Category Archives: UPS

Action, Union, UPS

We Don’t Need No Stinking Union



Wal-Mart cuts health coverage for some, charges other employees more


By Anne D’Innocenzio
The Associated Press

Posted: 10/22/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT







Michael Hall, Walmart Express customer service, helps Marian Faulkner with her bags Wednesday Oct. 19, 2011 at the new Walmart Express in Snow Hill, N.C. (The Free Press | Janet S. Carter)

     NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation’s largest private employer, is scaling back the eligibility for health care coverage offered to future part-timers and dramatically raising premiums for many of its full-time workers. Industry observers say the changes could have implications for millions of other workers, as more companies on the fence could replicate its moves.
     The discounter, which employs more than 1.4 million workers, said the changes were forced by rising health care costs. All future part-time employees working less than 24 hours a week, on average, will not be covered under the plan, starting next year.
     Premiums will rise for many existing workers, and the company will reduce by half the amount it contributes for each worker to help pay for health care expenses not covered under their plan. Tobacco users will be particularly hit hard, seeing premiums more than double, compared with increases of as much as 41 percent for singles, according to Making Change at Wal-Mart, a group backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has been pressuring Wal-Mart on worker rights.
     “Health care costs are continuing to go up faster than anyone would like,” said Greg Rossiter, a Wal-Mart spokesman. “It is a difficult decision to raise rates. But we are striking a balance between managing costs and providing quality care and coverage.” He emphasized that Wal-Mart’s health care coverage remains “top tier” among its peers.
     A number of companies have been looking for ways to cut health care costs and have been shifting more of the burden to their employees. The costs of employer-sponsored health insurance surged 9 percent this year, according to a report released last month by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. But Drew Altman, president and chief executive of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said that a big package of cuts from one company is unusual.
     “While we do see increases in cost sharing, this is unusual and is outside the bounds,” Altman said. “I don’t think this will have a major impact on those who tend to do a little bit of everything to control costs, but it could provide more cover for other employers who are looking to move in that direction.” Only about 42 percent of overall companies offer health care coverage to part-timers, according to Kaiser.

UPS

WTF????

             UPS to Allow Customers to Set Delivery Times

UPS hopes to eliminate the frustration of missed deliveries by adding an option for customers to specify when and where they would like their packages delivered.

The Sandy Springs logistics company called the new residential service a “seminal moment in the history of package delivery.”


“We’re making the missed delivery notice extinct, a fossil from the past,” UPS chairman and CEO Scott Davis said.


The service, called My Choice, alerts customers the day before a package is to be delivered. It gives them a four-hour expected delivery window and allows them to sign for a package electronically.


For a $5 fee, customers can re-route packages to a UPS Store or another address. A $40 premium membership allows customers to reduce the delivery window to two hours and give specific directions to a driver as to where a package can be left, including at a neighbor’s house.


The new service begins Oct. 3.


UPS, which made 90 percent of its U.S. deliveries to businesses 15 years ago, said 35 percent of its U.S. deliveries are now to homes. This is primarily due to the growth of e-commerce, which increased more than 12 percent last year. In 2010, online sales were $176.2 billion, according to the Forrester U.S. Online Retail Forecast. They are expected to be $278.9 billion by 2015.


“It’s an inflection point, it’s transformational and it’s happening now,” Davis said. “Consumers pull what they want whenever they want it.”


The move will save money for UPS by reducing the number of return trips drivers have to make, though the company did not have an estimate as to what the savings or the premium membership would do to its bottom line.


“The beauty is we go one time instead of three times,” Davis said. “We save an awful lot of miles.”


My Choice also has the potential to increase delivery volumes by encouraging people in urban areas who do not have a safe place to leave packages to shop online, UPS chief marketing officer Alan Gershenhorn said.


“This is a growth area for UPS,” he said. “We’re putting the receiver of the packages in control.”


