Does Anyone Know The Truth?

[nickelplaterick]

I am hearing so many different stories, I can't make heads or tails of it all. I work out of UPS Freight South Holland. I see so much wrong at this hub, it makes me wonder if they are even trying to "build" the brand. Or, are they waiting until the 5 years are up for tax reasons, then they will shutdown UPS Freight.
I come from a UPS "family" more or less and this is not how Brown runs things. I wonder if some of this is because so many of the former Overnite management are upset of 1. Being bought by UPS 2. Having to deal with the Teamsters since Overnite fought with them for decades?

We are losing runs left & right. We had a layoff on the road board of 4-5 drivers. Rumor has it that next up is all the sleeper teams are going to be eliminated after this national grievence panel in January. The company wants to combine the road extra board and the road fill-in board into one position of 18 drivers but they DONOT want to guarantee the 40 hour pay for the extra board.
If they consolidate those positions it will drop the 90% down to around 75%.

Up until today, we had 95 drivers. Now we are at 90. If we lose those team runs, that will knock another 10-12 people out of a job!
And, all the time this is going on, outside contractors are running freight in/out of SOH or around us. It seems the Teamsters are powerless in stopping this from happening. It is really sad, and causes anxiety for all concerned.

 

[bigd332]

When are you going to learn that UPS IS the Union and they are going to do whatever they want.

 

[raceanoncr]

I am hearing so many different stories, I can't make heads or tails of it all. I work out of UPS Freight South Holland. I see so much wrong at this hub, it makes me wonder if they are even trying to "build" the brand. Or, are they waiting until the 5 years are up for tax reasons, then they will shutdown UPS Freight.
I come from a UPS "family" more or less and this is not how Brown runs things. I wonder if some of this is because so many of the former Overnite management are upset of 1. Being bought by UPS 2. Having to deal with the Teamsters since Overnite fought with them for decades?

We are losing runs left & right. We had a layoff on the road board of 4-5 drivers. Rumor has it that next up is all the sleeper teams are going to be eliminated after this national grievence panel in January. The company wants to combine the road extra board and the road fill-in board into one position of 18 drivers but they DONOT want to guarantee the 40 hour pay for the extra board.
If they consolidate those positions it will drop the 90% down to around 75%.

Up until today, we had 95 drivers. Now we are at 90. If we lose those team runs, that will knock another 10-12 people out of a job!
And, all the time this is going on, outside contractors are running freight in/out of SOH or around us. It seems the Teamsters are powerless in stopping this from happening. It is really sad, and causes anxiety for all concerned.

For one thing, Nickel, you say you're losing runs left and right. Parcel side does this every year after peak. Some come back, some don't.

AND, there's now such a thing as THE ECONOMY! Not to be sarcastic, but I guess I will, have you watched the news recently? The whole WORLD is in an economic downturn! Businesses are ALL cutting back, including the parcel side. Watch, it is going to happen here next week.

You say contractors are running all around you and Teamsters are powerless? Well, what does your contract say? I don't know, I don't have a copy of it but could get one if you wish. What does it say about contractors? Running around you or out of your terminal?

You say you had 95 drivers now you have 90? Well, here at this hub (parcel side), at one time we had over 100 runs, now have about 73. What does that tell you? Feeder runs, that is (tractor-trailer road and pickup jobs).

You talk about rumors? Rumors that sleeper teams are being eliminated? Well, rumors are just that, RUMORS! What basis do you have for that statement? You know UPS would LOVE to eliminate ALL sleeper runs, parcel and freight, because it costs so much. Nevermind the savings in time committments. So, I say you're always going to hear that.

I just say, chill out a little bit. Wait for this economy to straighten out a little bit and READ THE CONTRACT THAT YOU JUST VOTED FOR! You DO have a contract, don't you? You DID vote, didn't you?

 

[cachsux]

You talk about rumors? Rumors that sleeper teams are being eliminated? Well, rumors are just that, RUMORS! What basis do you have for that statement? You know UPS would LOVE to eliminate ALL sleeper runs, parcel and freight, because it costs so much. Nevermind the savings in time committments. So, I say you're always going to hear that.

I`d like to eliminate sleeper runs but it`s because you guys couldn`t park a set in a straight line if your lives depended on it.

 

[01focus]

I agree with bigd332. I learned a few weeks ago that ups is the union and they do what they want when my steward told me that " We can't stop ups from doing anything, all we can do is file a greivance". Thats not that story i heard day in and day out around corners, in empty trailers and late nite phone calls when they were trying to recruit me. . I was convinced that the world will change. The only thing that i am gauranteed is that $55 a month is coming from my check. It's almost like child support. You may not see your kid but once a month or year but you can bet that we will deduct once a month!

 

[raceanoncr]

I`d like to eliminate sleeper runs but it`s because you guys couldn`t park a set in a straight line if your lives depended on it.

Cach, maybe you guys could take the time (yeah, like you don't have any) to straighten out the 6000 bays so that when phone gal says, "Put your set in 6312" you don't have to drive down to 5000s and walk up and tell em it's so screwed up in 6000s that it'll take til July 4 to get it untangled.

