Reality Check EP 001

Garfield Hooper, a shop steward and driver, discusses the recent loss of a Teamster brother and friend. He expresses frustration with the lack of concern for worker safety and the company's focus on numbers over human lives. Garfield recounts a situation where a driver was forced to choose between taking an injury or being written up for attendance when experiencing heat-related issues. He emphasizes the need for education and awareness among workers regarding their rights and the importance of calling 911 in emergencies. Teamster Power 767 Reality Check with Jeff Schoenfeld and Garfield Hooper. This is Teamster Power 767 Reality Check. I'm Jeffrey Schoenfeld, your host, and I'm here today with Garfield Hooper, who is a shop steward, driver, as well, at the McKinney Center, and today's podcast, we're going to talk about an issue that happened recently. We all lost a Teamster brother, but for Garfield, more than that, he lost a friend, and a lot of heat issues going on in the United States, this and that, but in Texas, this is the second loss of life, the second Teamster brother that we've lost in the last couple of years. So, but I just want you to talk, you know, see what you're feeling, Garfield, just let us know what you're feeling. Well, it's been a rough week. Yeah. You know, today is Wednesday, and we found out about his passing on Monday. I went up to our center, because I'm out on, working comp at the moment, but I went up to our center on Tuesday to, you know, meet, to talk to a few of the drivers, and say something to PCM, and, you know, obviously, you know, meet up there with Dave and Vinny, our VA, you know, kind of collect evidence, talk to a few of the drivers, and figure out what happened to get that stuff out, and the tone of the building was just, it was... I'm sure. It was bad. Yeah. Like, everybody was upset, and, you know, I said something at PCM, and our safety guy, Diamond, he kind of got up afterwards and said, you know, said what I would have liked to have said. Yeah. He told them, you know, that, you know, none of them are going to die for you, you know, so why would you go out there and die for them? You know, be sure and... Yeah. Be sure and take care of yourself, know the signs. You know, of course, as soon as he said that, he got pulled aside by the division manager, Ruben, and... Oh, wow. And, you know, I went over there, and a couple of the other stewards went over there, and, you know, as he kind of just let the division manager have it, and, you know, Ruben just kind of sat there, and was like, oh, well, you're upset, so, you know, we're going to talk about this, but we're not going to, you know, you obviously don't want to talk about it right now. You know, Ruben didn't want to. He didn't want to do anything. No, you don't ever want to do anything. No, but, you know, it's not his place. These people need to vent. Yeah. And that's what we're going to stop them from venting. Yeah. I'm talking about someone that just lost a co-worker and a friend. Yeah. So... Yeah, Bagley was, Bagley was a workhorse. Like, he's not the kind of person that you would have expected to, he's not the kind of person you would have expected to go out, you know, on an injury. You know, he's one of those guys that just works through, he's like, oh, no, I rolled my ankle, but, you know, I'll just kind of hobble it out for a little while. Yeah. You know, I worked next to him out there. He used to tell me stories and stuff like that. It's like, oh, yeah, it's just a, it's just an ankle. You know, you know, I got two of them. It'll be fine. Yeah. And, you know, he, you know, he, when I first took over the route out there, you know, he was, he was having to meet me almost every night to get my volume because I was learning that, all those county roads out there in Farmingdale. Yeah. And, you know, he, he, he, I kind of got worried that he was getting fed up with me. He was like, no, man, I get, I get paid by the minute. You know, he, he's got his route down. So he was always done around 530 every day. So the last, last couple of weeks, they, they've been, they've been increasing the volume and, you know, it's been, the heat's been higher and it's, the company doesn't care. No. I mean, it's all about, it's all about their numbers. And, you know, like all of a sudden it's like, oh, well, you know, most of the cars in my building are like, you know, some of them are the top resi areas. You get 180, 200 stops. Yeah. You know, during the regular part of the year. But if you were going to go over 200 stops, you know, this is going to be peak season. You know, you know, I, I, I understand, you know, sitting 250, 300 peak season, you know, throw a helper out there on you, you know, you know, you guys knock it out or whatever. Yeah. But, you know, sitting, you know, seeing it be 106, 110 degrees