UPS delivers to more than 100 million residential addresses each year, the company said. In a statement, QVC executive vice president of customer fulfillment services John Hunter said the feature will be appreciated by customers who want their purchases from the shop-at-home network to arrive on their schedules.


A UPS spokesman said the company had been working to allow customers to set their own delivery times for more than five years. He expected the new service to change the competitive landscape with FedEx, which does not offer a similar service.


“We’re solving a problem out there for many consumers,” Gershenhorn said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Action, Telematics, Union, UPS

You’re Being Watched, Wherever You Go

     Life at UPS is a life under constant scrutiny. Wherever you go you’re being watched. Every move you makeA Home Run for the Bottom Line! is noted in some form or another. 
     The first method the company used, of course, was the stalking supervisor. The driver would be stalked, and snuck up on by the manager, or supervisor in the hopes of catching the driver cheating or stealing from the company.
     Then along came the days of the DIAD implementation. At first there were no times associated with a delivery stop. Then the company re-programmed the DIAD to show a time on every “stop-complete”, whether delivery or pick-up. (“Oh no, we’re all going to be fired.”)
     Next came route mapping, where the company could plot on a map the route a driver took, showing the times, and of course any discrepancies in the drivers day. Of course the company only used mapping when they thought a driver was stealing time from them. (Isn’t that every day?)
     With the implementation of EDD and PAS the driver no longer made the decision as to how they were going to run the route on any given day. A comparison of what EDD  said should happen, and what the driver did, could be printed out, and put before the driver with a threat of discipline if the driver did not follow EDD. (Again, all drivers are time thieves, and dishonest, and if they are not following EDD, they are thieving from the company, or so they thought.)
     The latest technology for driver scrutiny, of course, is Telematics. Telematics gives management all the information possible off of GPS satellites available to the company. Start, stop, speed, location being the information most important in guessing at what the driver is doing, or not doing. Millions of dollars spent because, of course, the drivers cannot be trusted to make those decisions. (Even though the company made billions trusting them for over 100 years.)
     At this point, any self respecting driver would throw up his/her arms and say, “how can I possibly function under such close watch?”
     Well here’s even more discouraging news. Many business locations now have video set up to record goings on inside, and outside their businesses. Not only that, many residences also have recorders that are motion activated, and record any movements inside, and outside there homes.
     One of the most common tools management has in a disciplinary hearing is the video of a particular situation in which a driver may be involved. Many times it takes much of the doubt out of what actually happened in a situation.
      Click here for just such an example of what can be seen in outside video
     Never assume you are “not” being watched. Whenever you are in your Brown Suit you are more noticeable and your every move is being watched by someone. Someone whom you have no control over regarding the assumptions made about what you are doing.
     All of the idea of all the scrutiny is certainly overwhelming to any human, but there’s one thing to keep in mind. Finding trained people that can function under this kind of scrutiny, and remain professional, and do a professional job, are hard to find. While the company will never admit it to you, technology increases your value to the company. The days of using any “Joe Blow” as a driver are over.
     The cheating, humper dumper, newspaper route type of driver is a thing of the past. Eventually the driver, not doing the job by the “methods”, will be caught. If they are not caught by the company’s technology, they’ll get caught by the customer’s technology.
     That value is what will keep you with a solid career at UPS.
     You just have to get used to the idea that you are being watched, every second of every day.

