A possible MLK Holiday Solution?

Hot Carl

Well-Known Member
Really? Doesn't happen here...maybe that's a southern thing.

Good Friday, on the other hand, is a ghost town for most businesses here.
Interesting. I have 70+ businesses on my route and maybe one or two of them were out that day besides the dentists who are always closed on Friday anyway.
 

Ghost in the Darkness

Well-Known Member
I have vacations on 4th of July week, Thanksgiving and sometimes Christmas when it's a bid week. I use the vacation/holiday overlap days somewhere else. If they argue I point out it's in the contract.
 

Ou812fu

Polishing toilet bowls since 1966.
I have been following the contract updates and it is my understanding that making MLK Day a holiday is one unresolved issue.

I believe that anyone who really and truly wants to have MLK Day off should be granted their wish.

That said, I also respect the reasons against pausing all operations at UPS for yet another day since this past Labor Day, traditionally one of the "major holidays" I saw Amazon drivers out delivering.

The solution I am informally proposing here, speaking for no one other than myself, but hoping to win other people over, is to have an additional discretionary day added to the contract which someone may choose to take on MLK day, or any other occasion, or receive a payout for the day at the end of the year.

As a general rule, I believe that the more options we give each other, the better off we will all be ultimately.

Some time ago, I started a thread asking if those in leadership at UPS or the IBT check out what is being posted here. Right now, I am really hoping they do though I am curious what even people who aren't in leadership think of my idea...and I figure I will find out soon enough...
Screw Amazon. Quit following what other major money loosing companies do. I'm not for the mlk, because their trade off would be the day after Thanksgiving. No thanks..
 

Trucker Clock

Well-Known Member
Now those are among the really big issues on which I believe the Teamsters need to stand their ground.

Ya think?

This is the reason UPS isn't taking O'Brien seriously. With all these other big issues to deal with, he is pushing for MLK and Juneteenth.

You already have 4 option days, and can break up your option week onto separate days, giving you 9. What are you willing to give up to get another day? Because that is how it works.

Right now, O'Brien is saying that this is what we want, and if you don't give it to us, we will walk. Again, that's why UPS won't take him seriously.

I agree that there should be no concessions, but to expect everything you ask for is ridiculous, or better yet, blackmail. His ego is going to have us on the picket line for all the wrong reasons.
 
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bumped

Well-Known Member
Ya think?

This is the reason UPS isn't taking O'Brien seriously. With all these other big issues to deal with, he is pushing for MLK and Juneteenth.

You already have 4 option days, and can break up your option week onto separate days, giving you 9. What are you willing to give up to get another day? Because that is how it works.

Right now, O'Brien is saying that this is what we want, and if you don't give it to us, we will walk. Again, that's why UPS won't take him seriously.

I agree that there should be no concessions, but to expect everything you ask for is ridiculous, or better yet, blackmail. His ego is going to have us on the picket line for all the wrong reasons.
I don't get 4 option days. I only get 2 personal days and zero sick days. I'd willing to give up New Years Eve and the day after Thanksgiving in return for the holidays the USPS gets.
 

noril

Well-Known Member
If someone really wants MLK day they can already use a discretionary day. The point is no one wants to have to use a discretionary day for a holiday they believe they should already be off.
That is why I have tried to make a case for negotiating in an ADDITIONAL discretionary day AS AN ALTERNATIVE to a paid company wide MLK Day holiday...One can use that discretionary day on MLK Day or any other day of ones choosing or take a payout...And the company benefits by not pausing operations.

Maybe our difference in thought on this issue ultimately shows a deeper difference between us...I favor giving people as much "space" as possible to make their own choices on the belief that each person should be capable of selecting what is right for him and am fine with different people choosing different options. Someone may want MLK Day off, another may want Good Friday, yet another may choose Veterans Day, and yet still another may just want some extra cash...All those choices are fine with me... In my mind, what I am proposing is better than some UPS or Teamster nanny figure telling us what days should be taken off.

The only solid argument I see against what I am proposing and for a company wide holiday is that there are so many people just yearning to have MLK Day off that it is practically impossible to run an operation with the number of people who would be willing to come in, so a company wide holiday is needed. Though I have not studied this issue in depth, I just don't see that being the case. People complain about plenty of different things at UPS, but I have not sensed that being scheduled to work on MLK Day is a real common major complaint.

I do thank you though, 542, for better engaging what I am saying with your comment in post #52 quoted above as opposed to your sarcastic reply earlier where I don't sense you really understood what I was saying based the response
 

noril

Well-Known Member
I don't get 4 option days. I only get 2 personal days and zero sick days. I'd willing to give up New Years Eve and the day after Thanksgiving in return for the holidays the USPS gets.
There seems to be quite a bit of difference on this point between the different supplements. In Local 705 where we actually have our own separate contract apart from but based on the national, we essentially have 9 discretionary days and no "official" paid sick days. If not taken, those 9 days are paid out in cash at the end of the year. Black Friday and New Years Eve are normal working days but you still get an extra day of pay for them.
 

noril

Well-Known Member
At my center every Jewish person I know request it and if denied just takes it. None have been written up to my knowledge.

I keep telling people do the same. I request my birthday off every year and if I get denied it's a sick day.
Sometimes you just have to stand up for yourself and for your needs...
 

noril

Well-Known Member
I think all veterans deserve the day off paid. I'm not a veteran so I don't think I should get the day off, nor should i get paid not to work.
I know a self employed painter for whom the idea of "paid time off" is a foreign concept. If he is not working, he is not getting paid...its that simple, regardless of whether its a holiday, or he is very sick, or just needs some time off to rest and refresh...
 
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