heat index, you know, close to 120. Absolutely. And sending people out with 240 stops. Well, no, I mean, it's, in Dallas, you know, they'll, at one point the manager says to me, oh, you know, we have to have 159, you know, stops per car. I said, I could care less what you have per car. But what that says to me is, you're cutting routes. Yeah. You're cutting cars. You're going to, you're going to put more work on less cars. That's exactly what that says to me. Yeah. And now they want to put 200. Yeah. You know, and I, and I say this and I mentioned this the other day, what's the acceptable loss of this company? It should be zero. Yeah. But it's not. And that's a problem. Yeah. And, you know, I think that this company just, you know, it needs, something needs to be done with them. Well, that's, that's, that's what gets me, you know, you know, I just, I just talked to my VA about, you know, OSHA being up there in the building. You know, even if OSHA, even if OSHA comes up and fines them, I mean, what's that fine going to be to EPS? Pocket change. Yeah. They'll pay it and move on. Yeah. They'll pay it and move on. You know, it's, it's not, and whatever the family gets out of this, it's not going to be enough. You know, you know, Chris is never going to walk through that door again. That's exactly it. It's. That's, that's the problem. You know, you know, at this point, they're just putting a price tag on human lives. And it's, it's beyond upsetting. And like, I was so furious on Monday when I got the phone call and I started calling drivers and, you know, getting, getting the facts that I could so that we would have that for the local. And, you know, every phone call I made and every person I talked to, you know, I just got angrier and angrier. And sure, I wanted to get up there in the morning and just let them have it. Yeah. But, you know, I, when it comes down to it, you know, I'm a steward. I have to have, I have to be able to have conversations with these people. But it frustrates me because sometimes I just want to take their heads off. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, they definitely make it frustrating. And we, you know, we work in this every single day and it's, it's, you know, we've had heat related injuries. And, you know, I think the most important thing is I think what the company does is they scare people from filing injury reports or they, they, you know, they try to prevent all that. Oh, it looks bad. It looks bad. I had, I had an issue about eight years ago where I called. I was on route. I was having some issues with the heat. Called my manager. He happened to be in the office with the division manager. Puts me on speaker phone. Sharon fell. Why is there a, why is there a problem? I hung up and called 9-1-1. That's, that's it. That's it. I mean, I called because it wasn't to the point where I was about to pass out. So I was able to talk, but if it was right away so bad and, you know, but once I, once I was on that call and they, they, I started getting heated, like mad and getting heated more and I just called. And that's what people have to realize, you know, the, the management, they're not doctors. No, they're not doctors. And when they say, call them first. No, no, I don't think if you can find, if it's, if it's, you know, not, it's not so bad, but if it's bad, you call 9-1-1 and that's it. Yep. Done. Done. So my management team wasn't going to do anything. I called 9-1-1 and that was it. That's it. And I think that, what is UPS going to do? Oh, what? You try to be safe? Yeah. You know, I mean, they, they try to dissuade all that. Yeah. But they left, they leave you no choice. Yesterday, the, the day after, you know, we found out. Yeah. Well, two days after we found out that Bagley passed. Yeah. Um, uh, one of our drivers had come in in the morning and he was, he was experiencing issues. Like, like I was doing it yesterday, but I went home and tried to sleep it off. I came back and like, I'm just really not feeling it. You know, I, I'm just kind of dizzy, just kind of lightheaded and everything. And our center manager, you know, with, with our division manager right next to him said, said, said, look, this is like, you can either take the injury or you can go home and then we can write you up for attendance. And he was, and he was going, he was heading to his car. Like he was going to go to work. And one of the other stewards, uh, went over there and said, Hey, no, no, no, we're not going to do this. We're not going to play this game. Nope. It's like, we're going to, he's like, you either, they're, if they're not going to take you to the, to the doctors right now, we're going to call 9-1-1. Yep. That's it. They called 9-1-1, had an ambulance, after everybody got out of the building, the ambulance came and picked him up and they admitted him to the hospital. He was