ZeroCool1995
New Member
You can call me Paul and this is my story at UPS and how today I am struggling to get by.
I joined UPS almost a year ago. I quit a fulltime job and took a pay cut to work here because of the oppertunities and I thought UPS cared about its work force.After the first two months I had averaged 100 pieces per hour more then what was asked of me 150 pieces per hour over the Hub average. This along with the fact that I have never been late or missed a day got me near fulltime hours extreamly quick.
I was raised that if you work hard you will be rewarded so I took that attituied with me to UPS and at first I thought I my hard work was paying off. I had been warned by some friends that worked at UPS that it was differnet here that "the harder you work the harder they will work you" I sonn began to see that as I was being taken of my load to help others and then to close out up to 12 trucks for the last hour of the day by my self.
They decieded that insted of me helping the same person everyday that I would just take his heaviest truck. At this point I thinks its important to tell yu that I am not a big guy in fact im rather small stand 5'9 130-135 doing a all industrial city 1200-1600 with the average box wieght being 30lbs. Eregs often where heavier then I.
This is where the trouble began.
I told my sup that I felt that this was to much wieght for me but he assured me I would get help when I needed it. LOL I should have got that in writting. My piece count drop drastically with the extra truck. At the same time I was watching the guy next to me with only 3 trucks who started his load before me with have 2 people helping him. He was not a small guy.
After about a month or 2 of this I began having pain in one of my arms. I told my sup about it and was told to go see my own doctor. Now its peak and Im working 8-10 hours a day then going to school for 4 hours. Finally peak ends and I get my insuranse all cleared away and can go see a doctor. He said I may have torn ligaments in my arm and need atleast 2 weeks of light duty. So i go back to work with the doctors note and they tell me I cant do light duty because I saw my own doctor. I tell them that they told me to and I get a sorry cant help. So never being hurt before on the job and never being in a Union before I took two weeks off of work.
I came back to work and almost after picking up the first box the pain came shooting back. I stoped working but didnt see my sup I thoguht Id actually see what my union said. From the shop stewrd to the sup to the manager to the saftey guy to the head manager we went. I had reported it when it first happened so after long talks I was takin to the doctors. 6 more weeks light duty but now I would be getting paid sorta.
2 weeks without pay 4 weeks of 2.5-3 hours and oh yes because I was doing a skilled job they took a dollar away from my hourly pay because I'm not doing that job. So I went from 35-50 hours a week at $10 a hour to 10-15 hours a week at $9 a hour. I have taken such a drastic lose in my wages that I couldnt pay for my next semester tuition. I have had to drian my bank account to pay for rent and all the extra gas form driving to the doctors and phisical theropy nearly everyday. In fact while i still have over 2 weeks of physical theropy left I had to ask my docotr for a early release because I wont be able to make my car insurance next week with out working more hours so abck to work I go pain and all and all for nothing. 6 weeks still not better 6 weeks of lost wages and for what? This is how UPS takes care of its hard workers? Some one show me that list of best companies to work for.
I write this in anger and in hope that people will read this and realize that we hub workers make great sacrifices for this company and deserve more.
I live in California where it is likely the minimum wage in the state will be higher then the wages in the new contract. How can I make it to driver or managment if I can hardly afford to eat more then once a day. Don't you wonder why you turnover rate is so high? Working graveyard shift and near minimum wage hours is hard. You can do more with those 6 billion in profits and so can the Teamsters
Paul
Sory about poor spelling and grammer it was hard to type this all with one hand.
I joined UPS almost a year ago. I quit a fulltime job and took a pay cut to work here because of the oppertunities and I thought UPS cared about its work force.After the first two months I had averaged 100 pieces per hour more then what was asked of me 150 pieces per hour over the Hub average. This along with the fact that I have never been late or missed a day got me near fulltime hours extreamly quick.
I was raised that if you work hard you will be rewarded so I took that attituied with me to UPS and at first I thought I my hard work was paying off. I had been warned by some friends that worked at UPS that it was differnet here that "the harder you work the harder they will work you" I sonn began to see that as I was being taken of my load to help others and then to close out up to 12 trucks for the last hour of the day by my self.
They decieded that insted of me helping the same person everyday that I would just take his heaviest truck. At this point I thinks its important to tell yu that I am not a big guy in fact im rather small stand 5'9 130-135 doing a all industrial city 1200-1600 with the average box wieght being 30lbs. Eregs often where heavier then I.
This is where the trouble began.
I told my sup that I felt that this was to much wieght for me but he assured me I would get help when I needed it. LOL I should have got that in writting. My piece count drop drastically with the extra truck. At the same time I was watching the guy next to me with only 3 trucks who started his load before me with have 2 people helping him. He was not a small guy.
After about a month or 2 of this I began having pain in one of my arms. I told my sup about it and was told to go see my own doctor. Now its peak and Im working 8-10 hours a day then going to school for 4 hours. Finally peak ends and I get my insuranse all cleared away and can go see a doctor. He said I may have torn ligaments in my arm and need atleast 2 weeks of light duty. So i go back to work with the doctors note and they tell me I cant do light duty because I saw my own doctor. I tell them that they told me to and I get a sorry cant help. So never being hurt before on the job and never being in a Union before I took two weeks off of work.
I came back to work and almost after picking up the first box the pain came shooting back. I stoped working but didnt see my sup I thoguht Id actually see what my union said. From the shop stewrd to the sup to the manager to the saftey guy to the head manager we went. I had reported it when it first happened so after long talks I was takin to the doctors. 6 more weeks light duty but now I would be getting paid sorta.
2 weeks without pay 4 weeks of 2.5-3 hours and oh yes because I was doing a skilled job they took a dollar away from my hourly pay because I'm not doing that job. So I went from 35-50 hours a week at $10 a hour to 10-15 hours a week at $9 a hour. I have taken such a drastic lose in my wages that I couldnt pay for my next semester tuition. I have had to drian my bank account to pay for rent and all the extra gas form driving to the doctors and phisical theropy nearly everyday. In fact while i still have over 2 weeks of physical theropy left I had to ask my docotr for a early release because I wont be able to make my car insurance next week with out working more hours so abck to work I go pain and all and all for nothing. 6 weeks still not better 6 weeks of lost wages and for what? This is how UPS takes care of its hard workers? Some one show me that list of best companies to work for.
I write this in anger and in hope that people will read this and realize that we hub workers make great sacrifices for this company and deserve more.
I live in California where it is likely the minimum wage in the state will be higher then the wages in the new contract. How can I make it to driver or managment if I can hardly afford to eat more then once a day. Don't you wonder why you turnover rate is so high? Working graveyard shift and near minimum wage hours is hard. You can do more with those 6 billion in profits and so can the Teamsters
Paul
Sory about poor spelling and grammer it was hard to type this all with one hand.
