All posts by George

Telematics is Lurking in the Background

     The company slowed down throwing Telematics in our faces on a daily basis. It’s best you don’t forget it’s there though. On anyIt's all about the map! incident, out of the ordinary, out comes the Telematics printouts. The first thing they look at is, “were you supposed to be there?” Don’t believe for a minute that Harry the IE man is not still looking for any irregularities on any given day.
      Your center manager receives daily e-mails from IE telling him of any discrepancies. Usually the center manager will look at the WOR to see if you ran decent for the day. If you did, he/she will usually go on to some other problem child. If not you can bet they will be throwing it in your face.
     Remember the goal is to have a reason to harass you. Even if you have a good excuse for any discrepancy, they will still treat you as if you are a lying, cheating thief. Their comment will always be, “sure, you always have an excuse for everything”.
     It doesn’t matter if the pre-load sucked that day. It doesn’t matter if traffic was bad. It doesn’t matter if they gave you some BS split. If you ran bad, they will pick the fly-crap out of the pepper, and that will be the reason you are a dirt bag. 
     Get used to it. The first rule is to have you union steward by your side every time you talk to them. Don’t think they are looking the other way. We have had 3 fireballs fired because of Telematics discrepancies. One even was a scab during the strike, so you get the idea that they are not taking any prisoners.
     Do the job right. They must directly observe you, and you must have the intent to be dishonest for them to discipline you. Of course harassment is discipline to most people, but you will have a long career of that so get used to it. 

UPS Looking for Volume Growth in 2010

United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) is looking for volume growth in 2010, and will hike shipping rates in 2010 as well, according to a Reuters report.

CEO Scott Davis told Reuters that he thinks the company will see “positive volumes next year, as the economy improves.”

Earlier in the day, Davis had told a gathering of business leaders in Singapore, that he believes the recovery is real and sustainable, but vulnerable.

Rival FedEx has already hiked rates for next year, and UPS said it will announce the amount of its hike later this month.

MarketNewsVideo.com

Is UPS the Problem?

What is wrong here?

This article just appeared on that  left-wing rag, Common Dreams.


  • “Forget the rumored financial crisis, layoffs and foreclosures: The three biggest Wall Street banks to get bailed out are set to pay record bonuses of almost $30 billion, up 60 percent from last year. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase will hand out $29.7 billion, paying each lucky employee almost five times the U.S. median household income.”

Am I crazy or is that just not right.

The problem with America today is Corporate Power. This not a government of the people, by the people, for the people, it’s a government for the corporations. Money buys the ear of every politician in Washington and the corporations have all the money. It’s not rocket science to figure out who runs the country.

But what about UPS? I know they don’t pay outlandish salaries or bonuses. (Thank God. I’d be embarrassed to be an hourly employee at Goldman Sachs.) Still, UPS operates in the same league as Morgan Stanley and the others. Their lobbying money goes into Congressional pockets and bills and amendments are written to their liking. Our government for the people becomes a government for the corporation.

I know UPS has provided me the opportunity to make a good living, but I just feel like I’m in the belly of the beast sometimes, pointing out at JP Morgan and yelling, “They’re the problem.”

Fired UPS driver’s suit claims he wouldn’t deliver pot

A former UPS delivery man from Clarkston says he was told to deliver a package “even if it contained illicit drugs” and was eventually fired after he opened the package and found marijuana.

A lawyer for Steven Mojica tells the Detroit News his client refused to deliver a suspicious 4-pound next-day package to a house on Murphy Street.  As a result, his UPS supervisors then accused him of theft, reported him to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and fired him in early August.

Mojica is suing the delivery company for reinstatement of his job, lost wages and damages resulting from mental and emotional distress.

Mojica claims he was about to contact police when he received another message instructing him to call a supervisor, who allegedly told Mojica “he should have delivered the package, even if it contained illicit drugs.”

At that point, Mojica claimed he opened the package and found it contained large sealed bags of what appeared to be marijuana. He continued his route for another two hours before he turned it over to a Loss Prevention employee.
 
A UPS spokeswoman tells the News they haven’t seen the lawsuit, but said there are reporting procedures in place for suspicious packages.

“It’s nice to know UPS can guarantee delivery to drug dealers and fire employees that refuse to deliver their drugs,” said Mark Porter, Mojica’s attorney.

In an unrelated case, authorities last month arrested the manager of a UPS store in Atlanta for allegedly stealing a package that contained marijuana, selling it and lying to authorities.

But lest you think UPS is the delivery service of choice for dealers, an informal and unscientific poll on marijuana.com shows senders prefer the U.S. Postal Service.

They Just Don’t Get It

The current pile of politicians just don’t get it. It’s not about a Republican agenda, or a Democratic agenda.

    It’s about the people stupid!

The current crop of politicians on all sides still don’t understand that the people are saying, “give us back our country”. “Take our country out of the big corporations hands. They are destroying the American way of life!”

Until that happens we are going to play politician ping-pong!

National Association of Undertakers Backs GOP Health Plan

People are dying for this kind of healthcarre      WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans received key backing today for their health care plan, picking up support from the National Association of Undertakers.
    
