I came to work the one day and my route had been split out. I was told that I could run the trash truck that was being loaded but I wouldn’t like it, or I could go home without pay. I thought this all sounded kind of heavy handed, so I went straight to the authority on such matters: my contract book. I sat down with my steward and we read through Article 3, sec. 9, parts a and b of the Central States Supplement. This article addresses Temporary Route Changes. 
I discovered that I had rights. I had the right to follow my work. If 50% or more went to a lower seniority driver, I could bump that driver and he would work as directed that day. If the work went every which way but loose, I had the right to follow any part of it that went to a lower seniority driver and that driver would have to work as directed that day instead of me. Maybe they wanted to go home that day and I didn’t. A lot of drivers jump at the chance to go home, I needed to work and my seniority guaranteed me that right.
If I had not gotten my steward involved and had we not had a Teamster contract in place, I would have been at the mercy of the whims of management.
I have power, I have a contract.
Randi Rhode’s Take on Wisconsin
In the battle of
Governor Walker says the state of
It could be worse—look at
Do You Think The Company is Watching This?
Anyone that thinks Management is sitting by, not taking notes about these attacks on Labor, better wake up. We’ve hounded you for years about there being consequences for your voting, and that you are voting your life away. Here’s just a little more proof of what 2013 will bring to the table for UPS drivers!
Looks Like Fun
Magic Paper Takes Wing
Stewards Alert! Every one of those forms the Local gives you comes with wings attached. All you need to add is a little ink from a pen to make them take off. You will be amazed at how far those little pieces of paper can fly.
You have magic paper, (Grievance Forms), in your union folder!
Grievances are the cause and effect of all the issues you live by on a day-to-day basis. They are the reason you have an attendance policy. They are the reason you can fight excessive overtime. They are the reason for how you pick floating holidays and vacations. They are the reason you still have a right to strike in Colorado. Somebody somewhere filed a grievance. They took the time to write it down, and send it to the business agent. They took the time to look in the contract book and find an article to file under. (Let us not forget, “and all others that apply.”)
As a steward you will make many decisions and deals on behalf of your members, but none will have an afterlife unless they are decided through the grievance procedure. That is where the wings are attached. Once things are decided in a grievance hearing, it is a written record. This record that can always be referred to. This record can be researched and rediscovered. People’s memories are short and subject to interpretation. But when it’s written down, it becomes a fact. It becomes a fact that other people can call upon. You will be amazed in your career as a steward which grievance will grow wings and fly.
They can only fly if you use that magic paper with the wings attached.
Write it down!
File it!
Since Everyone Should Read My Mind-
Since everybody is able to read my mind, I don’t have to worry about being treated properly. I don’t have to complain to my Union Steward about my excessive hours. He should already know that I am struggling with my family life at home because I’m always at work. He should understand that I never get to see my kids, and I never get to attend their special events.
My steward should be way ahead of the game dealing with management, because he can read my mind. He’ll understand that I have the need to feed my ego by being the best driver ever. He’ll understand that I should be entitled to the very best pay, and the very best of all the fringe benefits because in my mind, I know I am the very best of all the drivers. Since he knows what’s in my head, he will understand that I should be first in line for the good jobs, and that the company should be taking care of me ahead of all the rest, because I’m the best, in my head.
That dogon’ steward “should be” on top of my every move, and ever problem. After all, I would make a better steward than anybody, because I know what’s in my head, and I have the cognitive ability to know what should be done to further my day, and my future. I am, after all, amazingly aware of what everyone else should know. Of course they can all read what’s in my head, so I don’t need to explain any of it to them.
Wait! What’s happening here? I’ve been fired for an accident! Everyone should know I’m the best driver ever. I also haul ass to get the job done better than any other person at this company. The management, and the steward should understand that it was that kids fault for riding his bike in front of me on that residential street. I am after all the best driver in the world, so it could never have been my fault. Even with that in mind, the company should give me a break knowing what a great driver I am. After all, they can read my mind, and see it.
They’re trying to say that I just wouldn’t listen about driving safely. Why should I? I know everything, and had they taken the time to read my mind, they would know it. They say I have a long history of accidents, and that I was just “an accident waiting to happen”. How can they come to that conclusion when they can see directly into my head? Wow, have I ever been screwed.
The Union just simply isn’t needed, because they didn’t take time to read my mind! If they had, they would have found out that I know everything. I never supported them, and now I never will.
Do you know anyone that thinks like this?
Report from a Driver Helper
Trying to Get Some Work Done
You May Be a UPS Driver If…………
You watch the clock at work hoping you have more time left to work rather than less.
You think Christmas is a 4 letter word.
Putting on a brown shirt makes you feel like Superman.
You start to yawn when your friends talk about the high cost of their health insurance.
You can’t talk to anyone for over a minute without turning and starting to walk away.
You can eat with your fingers no matter how dirty your hands are.
You drink two gallons of water a day in the summer and never have to go to the bathroom.
You get off work before 6 o’clock and it feels like you had the afternoon off.
Your favorite day in the neighborhood is trash day.
You have more brown pens at home than silverware.
You take the family on a road trip and make the kids to pee in cups so you don’t have to stop.
When you see a brown truck on the street you immediately begin to critique the driver’s methods.
Making Lemonade
