Reality Check EP 019

Jeff Schoenfeld and Garfield Hooper discuss various issues in their Teamster Power podcast. They address confusion about MLK Day, with some managers claiming UPS is open while the calendar states it is closed. They also discuss problems with increased volume and lack of preparation at UPS, as well as unethical practices by management. They emphasize the importance of documentation and standing up for oneself, and encourage employees to report any unethical behavior. They urge workers to reach out to stewards or BA for guidance and support. Teamster Power 767 Reality Check with Jeff Schoenfeld and Garfield Hooper. It is good to be back Garfield. I am glad we are back doing this again. It's just wow. That two weeks seemed like months. It was like peak season. We made it through. Happy and healthy to everybody, to every single Teamster. It's a new year, let's see if we can be even better this year in every single way. Educated. We are going to do our part to educate so management doesn't take advantage like we always do. We are going to step it up even more and we are committed to this. We enjoy it. Garfield and myself, we have conversations. It's a lot of fun. We do. We enjoy it. This is what we enjoy. We enjoy helping people and you have to want to help people. You really have to. If you are in these positions, if you are a steward or you are a BA, you have to want to help people. It's a great feeling when you can help someone out. We love doing this and we are glad to have everyone back. We are glad to be back. We are going to get right into it. Next order of business, MLK Day. Next Monday. Not tomorrow, but next Monday. What happened already? Garfield, what happened already? What did you see from people sending you messages? There is already some confusion. Are we working? Are we not working? There is a calendar update on the UPS website saying that we are closed and some managers are saying we are open. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. You know what it is? There are such creatures of habit management. It's true. Oh, we are going to do it just like today on Thanksgiving. You have got to work. Meanwhile, they looked at their own schedule. The 2024 schedule. It says domestic operations are closed. But people were getting messages last week. And I am like, okay. That's why I posted what I did. I mean, the day after Thanksgiving, that's a holiday too. It's your choice. That says they are open. It doesn't mean you have to work. But this is domestic operations are closed. There is none. So, why are they even putting anything on there? It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. It's a holiday. Garfield, what issues are we having now? What's come up in your building? Well, I'll tell you what. Since the New Year, everything's come up. We've been having some issues with, you know, in our center, our volumes come back up. So, like everything, but with UPS, they're not prepared for it. You know, they've told all the seasonals, all the PVDs, oh no, you're done for the year. You're good. You know, now all of a sudden, oh crap, we don't have any, we don't have any more trucks. We don't have enough drivers. Everybody's going out with 200 stops. It's like this week was worse than the week before Christmas for my center. And, you know, people are going out with stuff they're not familiar with. You know, oh, well, I couldn't find, I didn't know I had this business. I didn't know, you know, I couldn't find it earlier because my truck was packed front to back. Oh, well, let's get a phone call from the supervisor. They're like, oh, just sheet that up, not in one. Sheet it up, you know. Don't go by there. Don't do that stuff. And I tell you all like I tell everybody else. I said, if that center manager or supervisor or whoever wants to send me a message in the board instructing me to do that, I'll do it, regardless of whether I think it's an ethical problem. But if you've got, as I've got a paper trail that shows that I was instructed to do it, I will absolutely do it. But if you're calling me on the phone and there's no witnesses, no, it's getting sheeted missed. Because if somebody calls in and complains, you know, that supervisor is not going to take responsibility for it. They'll be like, I didn't tell them nothing. And next thing you know, you're in the office for dishonesty, for sheeting up something incorrectly and being walked out of the building. Tire tracks on your back from management riding right all over it, right? Yep. I mean, it's it's yeah. And, you know, the unsafe and unethical thing. Yeah. I mean, they they want to tell you to do something, but that goes to what they are. And that's something where if they're doing stuff like that, they that's where I would just start building a case against. It doesn't make it right that they're doing it. What was that that they do again? What was that? What was that thing that they do again? I don't know. I'm trying to remember what it is. It's been a couple of weeks. So I don't know if I can remember what was it? Wait. What? Lying. Right. Yeah, that was it. It was lying. Right. Because that's what they love to do. They just they just sometimes they're just the fountains of misinformation. It's true. It's crazy. And other times they're just I mean, it's always done on purpose. So it's you know, there's always a little lies. I mean, come on. Why? Why? Just why? Okay. That's that's what they got to do. But we just have to keep in mind. And it's important for everyone to know if they're doing stuff like that. And we've been trained. We put it as missed. We don't not in one. You don't know. We know it's it's missed. And you have to keep track of that. Always, always, always documentation is so key. Everything. If you have to take a picture of something, if you have to, you know, anything you really need to document. And it's not, you know, each, each member needs to know they need to document. Don't just trust what management's going to tell you. No, you know, I, I was