     The funeral directors’ group, which represents undertakers, embalmers and hearse drivers across the country, gave the GOP plan a big thumbs up, saying in a press release, “Finally, a health care plan that works for us.”
     
     The endorsement from the undertakers’ association was the second major endorsement in two days for the GOP plan, which yesterday picked up support from the National Association of Viruses and Bacteria.
The Borowitz Report

Just Take Their Word For It?

     The company has offered a new health care “Package”, to all of the hourlies. I attended a meeting yesterday to discuss the Is That What it Says in the Book?changes with the company representatives assigned to provide the information for the new “Package”. Prior to the meeting we were all sent what is called the SPD, or Summary Plan Description. The SPD is the legal document defining the coverages in the plan. One of the first questions in the meeting was why the SPD was not accurate in cost, and why a number of issues the company claims are being offered in the new plan are not reflected in the SPD. The company representatives claimed the SPD was not accurate, and that the information in the SPD did not necessarily represent the changes the company wanted to implement.
     Of course the company wants you to take their word on what the plan is all about, but when push comes to shove in a legal situation, the SPD is what the courts look at. The company, as usual, took the cheap easy way, and mailed everyone an old book for some other plan that was close to what the new plan looks like.
     They want you to just take their word for what the new plan is about.
                         Will their word stand up in court?
     
    
I am making no representations as to whether any employee should make the change or not. My complaint is about the company wanting us to make decisions on what could be a lifelong change, without providing us with any accurate information.
    
Contact Human Resources and tell them you want an accurate SPD to make the decisions that matter for your family.

     The “Summary Plan Description” is a legal document for your health insurance plan!
                  Their word is not!

Swallowed by Corporate America

     Our company is about us!The legacy of James E. Casey, founder of United Parcel Service, has been swallowed by the corporate mentality running the show. Mr. Casey’s feeling that the company was about the  people that worked there has been thrown in the trash. Todays CEO’s are all about profit, money, and the stock holder. Any operation is subject to the effect on the bottom line. Every person is only as important as their effect on the bottom line. There is no function important enough to be kept if it effects the bottom line.
     The bottom line is why you have seen the destruction of the safe driving award system. The attitude has changed from upper management that safe driving is a condition of employment. Your reward is that they won’t fire you, if you have no accidents. The implementation of Telematics is about replacing costly management people with a machine capable of supervising the hourly workforce thus saving money in wages and benefits by eliminating people. 
       “Take people out of the equation and you improve the bottom line”. 
    
The driver is still a necessary evil because the technology does not exist to replace them. You can bet that someone somewhere is working on the problem.
      The legacy of James E. Casey died on the day of the IPO, (Intial Public Offering), of UPS stock. The thought behind that push was the desire of upper level management to drive the value of the stock up before they sold it off. One of the reasons the stock value has remained so flat is because the old time upper level management has put a glut of stock on the market keeping the value of that stock low. They of course sold their stock at the moment of high price and have walked away from the company leaving the world you live in today as a driver.
     Remember, every time you ask for, or need, anything from the company, the background question is, “what does it mean to the bottom line”.
     Cost of health care? Bottom line. Cost of pensions? Bottom line. Cost of wages? Bottom line. Cost of vehicles? Bottom line.
             
You have been swallowed by Corporate America. Welcome to the “bottom line”.

And You Think Unions Don’t Matter

An appeals court overturned a $1.5 million verdict awarded to a woman who was spanked in front of co-workers in what her employer called a camaraderie-building exercise. A jury in 2006 had ruled that Janet Orlando had suffered sexual harassment and sexual battery when she was paddled at home security company Alarm One Inc. The jury punished the company with a $1 million punitive damage award.
Discipline in a non-union shop        But on Monday, a three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeal overturned that verdict, ruling that the jury had been given improper instructions. In particular, the jury wasn’t instructed that one vital element of proving that sexual harassment occurred is showing the action was directed at a woman because of her gender. Lawyers for Alarm One, an Anaheim-based, 300-employee company, said that the spankings were not discriminatory because they were given to both male and female workers and that Orlando and others willingly took part. Orlando’s attorney, Nicholas “Butch” Wagner, vowed to take the case to trial again. “We may get more this time,” Wagner said.
        But K. Poncho Baker, the attorney who defended the company at trial in 2006, said that because the company has since gone into bankruptcy and its insurance was exhausted battling Orlando’s claim and settling with three other co-workers, there may be little left to recover. “Good luck retrying this one,” Baker said.
        Orlando quit the company in 2004, less than a year after she was hired at the Fresno office, saying she was humiliated during the company’s team-building practices. Employees were paddled with rival companies’ yard signs as part of a contest that pitted sales teams against one another. The winners poked fun at the losers, throwing pies at them, feeding them baby food, making them wear diapers and swatting their buttocks. The company has since abandoned the practice.

Meeting At Local 455 — Health Insurance

There will be a meeting at Local 455 to discuss the new health insurance proposal that UPS is offering. If you have questions, this is the time to get answers. Don’t rely on second or third hand information. Plan to attend and bring your spouse.