dehydrated. They gave him two bags of fluid. And this was at nine o'clock in the morning, the day after. The day after a driver passed away and they're still doing the same thing. Yep. And, you know, just to note, there was an issue that happened with this manager in one of the other buildings also. Yeah. And, you know, so again, so, so I say is, I think there's got to be more education for the members. They got to know what to do if you, and, and again, here's the thing, if you're in such distress, you're not thinking straight. You're not thinking straight, but you have to know if it's, if, if, if they're educated, that's it, just call 9-1-1. You don't have to think about anything else. Just call 9-1-1 and that's it. But we, we didn't get that. I know that there are some things in the new contract, but there's nothing in the contract that says they have, they could, they, they have to add more routes in there. Yeah. Which, that's what I would have loved to have seen. Like maybe if, like if the heat index in a certain area was above a certain level, like above, like say the heat index is over 105, or even over 100, you know, there's no sense in limiting it, well over 100, 100, 100 degree heat index is a hot, is a hot day, no matter which way, no matter which way you shake it. Yeah. And, you know, you know, that, you know, people can't work over, not, people can't work over nine hours that day. Yeah. Or they can't work over nine and a half hours that day. Something. Something. Something. And they gotta have something in there that prevents this. Because, you know, and we, we've talked about this before. Like it's an unequivocal fact. Yeah. That the current, the contract that we just ratified is better than the previous one. It is. But like the things that are killing our drivers weren't really addressed. No, it's a lot of the language was not addressed really. Yeah. And you're exactly right. What's, what's killing our drivers. Yeah. Um, you know, they, you know, the ice machines, that's, it's not bad, but it's not, you know, that's not going to stop it. Like, you know, dealing after dealing with this, you know, we've, I've dealt with it, you've dealt with it, we've dealt with people who've got, you know, your body starts breaking down after a while. You think you're drinking enough, you know, you know, but it's, it's so hot out. Yeah. You don't know. I mean, you, you just don't know. And you're just trying to drink as much as you can. And you think you're doing okay. And sometimes you want to push it, but it's just, it's not, it's not worth it. I saw a driver out of my center today at, uh, at the doctor's office that, you know, that fell out on Tuesday. Yeah. And, you know, he was, he's, uh, military, served a tour in Afghanistan. Wow. You know, these guys, these guys are, they're trained. They're, it's beaten into their head to stay hydrated, you know, cause they're out there and, you know, 50, 60 pounds of gear trotting around the desert, you know, all that kind of stuff. And, you know, they come out and they do this job and, you know, he knows how to stay hydrated and it just wasn't enough. You know, he drinks the water, he drinks the Gatorade, he eats the pickles. You know, he eats right. He knows how to, he knows how to regulate his body. He knows how to keep safe and it still wasn't enough. No. And, you know, and then, and then to have the heat injury and then have, say, hey, like, call the, call him up on the phone. It's like, hey, I'm having struggling with heat and have, have the division manager get on the phone and say, what's going on? Do you not know the, do you not know what the, what the signs of heat stroke are? Yeah. And like, that's why I'm fucking calling you. Yeah. Yeah. Why are you treating me like this? Like I'm telling you. Like you're doing something wrong. Yeah. They're not human. I don't understand how Reuben Logan sleeps at night. Yeah. I, I don't know how some of these people sleep at night either. It's crazy. And what they do is, what do they do? They try to put it back on, on the employee. Every time. Every single time. What could we have done better? Oh, you know, why did you do this? Why did you, why did we do that? I mean, how, why did you, why did you put in 200 stops? Why did you cut, cut cars? Why did you do that? That's, that's the most important thing. I think that's, that's, you know, you know, AC is important, but lowering the stop count is huge. Knowing you're not going to have to be out there and just not being out there in the heat and, you know, that long. And I just like, when does it stop? And again, I'll go through it again. The acceptable loss is obviously not zero. Yeah. It's not. And I just, you know, we can't get Chris back. And that's the thing. We can't get these people back. And I just, I hope something comes of this, but OSHA will pay the fine. You know, OSHA