Planned Day???

[gman]

I wish I could have a planned day. By the time I get home, all my plans are shot! Got home early today. 7 p.m. Thats twice this month! Volume must be dropping, Better get more sales leads.

And I don't know about where you live, but I have NEVER seen a DHL or FedEx ground driver after 6 p.m. Yes I have seen FedEx air drivers but some of them work a later shift.

(Message edited by Gman on July 21, 2005)

 

[mary]

Okay - OK - First of all read my post...My husband does not work for UPS - I do. As far as being naive - I'm not. I am fully aware that some DHL and FedEx drivers are suing their respective companies because they want to be considered employees instead of contractors. That seems fair to me. Inside my own company I see what is going on as well. Because FedEx and DHL are doing it quicker and faster, we have been FORCED to 'respond'. It is not a position that this company is accustomed to. We have set the standards in this industry for so long now.

Spent only one 7.75 hour day in a package car. Spent several years in a hub - 100+ degrees or alternately below zero degrees. And you're right - I cant do that til I'm 65 - so I went back to school and graduated. By the way UPS paid for that too.

As for the connection between the war in Iraq, which is what I must assume you mean by the 'manufactured tragedy' and 'working drivers into the night' -- the connection is this: I thank God for my health, and that of my children, I thank God for the roof over my head, the air conditioning when I get home and the paycheck that makes those things we take for granted possible. Mostly I am thankful that I am neither a soldier in Iraq nor a Iraqi civilian living in a warzone. Some people have an uncanny knack for making themselves miserable. I learned alot of this stuff from a one time union man - my father -who lost his Teamsters job after 33 years - no pension - they moved his plant out of state...Now he's 64 - driving a delivery truck for $10. an hour with no retirement plans in sight. Want to talk about salary - I bet you can beat his - cant you Mr. Ok? Oh, and by the way - you beat mine too! No stock bonuses for me Mr. OK. By the way - I love your quote - life is too short.}}

 

[ok2bclever]

Mary Smith,

I reread your first post and no where in it do you state that you work for UPS.

You do use your husband, rather than yourself as the example (along with Iraq) why drivers shouldn't complain.

FedEx and DHL drivers complain about far more than just the employee/contractor issue.

They complain about all the parts of the job that UPS employees complain about along with a couple of others like wages, benefits, etc.

And I take strong exception to your statement regarding FedEx and DHL doing anything "quicker an faster" than UPS.

They get business by charging less than us and they do so because they

Seems logical, not.

Anyone here can list tragedies upon tragedies in the world and be very thankful they are not involved with any of them, but to construe that to mean drivers must keep their mouths shut and just put up with UPS working them into the ground while trying to hold them to dishonest standards is BS.

Realize, I am not talking about myself.

I drove for 16 years and walked the walk and so I know what the drivers go through when they go out for long hot days that turn into dark cold nights while their families eat dinner and go on with life without them.

I am a clerk now, limited to 8 hours, no overtime and I love it, so I wasn't referring to myself.

As I made more as far back as 95, despite annual wage increases than I did last year the only way I beat your income is if you have remained part-time.

Drivers have earned a right to speak up about this forced excessive overtime with dishonest standards.

Sorry, but part-time jobs in a hub are still part-time, while many of which are not easy jobs they don't qualify one to judge what stress a driver's full-time job puts one through.

Sorry about your father and thank you for the quote comment.

I take strong exception to your statement that FedEx and DHL are "quicker and faster" than UPS.

They usually charge less than us across the board to try to take business away from us because they cannot do anything "quicker and faster" or better than us, period.

 

[ezralive]

As for my background, I started out as a crazy young buck in preload (location classified). After completing my BSBA degree, I bypassed management and went straight into driving for ten years.

Fortuntaely, I invested all the cash I made (not in UPS stock) and was a self-made millionaire by the time I was 30 years old. After 10 years vested in the union, I went into management to help train a new generation of crazy young bucks how to survive on the UPS plantation.

In the end, I built an elite cadre of new workers I still affectionately refer to as the "One Percenters." They're not sheep on the plantation -they're wolves who prowl and growl. They're all 100% Teamster blood and the finest workers in the UPS system who can eat a stupid manager for lunch....

 

[ezralive]

UPS Center Managers have been ordered to compile a "9.5 Grievance List" to target drivers with productivity or safety related issues. When the order is given to "weed-out" the stragglers, the drivers on that list will be the likely targets.

UPS is preparing for a possible future economic downturn and presently ridding itself of senior drivers who are burned out...

 

[speeddemon]

thats OK, UPS has deep pockets to pay out those discrimination suits.

 

[wornoutupser]

ezra,

the last three drivers to file for over 9 1/2 were all ridden with this week.
When I casually pointed out that all of us were well over 40 and this could be construed as age discrimination,my supervisor started to deny everything that I had said.
But the fact remains- we all filed for over 9 1/2 and we are all well over the forty mark and long timers.


(Message edited by wornoutupser on July 22, 2005)