dannyboy
From the promised LAND
Had some time today, so I thought I would post.
Several of us were in deep discussions on the safety program, issues and track record at UPS. Some of you will remember that I was quite active in the safety program at UPS here locally, with mixed results.
But when you look at the history and politics of safety at UPS, there are several truths that need to be evaluated.
First, how committed is UPS to the actual safety of the employee. I mean really. Not at the corp. level, but at the front line where the work is actually done. And I don’t mean just lip service to safety, but actual change in the way things are done, and the mentality of the front line sups.
IT was not that long ago history wise that we had a trailer with nearly 300 packages arrive at our center with a leaking hazmat (hydrochloric acid) leaking over some other hazmat packages in the right rear of the drop frame trailer.
It was getting near dispatch time, and the 300 packages really needed to make the sort, so we were instructed by the center management team to take a good breath of air, unload as much as possible in the nose, and as we ran back out, to push the packages out of the trailer. You could not see, as the fumes would burn your eyes, you could not breathe either. Just one example of UPS not that long ago.
Fast forward to what we have today.
So why the difference? Is UPS really concerned about the employee, and has changed the way they look at us, as a valuable resource instead of a disposable commodity? Are they more interested in the cost of hurt employees, after all, it’s a business and the bottom dollar is very important. Are they more concerned about possible fines and jail time something like this would now bring? After all, much of what we are seeing now is a reaction to avoiding huge fines by changing the way we do business. Are they only interested in meeting OSHA basic requirements, and had OSHA not been created, the above would be a daily occurrence somewhere in the UPS system?
Which is it? Or is it a combination of things?
d
Several of us were in deep discussions on the safety program, issues and track record at UPS. Some of you will remember that I was quite active in the safety program at UPS here locally, with mixed results.
But when you look at the history and politics of safety at UPS, there are several truths that need to be evaluated.
First, how committed is UPS to the actual safety of the employee. I mean really. Not at the corp. level, but at the front line where the work is actually done. And I don’t mean just lip service to safety, but actual change in the way things are done, and the mentality of the front line sups.
IT was not that long ago history wise that we had a trailer with nearly 300 packages arrive at our center with a leaking hazmat (hydrochloric acid) leaking over some other hazmat packages in the right rear of the drop frame trailer.
It was getting near dispatch time, and the 300 packages really needed to make the sort, so we were instructed by the center management team to take a good breath of air, unload as much as possible in the nose, and as we ran back out, to push the packages out of the trailer. You could not see, as the fumes would burn your eyes, you could not breathe either. Just one example of UPS not that long ago.
Fast forward to what we have today.
So why the difference? Is UPS really concerned about the employee, and has changed the way they look at us, as a valuable resource instead of a disposable commodity? Are they more interested in the cost of hurt employees, after all, it’s a business and the bottom dollar is very important. Are they more concerned about possible fines and jail time something like this would now bring? After all, much of what we are seeing now is a reaction to avoiding huge fines by changing the way we do business. Are they only interested in meeting OSHA basic requirements, and had OSHA not been created, the above would be a daily occurrence somewhere in the UPS system?
Which is it? Or is it a combination of things?
d