will make UPS pay the fine. They'll move on and they'll keep doing it because look, they're still doing it. They're still, you know, cutting, cutting routes and putting more stuff on it. And this just happened. Nothing changed. There's no language to stop them from that. Well, I was in the doctor's office. I got a phone call from one of my Frisco stewards. Yeah. Somebody, one of his drivers, one of the new suits came up to him this morning. Oh, I'm riding with you today. He went to the steward. Yeah. And he's like, I was like, no, you're not. Like, you guys are supposed to get a 24 hour notice. Absolutely. Well, I'm told to ride with him, so I'm riding with him. No, you go to the manager. He's got to ride with him today. Yeah. I mean, what good does the contract do if we're not going to enforce it? Like, if the management can look at a steward who's showing you the language in the contract and says, you have to give a 24 hour notice and they say, I don't care, then what? You know, you might as well watch your ass with the contract. Absolutely. And if a lower manager, a center manager in Frisco or McKinney, Texas can say, I don't give a shit what the contract says, then obviously the division managers, district managers, labor managers, they can do the same thing. Yep. And that's what they've always done over the years. And I just, that's why, you know, like, you know, I was very unhappy with the general language in the contract because it didn't change because there's still, there's always an out. Yeah. Or they're just going to blatantly violate the contract. So, I mean, I think it's important though, right here, right now, we need, you know, and we just said this a little while ago, you know, if you're out there and you're feeling, you're feeling a certain way, especially if you stop sweating, we know that. Oh yeah. That's, you know, but if you're getting to that point, you need to call 911. Yep. That's it. That's it. You call 911. And, you know, this is, and, you know, this is the reason why I wanted to do this because like, you know, if, if a thousand people listen to this podcast and even one of them, that message hits home. Yep. Like, then, great. That, then I feel like I've done my job. Absolutely. Because I can, you know, my other stewards in the building will tell you one of my favorite sayings is you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Yep. I will educate until I'm blue in the face. Yeah. But I can't make you follow the contract. I can't make you force the company to follow the contract. Like, I can't make you stand up for yourself. You have to do that. I can't always do it for you. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I have a saying to younger drivers, you know, that, you know, because most of them were just like, oh, well, I'm going to go out there. I'm going to get done. I'm going to knock it out. I'm going to be a good driver. I'm going to be a bonus driver. Yep. You know, and that's fine. You know what, if you're 22 years old and you can go out there and you can do 200 stops to be in at five o'clock and you feel like that's the life you want to live, like, I'll tell you it's dumb, but ultimately it's your, it's your life to live. Absolutely. And I'll tell them. I said, I said, look, there's going to be, there's going to be a moment and you're not too distant future where you're going to think back and say, damn, I should have listened to Hooper. That's definitely going to happen. And I said, when that happens, I want you to pick up the phone and I want you to call me and I want you to tell me about it. I'm not going to say you should have listened to me. What I'm going to say is, as I'm saying, I hope you listen to me now. Absolutely. Better than you did previously. Yep. Because I will not steal you. I will not steer you wrong. Like, I've been with this company for a long time, 17 years. I've been a driver for 10. No, I've been a driver. Well, I was a TCV for several years, but yeah, I've been a driver for, you know, 14 of those years. Yeah. And, you know, it's, you learn things. Yep. You talk to people. You have, you know, you have mentors going through. Yep. You know, I still, I'll never forget the guys that I had up in Sherman that, you know, you could see management were afraid of them because they knew the contracts. Yeah. They knew what they could get away with. Yep. Yep. Yep. That happens. And I just, I think that you hit on a good point. You don't want to tell someone, I told you so. No. When it comes to that point, you want to say, okay, what are you going to do about it moving forward? Yeah. That was perfect. That was, that's exactly it because we don't want to dissuade, you know, people. We want to, we want to empower them. So you can have all the education in the world, but you have to be empowered to use that education and want to use that education. And