The knives are out and the blood is flowing in my district.
A whole bunch of on-car sups and center managers are now on "60 day probation" for their production numbers.
To drive the point home, an on-car sup from a nearby building (Swan Island) just got fired for "dishonesty". His crime? Supposedly, he helped out a driver who had a family situation and needed to get home early by delivering a few stops out of his personal car for the driver and having the driver scan the packages in his DIAD.
This sup was a pretty popular guy among the drivers and had a reputation for being fair and decent...which is probably why he was a 54 yr old on car sup with no hope of promotion.
At 54 yrs of age, he was less than one year away from being able to retire with paid medical benefits until medicare elegibility at age 65. Now he is screwed, he will have to pay for medical out of pocket plus his pension is reduced. Thanks for your 29 yrs of service, now dont let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
He is the second 54 yr old sup to get whacked in the last few years on a trumped-up "dishonesty" charge. Stuff like this happens all the time and is condoned or at least overlooked when done by younger sups...but the 54 yr old who is almost eligible for medical bennies gets thrown under the bus to set an example for the others (not to mention saving the company $120,000 in medical expenses over 10 years.)
I'm not advocating what the sup did, but his intent was to try and help another human being, not to defraud the company. Whacking this guy months shy of his retirement was nothing more than a cold-blooded way to put some fear into the hearts of the local management. The punishment inflicted was out of all proportion to the act, especially in light of the fact that the upper level management who whacked this guy got to the level they are at by doing the same kind of stuff. There is no honor among thieves.
Show me a management person who has never fudged a number or cut a corner in his entire career...and I will show you a 54 yr old on car sup who sits in a cubicle auditing paperclips who will never get promoted. UPS management is like a stagnant pond; the scum will always float to the top while the decent ones tread water and try not to drown.
I guess I shouldnt feel too sorry for him, or for the other sups who are on "probation"; they knew or should have known what they were subjecting themselves to when they chose to go into management. But I hate seeing a decent human being get fired by people who are every bit as "dirty" as they are making him out to be. And it isnt fun working for management people who are fearful and scared for their jobs.
Anyone who has a problem being a union member or thinks that UPS would be better without a union needs to take a long hard look at the way UPS treats its own management people. And with Telematics and the decrease in volume and profits, things will only get worse.
