Possible UPS strike

25% of US small parcels are moved by UPS. The principal point of contention appears to be the pay and workload for part-time employees.

It also appears that the Teamsters really are itching to strike, last time they went out was 1997. They are also having a go at Yellow Freight which is teetering on bankruptcy.
 
I think it will go thru. Really I was a bit surprised the trucks have no AC. I see those guys running to the door to meet schedules and have no AC when they get back to the truck. And today it was only 105 in the shade in TX. And phoenix I hear is even worse. Good to see they are getting AC in new trucks as part of the agreement.
 
I think it will go thru. Really I was a bit surprised the trucks have no AC. I see those guys running to the door to meet schedules and have no AC when they get back to the truck. And today it was only 105 in the shade in TX. And phoenix I hear is even worse. Good to see they are getting AC in new trucks as part of the agreement.
Not only are they lacking A/C but the roof in the back is translucent which seems like it would make it even hotter.
Back when we used to ship out a lot we put a fan on top of a shelf where the driver backed up to our rollup door to blow A/C on him while we helped him load.
They also don't (at least then) have power steering in the trucks either. They have great retirement but by then their bodies are often shot.
UPS drivers used to be some of the happiest workers to deal with but when they started delivering holiday amounts of packages year round you could see it wearing on them.
 
Strike averted:

The offer that the Teamsters agreed to this week includes large, rapid wage gains. Part-time workers, who make up more than half of the UPS workforce, will get their pay raised immediately to a minimum of $21 an hour, the union says. That’s a huge jump from the current $15.50 minimum, which UPS had previously offered to raise to $20 by 2025—and it adds up to about 7% a year over five years. Tenured drivers will get a bump too, up to an average top rate of $49 an hour from $42 today, or about 3.4% a year over five years.
 
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No AC in AZ when I worked for 17 years of my career with the phone company, and yes, I worked outside. Idiotic to treat people like that. In Wyoming we worked in minus degree temps outside, but at least we had a heater in the truck. (when you were in it). Hell, splicers had a tent with a propane heater. Still better than what they didn't do in AZ. Guess some things are hard to forget. Don't worry, those drivers earn every penny of what they make. Can't speak for the rest of the company though.
 
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I spent 19 years chasing tractor trailer rigs for the Teamsters. I worked at Yellow, UPS, and Laidlaw. All Teamster barns.
Then on to HD equipment for another 30 years. Drilling, demolition, quarry work, concrete pumpers and Vactor work
for the Operating Engineers. DRIVERS or Operators can make or break a business. I've seen drillers work side by side
and both drill and case the same number of holes, the difference was every night there was 3-8 hours to repair ONE
of the drill rigs. It was the same one every time. For the same reason every time.

You want to talk about hot/cold work. drillers and tunnel boring both are tough on everybody. But chuck tenders and
mechanics (ME) it is ALL blood and sand. Everything stays covered in grout and that grout is usually covering between 3-30
hydraulic hoses just on a boom.

The real serious drivers are HD equipment haulers. They are the ones that amaze me. Like mobin in 5 loads for a trench cutter and every load over 60 tons. Some equipment is very big and very mobil, considering the assembled weight. Roll in one day and assemble the whole thing by the next day. 125-200 metric ton unit. They carry 6000 lbs of fuel for 1 1/2 shifts. 20 lbs of grease a night to grease 300 fittings. IN LAS VEGAS @ 125 degrees 80 feet below the surface. It's 150-160 degrees in the crapper. I really miss that work.

It wasn't uncommon for a skilled operator/driver or mechanic to make 250K per year, but the price you pay and the hours
you work make an ER doctor look like child's play in the middle of a town burning down.

I struck twice and stood picket 3 times. 1981, 1987, 1997. Teamsters but 1997 I was already in the IAM and joined the OE.

Most people that cross a picket have to or have chose to. I'm not a happy guy but, I don't begrudge people that are
not under contract. There are a few that really go out of their way to have flat tires for the rest of their life though.
I've seen more than one manager or smart mouth be forced to move on behind foolishness on a picket and some
people don't forget.

Most cops are sympathetic too. They usually only take the picket captain to jail and have coffee with him.
Personal experience. 🙂

For the record every company that has a Union deserves a Union. They earned every word in that contract for
something they did do, or didn't do. Pretty simple really.

No, I don't know where Hoffa is.

Regards
 
I think Jimmy is still in Giants Stadium.

Yellow Freight is going into liquidation. Their volumes are down 80% in the last two weeks. There were very high expectations for the company when they merged with Roadway a score of years ago, but it's been rough sledding every since.
 
UPS drivers can make over $100,000 per year.

It is a well paid but not exactly easy job.

If I were in power to do so, I'd make it legally binding that no person would be allowed to carry stuff they deliver without a mechanized/electric helper device. I see too many people lose their good health because of someone else's stupidity. I bet they can't even calculate that it would cheaper to take good care of people while they are healthy, then to treat their condition when it's too late.
 
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The weight limit under federal OSHA standards is no more than 70 pounds per person on lifting stuff. However this is different than what you can put on a hand truck (Dolly) and roll. My grandparents generation expected 6 men to do the work of a horse. A draft horse can pull 15,000 pounds!
 
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I remember working with a kid outside. I guess he wanted to prove his worth and constantly overdid things. I did warn him that if he didn't watch out, he would pay, the company would pay, and we would lose a valuable member of the crew. 8 months later, he was in for back surgery. After coming back to work, he did it again. Makes me wince, even though to some extent we all do it.
 
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I do over 20,000 miles per year highway driving. FedX drivers doing doubles are among the riskiest vehicles to encounter, but the most dangerous are the "Municipal Waste" haulers.

Safest are WalMart drivers followed by UPS -- WalMart, the company, was chastened by an accident twenty years ago in which one of their semi's hauled into a limo on the NJ Turnpike.