Falsification of United Way contribution

[UPS Lifer]

I have to say this one more time. Prior to 2000, I gave just enough to keep people from pressuring me...it was peanuts. I justified it a million different ways. I got an operation with over 200 part-time employees (mgmt and non-mgmt) and saw how much these PT folks gave every week. I was truly embarrassed and humbled by their unselfish giving. It was an epiphany for me. I became a leadership giver because of my employees and the real winners were the people that money helped (no matter how much got to them).

 

[ExMgr]

The fact that it's $1.00 is what makes it appear way suspicious. As others mentioned before, the overall UW goal is 2 fold - $ amount raised and % participation. To me, this sounds like someone entered a dollar for you to up their participation % effective. Maybe it was just keyed in that way into the system by someone higher up stream, so they may not have to had to fill out your form and/or forge your sig...

Either way, I would approach payroll directly on this if you can and not your immediate management team, as they would be less likely to be involved if anything shady is going on and you could get some facts before hitting up your sup or mgr.

I think the UW campaigns are kind of ridiculous. I gave at leadership level every year I was with the company...as an hourly, sup and manager. At the hourly level it wasnt that much so I Did...but at the manager level I did because it's one less thing to get your kicked over.

Regardless of what anyone says, there is always pressure to give at a higher level to make up the diff for what your center or dept didnt give. i think its BS how the company coerces its people to give and sits them down 1 on 1, etc...the cards should be simply passed out, a due date established, and that should be the end of it.

I left the company last summer for a variety of reasons (mainly because i was tired of getting ted on)...but were I with the company, I wouldnt give jack to UW. Or I wouldnt do it thru UPS, anyway. It's the people doing the majority of the giving, not the corporation.

 

[HazMatMan]

I'm wondering if there are ANY management people NOT giving to the United Way??

 

[HazMatMan]

Don't even get me started on United Way. There's a driver in our building that has a son that was born with severe medical problems. The child has had 6 operations so far in his first 12 months of life. His wife, of course has been by her son's side every single minute. My brother driver has been THE sole support of income for the family. He has taken time off to be with his son as much as possible. The family has needless to say fallen WAY behind on all their bills. He applied to United Way for assistance. He was told that he didn't qualify for help based on the fact that he made $105 more per year then their guidlines allow. So, myself and the rest of my fellow drivers informed our Center Manager that NONE of us would be giving to United Way this year but instead would be donating to our fellow driver. The company was irrate. Had United Way reps come in and address the situation. To no avail. Then after getting no where with us, now the company is putting on a fund raising dinner and silent auction for the driver and his family later this month. Info about his is on UPSers.com in the Atlantic District headlines.

I heard of a situation like that in my building, except I think the guy lost his house in a fire.

 

[Channahon]

I had a supervisor who chose not to particpate in the United Way campaign, which somewhat surprised me. She was involved in "Big Brothers/Big Sisters" and they are a United Way sponsored agency and she could have designated her monies to that agency.

End of conversation. She made her choice and I respected her decision.

 

[71chevy]

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I grew up an army brat and if there is one thing I wish UPS management would adopt, it is an honor code. "...will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do". - United State Military Academy West Point[/QUOTE]

Management is expected to do whatever it takes to make everything work, therefore, lie, cheat, stab in the back, whatever it takes to get the job done.

 

[over9five]

"I grew up an army brat and if there is one thing I wish UPS management would adopt, it is an honor code. "...will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do". - United State Military Academy West Point"

UPS has this:

"The core of these values, which still inspires UPS employees today, is that UPS is a company of honesty, quality, and integrity."

" We expect - as we always have - that UPS employees, and the people acting on our behalf, will adhere to these principles."

"Any employee of UPS, regardless of his or her position within the company, who violates our legal or ethical responsibilities, will be subject to appropriate discipline, which may include dismissal."

The UPS Code of Business Conduct may be viewed by anyone at ups.com.

 

[local804]

"Any employee of UPS, regardless of his or her position within the company, who violates our legal or ethical responsibilities, will be subject to appropriate discipline, which may include dismissal."

The UPS Code of Business Conduct may be viewed by anyone at ups.com.

Looks good on paper but why isnt that followed?
example- Suit that pushed employee into poll in the Suffolk building(police were called and injury report was filed)suit was moved to another bldg
They can write whatever horse ship they want, if they dont follow it, its dont matter.

Ah it says "may include dismissal"

 

[over9five]

"Ah it says "may include dismissal"


I see your point. Perhaps that should be highlighted!


Did the employee file charges with the police? Were there witnesses? What happened?

 

[outamyway]

This may be a bit harsh but I'd like to have something like this on my center manager.............

 

[Brown Dog]

I would bet somewhere in your Center Managers dest or hidden in a file cabinet is a plaque saying "Thank you for having 100% participation in the United Way drive".

You got that right

 

[local804]

Police came to the center and employee is still out on comp. The employee did not press charges with the police but did file an accident report with liberty mutual. He is recieving workers comp still for his injury. I heard the sups father was a retired police officer and I am sure the sup spends time under someones desk in UPS. Sup is still an OC suit just in another building and out of the center. Isnt UPS such a great place to work? I guess if the driver dont like his job he can quit right? gtfo

there were 3 drivers as witnesses and a ft sup.

 

[UPSRETIRED]

Hi all. I have been retired for 7 years. Was a management person. I have never been a fan of United Way. The last 6 months before I retired I was a loaned executive to United Way for my district. During the coarse of my orientation I found out that UW took 14% off the top to cover its operating expenses. I also found out that many UW employees on the local level had salaries of $35,000 to $42,000 a year. Keep in mind that this was 7 years ago, don't know what the numbers are today. (When I did retire I applied for one of these jobs.) In any event, my feeling is that UW has become irrelevent. If a person wants to contribute to something he should not have to do it through a middleman. To save myself from harrassment while I was working I contributed $1.00 and this did not necessarily save me any hassle. UPS has always wanted to be seen as the good guy and what better way than to "use" UW to show the public our philanthropic spirit. I feel for you, guys. Some things never change.