doing some UPS stores. I was sweeping them and my truck was full. And, you know, I mean, they, they don't say anything when I come back. I mean, it was, it was packed. I took a picture of the truck just so they didn't come to me the next day. Oh, you, why'd you only, why are you still on half a truck? You know what I'm saying? They wouldn't, they don't, but I'm not going to take a chance. No. I mean, it's, I still have, I still have documentation from like 2011 from one of my managers. You know, I just, I don't know. I don't know why I keep it, but it's just, everyone needs to do that. And I tell people all the time. And you know what I do? I tell people, so did you speak to the supervisor or did you text with them? Oh, I spoke with them. I'm like, nope, that's not the way to do it. They'll get you every time. You don't want to speak with them. You want a text message or, you know, you know, not even, not even through your phone. You just do it through the dyad board. That's it. Just communicate through the dyad board. And, you know, I mean, there's, there's things going on. They, you know, obviously they learned how to, in their minds, how to live with, you know, cutting routes and putting more on the, on, on less routes. Right. You know, and that's where they were literally, sad to say, killing people during the summer. And, you know, it's, it's never happened. I mean, we try to get the business done, right. We try to be good to the customers and management will be like, nah, you know, like if it's a holiday, you say, okay, just this one store is closed in the strip mall. But then they closed the whole strip mall. How was that? Right. Yeah. You know, how was that? Right. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's There's going to be a lot of pushback, especially this time of year, for, you know, you doing what, you know, they tell you to do, or following instructions, or this, that, or the other. And if you feel like they're pushing you to do something unethical, you know, call and make, and file a complaint. Get a lot of grievance, get with your steward, do everything you're supposed to do, but utilize that hotline as well, because, you know, we've seen them investigate based on phone calls to that hotline. So it, it does work. I, I, I don't know whether anything particularly will happen, but I do see that the investigations have happened. Yeah. And, and, you know, get, let your steward know, let your BA know, let them know what's going on. So we can, we can hit the problem right away. And, you know, it's like anything else. We, if you have, if you question something, you can call a steward while you're on the road. If you can't get in touch with BA, call a steward. Hey, what do I do here? You know, and just don't just make a bad choice. If you're really not sure, you know, I mean, they'll put you in a spot. This company will put you in a spot and no one needs to be in a spot. Yeah. I tell, I tell all my guys, I said, everybody's got my phone number. If you don't have my phone number for whatever reason, somebody that you know has my phone number. Call and get it. Give me a call. I'll drive around all day with one earbud in so that if I hear my phone rings, I can answer it right there. Half the time it's somebody trying to sell me something or asking me if my car is limited warranty or whatever. By the way, I like the, I like the safety thing. An earbud in one ear, one ear. I always keep it on the, I always keep it in the one ear on the inside of the truck. So I can't hear their stupid, uh, their stupid camera or whatever yelling at me for whatever dumb reason. I don't know. Mine doesn't talk back to me. I mean, yours talk back to you? It does on occasion. Um, it was funny being of some of the guys, some of the, uh, darker skin guys in our center were having problems when they first put them in because at night it couldn't see them. And it would, it would tell them that they were distracted even though they were just driving around normally and it, but it couldn't see them. Like it wasn't making them out. Like they were like, it was, you kept telling them they were distracted drivers and they didn't have their seatbelt on or this or that and the other. And they're like, like, I'm just driving around normally. And just because it was dark outside and they were darker skinned individuals hit the camera wouldn't couldn't make them out. Yeah. That's, I mean, it's stuff like that. Like, you know, with these companies, I mean, those are, those are things they need to work out. I mean, that's, I mean, that's ridiculous that a company that's doing this, we shouldn't even have the cameras, but the fact that we are, I mean, it's like, what is that? You, you can't like figure that you need to, you know, adjust some things or whatnot, but, but anyway, that's that. So, uh, really just want to, you know, with MLK day, we wanted to make sure everyone knows again, you do that's your choice. Guess what? There is on, there is no other choice. There's no working this one. There's no working. I'm sure as the years go on, they'll try all of a sudden domestic operations closed will be domestic operations open, right? Yeah. You know, they're gonna slowly. Well, that's what they did with the day after Thanksgiving. It's the same thing, you know? So, I mean, there is no work. So, but like anything else, just always know it's a holiday. You don't have to work. It's your choice. Yep. And that's it. And again, management tells you something that may seem unethical. You have a question, you call a steward, you're checking and you just want to make sure you make the right decision. And always ask, always call a steward, always get in touch with a steward to be a somebody who you think might know. And that'll avoid any problems with, you know, moving forward. Yeah. So, um, I guess that's it for today. It's great to be back. Just enjoy doing this and everyone have a good night. Remember, strong people stand up for themselves, but the strongest people stand up for others.