Telematics, Union, UPS

The Bottom Line

     Remember when?A Home Run for the Bottom Line!
     If your a driver that’s been around a few years, you might remember when the company used to put together soft ball teams on the weekends. They would sponsor weekend tournaments of drivers and their families at local parks. Managers and drivers would participate on the same teams together creating a level of comradery. All to build a feeling of team spirit and loyalty among the workforce.
     Remember when there used to be a safe driving award program? Drivers were rewarded for the number of years they would go without an avoidable accident. Every driver was given a catalogue to chose a prize depending on the number of years. On the five year accomplishments the prizes were fairly substantial, such as bikes for ten years TV’s for twenty, etc. In the later years they were also given a pin with a diamond, and there was a banquet held for drivers that achieved 25 or more years.
     Remember when their was also a “Years of Service” award. Drivers were rewarded for their years of service. They were given a plaque honoring the number of years, and they again had a catalogue of prizes to choose from.
     Remember when there was a magazine published to talk about the people that worked for the company, and their achievements both at work, and off the job? The magazine was called the “Big Idea”. How many of you remember what the “Big Idea” was? Of course the “Big Idea” was “Service”. The idea of the magazine was to honor the employees that worked together to provide service within the company to that customer outside the company.
     Remember when the TV commercials bragged about the quality of their drivers? The commercials would show the extra length drivers would go to in making their deliveries. They also showed the special relationships drivers would establish with the customers. How the customer could set their watch by the driver, and that if any problem arose, the customer could always turn to that same driver for resolution.
     These are just examples of what the company, “used to be”. Most of these programs were in the days before the Public Sale of Stock. These programs were in the days of James E. Casey. These programs were in the day when the company cared as much for the people that worked for it, as they did about the customer. The programs were when the company felt that the effort was for all of us, customer and employee alike.
      Isn’t it a shame that those are the “good ‘ole days”.
     All of these programs have been replaced with EDD, and PAS, and Telematics, and Production Standards, and Discipline, and Management By Intimidation. Any of you Rank and Filers feel a sense of pride over any of these programs?
     So the inquiring driver may want to know why the change in mentality towards the employees and their success? After the company went public with it’s stock, it’s all about one thing, and one thing only!
It’s the company’s new “Big Idea”!
                            The Bottom Line!

Action, Union, UPS

How Often Have You Seen It?

    Fighting For the Scab at Heart! How often have you noticed that the mouthy anti-union driver is suddenly transformed into the staunch Union guy when his or her job is on the line, only to turn their back on the Teamsters after they have put in a ton of work saving the driver’s career?
     It happens every day. Back in 1997 after the strike, the scabs that crossed the picket line found that the company cared little for the people that turned their back on the Union. Many of the scabs thought they had a “cart blanche” right to do what they wanted, that the company would look the other way when they lied or cheated their way through the day.
     When the company nailed them, be it for falsifying records, or DUI’s, or theft from the company, one by one they were fired by the company. Suddenly these people turned to the Union. They would demand their rights, and chastise the Representation they received. Many had even gone so far as to exercise their rights under the Colorado Peace Act, and not pay dues. Of course legally the Union was forced to represent them as if they were still Rank and File members.
     That mentality still goes on today. Many drivers bad mouth the union daily. Many feel they get nothing for their dues money. Yet these people are the first, and most vocal about getting “their” representation when they are caught cheating, or lying, or stealing from the company. Right away their mouth opens up about how weak the Union appears, and how the Union has no strength. Of course they have never taken a step to support Unions and Labor in their vote politically. They have also never taken the time to attend a Union meeting.
     Suddenly they are thrust into the situation where their job is on the line. It’s funny when that happens because their mouth slams shut. Suddenly the business agent is their best friend, (for awhile). Suddenly they are the great Union supporter. Many hours, and much effort is put into saving their jobs by both the Business Agent, and the Steward. Most of the time the outcome saves their job, their benefits, and their livelihood. Most will walk away with a big “phew”, but rarely is there ever a “Thank you”. Rarely is there a, “I will be a Union supporter from now on”.
     Most usually return to work, and bad mouth the Union for letting themselves get into that situation. It’s the Union’s fault that the driver is a lying, cheating, thief. It’s the Union’s fault that they were so stupid as to do something to get themselves terminated. It’s the Union’s fault that they should have to pay for representation. 
     The hypocrisy is a daily event, and it’s disgusting to watch. Unfortunately it distracts from the reward of representing people that have backed the Union up. Be quick to jump on the hypocrite. Be quick to remind the hypocrite of how the Union saved their job. 
     Stand up in support of the Union, and the Union will stand up for you! 

UPS driver information