Amazonageddon doesn't happen: UPS & Teamsters make a deal...
- Thread starter Maroon Eagle
- Start date
Thank god! My wife did need anything else to be pissed at me about that I had absolutely nothing to do with.
Really glad to see it. With Yellow teetering, freight was about to get wacky again.
My time at UPS loading trucks completely soured my opinion of unions (prior to this I had no opinion or experience). I did not join the union because I didn't want to lose $11 a paycheck. The union stewards were constantly on me for "working to hard" reminding me that the union had negotiated MAR - minimum average responsibility and I was loading too many packages per hour, thus making them look bad.
As I've grown older, I can at least appreciate company's propensity to ride the horse that runs and see where somebody keeping them check might be ok to some extent. I still can't get on board with not working your hardest while at work and/or not doing your best.
Way back when I was employed at Stanford, I had what could have been a union job (United Stanford Workers - part of the SEIU) and like you I didn't join because I was going to be there only for a few months before going to graduate school.
The union guy was cool about it because I was upfront and told him I was just going to be a short-timer. We chatted a few times. If I was going to be at Stanford long-term, I'd have probably joined-- simply because unlike the people you dealt with this union steward came across as a nice guy.
The teamsters took my advice. I said "walk in, and say 'do you remember Jimmy Hoffa, it could be you next'"
I went through a union organizing campaign as a member of management years ago.it got ugly. Let's just say that unions are no longer about protecting the workers but are all about extortion, both the union members and employers.
Made the deal, huh, better hang onto your pocket book.
you sir, are a unicorn at UPS then. i just got my 35th year in back in April. believe me when i say this , ain t nobody in the hub that i work in ever been accused of "working too hard". they spend more time trying to get out of work than actually working . im currently paying $23 a paycheck when it comes to union dues, which will actually go up a dollar or two when the new contract takes effect. sometimes i think about getting out of the union because i never have to use it for dislipine reasons. if your one of the ones who are not doing s..t , then yes, you should mos def pay that weekly fee.
Now they will have air conditions in their trucks. I think I would have gone on strike over that. I worked for three months before I went into the Marine Corps in the HUB in Jackson Unloading trucks. I was good at it. The Sorters hated seeing me coming. I took pride in it and my supervisor loved it too. They hated to see me leave. They did work my *** off and I was on a timer when unloading. I only worked four hours a day but I probably did 8 hours work in that 4 hour. No way I could have done that 8 hours a day. Physically I don't see anyone loading or unloading those trucks for 8 hours at the speed they require.
Ironically enough, the union still had to be in the middle of any potential discipline. They intercepted and delayed all written warnings from UPS to the employees when I was there, thus making it pretty difficult to get people warned in the right time frame. I was told that I was written up for missorts a couple of times, but I never saw them. Union steward told me. Stupid small sort no doubt!
ETA: when I was there 650 packages per hour was MAR for loading. If you did that little your trailer backed out. That was fine with union stewards because to them it just meant that they would go to bat for more jobs and be sure everyone knew they were fighting to get more help. I loaded right around 1000 packages an hour on average because i didn't want to spend my life getting cursed out for shutting down PD7 and constantly be climbing rollers, belts and chutes breaking jams from being backed up.
it was 650 for the longest ... i think its 450 now... they cut it down by almost a third yet people still claim to be overworked... you doin a thousand an hour, you were def a unicorn... when written up now it has to be you, the union steward and the full time supervisor there when you are given the write up
Wow! I think I could do 450 at my age. To be fair, one of my trailers got a nightly direct hit from Levis. Heavy denim, but uniform packages size. That first trailer took 15-20 minutes to fill, then I had to close the chute and wait on a trailer swap, thus guaranteeing that my entire belt would backup and have to be stopped. The good news was I got help breaking jams once the new trailer got in place because nobody else had any packages to load until mine got out of the way. I'm pretty sure that the unload guys made a game of seeing if they could pack the belt enough to back PD7 up all the way to the unload area.
ETA: We had little to no automation at that time. Pick off guys were still in place to route packages.
Our regular driver said there is a catch on the “air conditioned trucks”. Those sneaky mofos stipulated NEW trucks will have them.
He said his last truck had 500k miles before he got a new one. I suspect their mechanics will soon get proficient with cylinder sleeve and transmission replacements
He said his last truck had 500k miles before he got a new one. I suspect their mechanics will soon get proficient with cylinder sleeve and transmission replacements
Looks like Yellow is shutting down operations.
Lotta assets between their hubs & equipment, I'm sure someone will come in and swoop it all up
"Yellow received a $700 million loan from the government in 2020 as part of a COVID-19 rescue package. In return, the Treasury Department took a 30% stake in the company's shares, which have since plummeted to less than a dollar apiece as of Friday."
Boys, it looks like OUR freight company just went tits ups.
Wild how corporate executives always lose their minds with their decision making when they get to play with house money.
Shocker that a member of management who is on the opposite side of a union negotiation would feel this way.