sort. It's at the END of the sort that bothers me.
Here's how it goes: the sups are held accountable for their belts. The belts MUST be wrapped up in a reasonable amount of time. It doesn't matter if the "bodies" are available to do it (because of attendance issues). If sups do not do the work, they would be forced to have us take turns doing it, moving us back and forth for some minutes at a time (this is my own conclusion, not something I've been told). On some days, I see this being a possible solution. On most days- nope. Our areas would get backed up even more, and the entire belt would be a clusterf-.
I'm glad I'm in the union. I'm happy this union exists and that we benefit greatly from it. However, at the same time, I don't want to do somebody else's work. Most of our "sups working" issues (during preload) do not stem from lack of union workers, they stem from attendance problems.
Every week I see a walk-thru in the building. Every other week I see someone new. Yet when people don't show up, we still have a shortage of workers. ????
The other day, on my belt, we had a new hire loading an area. She has been on the belt for a couple weeks now. A driver wanted some extra time and essentially "bumped" her. She was sent home and he was put in her place. Shortly after, he was sent out to deliver some air. I'm guessing early AM? The sort wasn't even over yet. So... now there's nobody to load those trucks. A while later, another driver showed up to load them.
What the hell is going on? Drivers with higher seniority can just call in whenever they want and bump someone with less seniority? ... in the middle of a shift? I'm grateful for what the union has provided me, but that sounds like a load of crap.
I'm not sure if I made any points with my rant... I'm a little drunk.
EDIT: Oh, and regarding the previous post. I, too, don't care about sups working (during the sort). However, I don't work off the clock. I show up within a couple minutes of start time (or a couple after). I look over the misload, production, and route summary sheets... then I head off to my area to prepare the trucks- put my stuff up, move hand carts into the cabs, re-position any totes that might still be there. By then, typically, my slide is almost full of crap. But, before break time I'm almost always clean. As soon as the break buzzer goes off I set down whatever I'm holding and head out. I keep track of my hours every single day. UPS gets no free labor out of me.