I always liked when taking extras to Cach..."Whater YOU doing here?" Geez, couldn't somebody make a phone call? "Well, what are you sposed to be taking back?" Geez, if we knew that we woulda been gone already.

Well, after much consternation, they figgered out we could take bay 3000 and door 2300. Ok, let's see, dolly spotted nowhere. That's OK, we get paid for it (two drivers, that is). Asking a spotter was out of the question. "Not my job area!" So...get first trailer, go find dolly...hook it on back of first trailer...take it over to door 2xxx and wiggle it in to almost hook up back trailer. Hmmm, Cach seems to have this quirky little practice of lower all load trailer past fifth wheel ramps so it's impossible for ANY tractor to get under it. "Well, no matter. A spotter sees this, they'll be gracious enough to raise the trailer sos we can get under it".

Well, you know the rest. Such as having to call upstairs, wait for disgruntled spotter to finally show up, hooking up, leaving, THEN the best part...trying to explain to home domicile why you took over two hours for a simple drop and hook.

No, I ain't bitchin but THAT'S why I can't park in a straight line!!!

 

[nickelplaterick]

Per our contract, Article 44 states that no sub-contractor, outside carrier(Schneider etc.) can be used unless all contract covered members are working or if the freight is one-way only. They(UPS Freight) uses contractors on Salt Lake City , Minneapolis, Harrisburg & Memphis(which runs both ways). As for the people "layed off" they moved them to the dock or spotting trailers so that's where that stands, so now they can use subs again. As someone said in a previous posting--UPS is the union.

 

[slaveof18wheels]

Per our contract, Article 44 states that no sub-contractor, outside carrier(Schneider etc.) can be used unless all contract covered members are working or if the freight is one-way only. They(UPS Freight) uses contractors on Salt Lake City , Minneapolis, Harrisburg & Memphis(which runs both ways). As for the people "layed off" they moved them to the dock or spotting trailers so that's where that stands, so now they can use subs again. As someone said in a previous posting--UPS is the union.

Nickel it wouldn't matter if they "gave" them work or not. Ups is going to continue to do whatever they want and it doesn't appear that teamsters really care. We just laid off 2 in Palatine, including our steward and the contractors just keep on rolling right out of the gate. What really is disappointing is the response from 710 regarding the contractors. We have been getting trailer numbers and copies of manifests of both inbound and outbound rails, contractors, owner-operators, and anybody else that comes into the yard that isn't UPGF and the unions response, (and this isn't a joke either); "You are just on a fishing expedition and this is going nowhere. You are wasting your time". To the best of my memory if you don't throw the line in the water, you never catch the big one.

 

[Seasoned UPSer]

I am just responding to stand-up for the sleeper driver comment :You know UPS would LOVE to eliminate ALL sleeper runs, parcel and freight, because it costs so much.

This is not true. Sleeper runs save the company alot of money. Think about how much it cost to fly packages as opposed to sending a sleeper team out that can make a NDA commitment.

 

[jojoe]

article44 deals with subcontracting

 

[buffalodaddy]

Re:Heard UPS Freight is Laying Off 400 Drivers??

I heard thru the Grapevine that UPS Freight was going to follow suite and Layoff 400 Drivers like Fed Ex freight is going to do. Anyone know anything?? or is this just another rumor????

 

[slaveof18wheels]

Re: Heard UPS Freight is Laying Off 400 Drivers??

I heard thru the Grapevine that UPS Freight was going to follow suite and Layoff 400 Drivers like Fed Ex freight is going to do. Anyone know anything?? or is this just another rumor????

If they decide to lay more of us off it will be so more of those poor contractors can work. Besides they are kind of in frozen mode not knowing what to do with regards to YRCW. If they collapse we will be scrambling trying to put every piece of blue and grey (oops I mean brown & grey) equipment back on the road so we can go and pick up more freight for the contractors. I do know for a fact that if you go to the UPS Freight website every terminal in the system is still taking employment inquiries just in case Yellow does go under.

 

[nickelplaterick]

Did you see the press release regarding Advanced Auto? They are shutting down their private fleet & UPS Freight & Schneider will be running it. UPS Freight and Schneider are interviewing Advanced Auto people to see who they will retain in this new operation.

 

[City Driver]

i aint heard a word about this

but id like to say your south holland terminal sends us in indy some of the ugliest trailers......the only terminal worse then u is memphis


nothing gets braced, theres always **** everywhere its ridiculous the way you stack trailers

 

[jd.brown]

We are the Teamsters. If your local isn't doing enough to protect your job, perhaps you should do some rank and file organizing. It's not easy, but in the end, it may be your job you're fighting for. The Teamsters is a strong union, but the labor movement in general has been on a downward spiral for most of the last 30 years. The UPS strike of '97 was one of the highlights. Hoffa's disaster at Overnight was one of the lowpoints. When the rank and file is involved, the power is greater. We can overcome the bureaucracy.

-jd