I think that we don't have enough of that. No. We don't. And people are afraid of the company and, but it's not a matter of being tough. It's a matter of sticking up for your rights, for yourself, for your life. Yep. Right. Obviously, you know, it's your life. I mean, and we just want to be able to help people. That's, that's what we do. Right. That's why we were stewards. You know, I was, I was lucky enough to be a DA. You know, I, I, I met, you know, I met Chris. I was his DA for a little while. I mean, you know, good guy. I mean, and, and, and to the friend, you know, you as a friend and the family, I just, it comes down to it again. You can't bring them back. And what are we, what are we going to do moving forward now again? So this doesn't happen again. And I, I had a long conversation with Dave on the phone on Monday. About, you know, a lot of, some of the stuff was going on. And he asked me, he's like, he's like, what do I have to do to get it across to people that it's okay to call 9-1-1? That it's, if they're feeling these things, that they will have backing, that we have a hundred percent backing from the center. Like, they're not going to let somebody go for taking, for, for going out on a hemorrhagic injury. Yeah. And I was like, it's like, it's got to start from the bottom up. Like, I've got a good, you know, you know, I've got a good group of stewards in that building. I, you know, we, we have started a, a WhatsApp group amongst a lot of the lower seniority drivers. That's good. And, you know, we communicate with them daily and it's, you know, it's made a, you know, I'm not going to say that it's made a huge difference, but it's certainly given a lot of them a lot more confidence to stand up for themselves because they've got that instant access to a steward. They can pick up, they can pick up a phone and text like, listen, I'm feeling hot today or something's going on, or, you know, I'm feeling a little dizzy, you know, and we can immediately go, go to the ER. If there's an ER close to you, go to it. When you get there and you get in the office and you can check yourself in, call them and let them know. So, you know, the most important part about that is they start, they call 9-1-1 because it's, it's at that point. But then after that happens, now they're empowered and they teach someone else. Yes. And that's the important thing. You have to. And, you know, we have to know that if we're going to do something like that, and let's say a bit in the company, you know how they are. So they might come after you. We have to have our, you know, the backing of our local, which everything is important. You know, the backing of the stewards, the BAs, the president, everybody. And I think we have to get to that point. And I'm hoping everyone just learned something from this, this situation that should have never have happened. I don't want, I don't want this to ever happen. I don't want this to ever happen in any center, ever again. Yeah. But it certainly, it certainly hit home that like I have, like I, there's, there's got to be something more that I can do to keep this from happening. Like if at no point, like at no point am I ever going to stop growing as a person or as a steward. Of course. And as tragic as this is, like I can't let it, I can't let myself feel sorry about it because like this has to be, this has to be a learning. Has to be. Yeah. We have to learn about it from this. And we have to let people know that it's okay to go out. It's okay to, if you're not, because we've got a lot of, there's a lot of men in this industry and a lot of them are very much, well, I was given a job to do today. I'm going to finish it. And, you know, you know, that extra hour or two that you push yourself to stay out on road could be the difference between life and death. Yeah. Yeah. It is. It just, every bit makes a difference. You know what I'm saying? If you're in that hospital, you're getting IV, you're not on the road, you're not making it worse for yourself. And, you know, it's just everybody, male, female, everybody out there, you know, you have to know what's your limit and, you know, what you're willing to, you know, what you're willing to take. But listen, once again, condolences, brother. I thank you for being here. Hopefully people will listen to this and they will, they'll get educated and, you know, they'll ask questions and everyone in the local can help them. I hope so. Yeah. No, me too. So I'm Jeff Shenfeld, again, here with Garfield Hooper. And this is Teams to Power 767 Reality Check. Thank you very much. Our experiences deal largely with the Southern Region Supplement. This is just an information podcast. And if you have questions, it's best to contact your local steward or business agent. And remember, strong people stand up for themselves, but the strongest people stand up for others.