 

[Channahon]

Understanding employees are solicited once a year for a United Way contribution, there is much more that UPS does for your communities through the UPS Foundation.

This link is from UPS.com and is available to the general public. It is the annual report for 2006 and lists all the organizations that received monies from the Foundation, which is separate from the United Way dollars collected during the campaign.

I think most UPS employees are caring, understanding, and give from their hearts in a time of need. That has been expressed on this board many times, and it is disheartening to see negative comments about contributions made for charitable organizations in your communities.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

I too had a United Way deduction taken out of my first check of the year. It wasn't for a mere dollar though. Mine was for $10.00!!! I'm glad this topic was started otherwise I might not have ever bothered to look under the deductions field of my check. I was out of town all weekend and a friend let me get on his laptop for a while and I logged on this site. When I opened this topic I didn't think nothing of it at first then later in the day I suddenly got the urge to check my stub. I had to wait until I returned home since it was on my computer desk. I wasn't too surprised to see the deduction though. Our management team has been fudging numbers for year. I wasn't sure they'd stoop low enough for this one though!

 

[scratch]

Understanding employees are solicited once a year for a United Way contribution, there is much more that UPS does for your communities through the UPS Foundation.

This is so true, I know first hand. About eight-ten years ago, my wife and myself were involved with the Atlanta Chapter for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. I applied for A UPS Foundation Grant, and was able to get a contribution on a Ga. District level. This gift was used to help with more fund raising. I have been involved with another national organization that is involved with working with young people, and both the United Way and the UPS Foundation have both made very generous donations that are used to provide programs for disadvantaged youth in the Atlanta area. If you are involved with any non-profit group, I will encourage you to apply for a grant, it doesn't hurt to try. I have mailed in a couple of letters that I never heard anything back on, but UPS does get a lot of requests and can't help everybody.

 

[beentheredonethat]

I had a supervisor who chose not to particpate in the United Way campaign, which somewhat surprised me. She was involved in "Big Brothers/Big Sisters" and they are a United Way sponsored agency and she could have designated her monies to that agency.

End of conversation. She made her choice and I respected her decision.

I've notated before that having the United Way and having the opportunity for payroll deductions is a good way of contributing to the community. However, if you are deeply involved with another agency why would you donate $100 or $1,000 to the United Way so that they take their piece of the action and send the rest of it to the charity you designate?

Also, I've never gotten an answer to this question. I've had a lot of people say what they thought what the answer is, but no one could give me a 100% positive answer. If I do decide to direct money to one agency. How do I know my money really went there. By this I mean, if the United Way decided to give that Agency $10,000 during the fiscal year. With my donation does that now bring them up to $10,000 plus my donation? Or is my donation now "part" of the $10,000 so that my directing money really didn't get more money to the agency I specified.

Things may be a lot better, but when I did payroll a long time ago. Early 90's. I came into the dept and looked at our monthly processing of checks to the United Way coming from the employee deductions. I asked the payroll admin how do you know what to send to each United Way chapter and she pulled out an old spreadsheet that had the distribution percentages on it that we got from HR. Only thing was the paperwork was 3 years old. We were sending to the UW chapters based on what we should have done 3 years ago, not an updated copy. I fixed it for the following month by getting new paperwork from HR. However, I wonder how many other districts this was happening in. I'm hoping with the better technology they have a better way of sending the correct monies to the correct UW chapters.

 

[scratch]

Also, I've never gotten an answer to this question. I've had a lot of people say what they thought what the answer is, but no one could give me a 100% positive answer. If I do decide to direct money to one agency. How do I know my money really went there. By this I mean, if the United Way decided to give that Agency $10,000 during the fiscal year. With my donation does that now bring them up to $10,000 plus my donation? Or is my donation now "part" of the $10,000 so that my directing money really didn't get more money to the agency I specified.

I volunteer as a Program Director for one of these charities, and this was bought up in a meeting I attended once. If that charity recieves $10,000 from the United Way and I pledge an additional $1000 myself directly, then the United Way gives the charity $10.000, not $11.000. That other $1000 is given to another charity. So in other words, the United Way decides how much it will give that charity. An exception would be if fifteen people designated a $1000 a piece to that same charity, then that charity would get $15,000. At least that is my understanding. I have heard that the United Way keeps 14% for itself, not the 10% that we were told at work.

 

[beentheredonethat]

Scratch,
Thanks for the info. What you said is what I thought would happen.

 

[MrFedEx]

Interesting stuff. We have the same situation over here at FedEx. Even if I make a change and elect to make a "zero" contribution, the company keeps taking the money out until you go to management and file a complaint. I used to give $8.00 per pay period until I realized that FedEx was coming-off as a good corporate citizen at my expense. Even after I elected to no longer contribute, the money kept being deducted.

We get the big push to contribute every year, with mandatory videos, a mandatory trip to the computer where you must sign-off that you've seen the video and heard the canned speech from your manager, AND then 3 pages of denials if you choose not to contribute. Then the computer double-checks, and asks you one more time if you're SURE you don't want to have a deduction. Jeez....

Don't get me wrong...charities are great, and the United Way is a good one, but FedEx and UPS push really hard for everyone to contribute so the corporation(s) look good. Managers are totally bent over, because they also have to do volunteer work,again so the company looks good.