Based on your reply, I sense you didn't read all the posting on this thread, which is understandable, since there is a lot here, and I tend to write long, but I find that life is complicated and one simply can't get by with short bumper sticker slogans...
To (re)answer your question. I am actually a part-time air driver, and (oversimplifying here) one of the major reasons I have stayed in that classification is to avoid the tons of overtime that I have seen like all full-timers getting in the past... In that sense, this issue doesn't not really affect me directly right now. That said, the future of the air driver classification seems somewhat uncertain, so I would consider going full-time if the job offered a better work-life balance.
Most of what is written below is taken from post #33 and 27:
I remind everyone that 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week has been considered "standard" for a full-time job, in large part thanks to the hard work of labor unions over time, so I really don't understand how or when has asking to have ones work week be basically around 40 hours most of the time become a sign of laziness or weakness?
This is contract negotiation time and the union has sought the input of the rank and file. Many other people have complained about excessive, unwanted overtime and I have tried to present a workable solution here with the hope that an idea will work its way up...
I believe we are all basically the top experts on our own situations, so I have absolutely no desire here to try and hold back people who want some amount of overtime, whatever that amount is. I am just saying that it should be those people who want the overtime that should be the ones filling out a special request form. The "default" setting should be that we are "working to live, not living to work."
I get that you have to accept certain challenges or discomforts which simply come with some particular job. I understand that long haul truck drivers need to accept that they will spend days away from home at a time. Also, driving for UPS will always be a different, grittier experience than say working the front desk at a doctor's office, and there is absolutely no language that can be written into our UPS-Teamster contract to make that unchangeable reality otherwise, but I do believe that at least most drivers SHOULD be able to have 40 hour a week jobs at UPS, IF THEY SO WANTED, at least for most of the year. If someone's ideal is working 8-9 hours per day, I am fine with that too. I have no desire to impose a fix on something which someone doesn't view as broken. Ditto for the person who has concluded that 11-12 hours is what ultimately works best for him.
I want to say again what I said in my OP: As best I remember from recently looking at the package car driver rosters at the hub out of which I work, approximately 10% of the people on the lists are out longer term due to some injury. I strongly suspect that this level of driver injury occurs as a result of all the overtime full time package car drivers have typically had to put in all throughout the year and that we would all be better off - rank and file workers and the corporation - if full-time drivers at least had an easy option of working right around the standard 40-hour work week and getting the off time to rest and recover properly in order to stay safe and in good health.
On a more personal level, after spending close to four years as a preloader, I went on to become a part-time air driver nearly 20 years ago where I have chosen to stay and it has worked out for me so far. One reason among others I have not wanted to go full time is because of all the overtime I know I would be required to put in whether I wanted to or not. I can list in my mind plenty of people who went full time package from part time air driving only to then find themselves getting injured after say 1 to 4 years. Some of those drivers eventually took some settlement and left UPS altogether. It is my thinking that if their hours hadn't been quite so long, they would have managed as full-time drivers just fine...
Additionally, for people who are married in family life, to get home earlier and have dinner at an appropriate hour with one's wife and children, I believe would be a fine, worthwhile, and REALISTIC goal as well. Again, we are not long haul drivers who HAVE to expect being out for days at a time.
The response to this thread I started has been interesting... Some people definitely seem to be in agreement with me while other people disagree strongly. And that is despite the fact that I see this 40.0 list I am suggesting being COMPLETELY OPTIONAL.
