Hicksville Center news.

Now that I'm into my 19th year (I can't believe it's been that long). I was talking to a friend of mine the other day (yes, I have a few friends!)and we were talking about how much has changed on our jobs since we've been there. Here are a few things that have changed since I've been here; 

• sheeting on paper, 50 packages per page-no tracking numbers, just a 6 digit shipper number and the weight. Don't forget your carbon paper!! And what a mess it was when it rained.
• collecting cash for c.o.d.'s and stuffing it in the tiny little safe in the back of the truck.
• Next day air packages with the little tag you pulled of the package and wrote in the name and delivery time (10:29 of course).
• wooden bulk head doors with a padlock hanging on a chain.
• handtrucks that weighed almost as much as the packages you were delivering.
• Only had to know 5 seeing habits and "don't touch, leave area, notify a supervisor", no 10 point commentary or any of the other B.S. we have now.
• no messages! If the boss wanted to get in touch with you they would call your pickups looking for you.
• those little brown pouches we used to put our pickup logs in.
• pickup logs, remember the verticle line for the time and number of pieces picked up?
• One supervisor for every 7 or 8 drivers.
• Centers that only had 25 drivers.
• 50 lb weight limit, man do I miss that!
• Center managers who knew how to run a center and that were allowed to make decisions instead of being told how many loads to run.

Did I forget anything? Let me know and I'll add it to the list.

We also need to start stepping up contract enforcement, new language is in place and there is some serious money to be made if we follow the greivence procedure. Read through the contract and become familiar with it so that you'll recognize a violation when you see one.

Several people have asked me about vacations this year and why I won't allow anyone to trade. Simple, once you pick your vacation it's yours and contractualy we are not permitted to work on vacation. It also isn't fair to a 15 year driver who didn't get a summer pick when a 5 year guy cuts a deal and gets one. If I hear of anyone trading their picks I will file a greivence against the company for entering into a separate agreement.

If a supervisor asks you to wait and not leave the building don't scream at him that you have stuff to do or that you need to get going because you have to get in early. First of all he doesn't care, secondly, he has a right to have you wait for whatever the reason. If he makes you wait and you now have a problem with your air it's him who has the problem not you. Don't be fooled into making their problem your problem. The same goes for meet points, if they set up a meet point just go. Think of it this way, if you don't go how will you know what supervisor to file a greivance against for doing our work? Management is not allowed to perform any bargaining unit work, this include moving offroutes around and bringing out late air.

Nobody should be on the boxline before their start time. Period. I understand that you want to make your day that much easier, believe me I understand. But when you find an air in the load at 1 o'clock and say the loader put it there I can promise you that the loader is going to say it was you. Another issue is that if you get hurt it will be an argument because you weren't authorized to be there. Let the loaders do their job, and when it doesn't get done they'll realize they need to hire more people, so please don't provide the richest company in the business any free labor. If you want to work for free I have a huge backyard with a lawn that needs to be cut!

If you have a problem with anything on the job whether it's stop counts, pickups, the loader, or whatever, come get me before talking with a supervisor. There are several reasons for this, the most important is that you have a witness to the conversation. This is especially true if you are asking for an OPH or request load. I can't tell you how many times someone comes up to me and says "I had a request load yesterday and got screwed", well if you had gotten me involved instead of trying to enter into your own agreement with the company you would have gotten what you are entitiled to and had asked for. I'm here to help, not just defend you when you're in trouble.

This was once a union shop, it has become a shop that happens to have a union. We need to turn that around and take back OUR company, we built this company not the bosses. We are the ones out there busting our asses for 12 hours a day not them. The only thing the union and UPS have in common is that they both begin with U. We need to start building commaraderie and teamwork that a union should have. Come to station meetings when we have them, attend union meetings to become informed, not just to get a free t-shirt. Remember, the union begins with U.