Reality Check Ep 034

Garfield discusses the use of Lytx cameras in his center and advises drivers not to mess with them or cover them up. He believes it's not their responsibility to ensure the cameras work and that the company should take care of it. He also mentions supervisors using computers for commitments and suggests printing out documents for a copy. Garfield encourages getting advice from local stewards and standing up for others. Teamster Power 767 Reality Check with Jeff Schoenfeld and Garfield Hooper. How's it going today, Garfield? It's going pretty good, Jeff. How are you doing today? Good, good, good. No complaints. So, we're going to get right into it. So, you had sent me a message during the week that something was going on in your center. You want to speak about that so we can speak about that? Yeah, I do. Apparently, the company is, like, real hard up on these whole Lytx camera things. And I'm going to tell you just like – I'm going to tell everybody out there just like I tell my drivers. Don't mess with them. Don't put – don't cover them up. If they're covered, don't uncover them. Don't even get up there and mess around with them. Because, like, if somebody – if you drive a truck a different day, say you're a covered driver and you're in a different truck, and you get in a truck and all of a sudden it's – and you've got a Lytx camera that's covered, all you've got to do is reach up there and take it down. But as soon as you reach up there and take it down, then all of a sudden a supervisor says, oh, well, I can see him putting one back up there. And now all of a sudden – now all of a sudden you're in the hot seat for covering up a camera. So don't mess with them. Don't touch them. Don't mess with the wires. Don't worry about them. They're not supposed to be facing inside. If the union's not strong enough, whether that be the local or the national level, you know, I was under the impression these cameras were a strikable offense. But they're still in the cars. So – and we didn't strike. So here we are. We have to deal with what we got. Don't mess with them. Like, they can be used for discipline. So that's good. They shouldn't be there at all. But we know how the company is going to be, and this is where we are. But don't mess with them. But also, like, our center manager seems to be under the impression that they're also our responsibility to make sure they work. Well, that's not the case. I don't know if mine works. I don't care if it works. If it doesn't work, that's somebody else's problem. I don't have any way to test it to see if it works. I'm not going to touch it. Yeah. So I'm not – so, like, I'm not going to write it up on the DVIR. That's not my responsibility to make sure your surveillance equipment is working. And I wouldn't suggest anybody else do it either. And they sent out a message instructing people to write it up in their DVIR, and my response to my drivers was, how am I supposed to know if it works or not? Like, you claim to know which ones work and which ones don't. But, you know, as management, you know, the mechanics are – you know, they're hourly wage too. Why don't you walk back there and tell the mechanics they need to fix the cameras? I don't know why that's our responsibility all of a sudden. My stance is that I'm not going to touch the cameras. I'm not going to check the footage. I'm not going to be – I'm not going to, you know, mess with them. So it's not my responsibility to make sure they work or whatever. That needs to be the company's responsibility if they want to make sure this stuff works. I agree. And I say to you, what camera? It doesn't make me believe it's not there. Yeah. I mean, listen, you know, we were – weren't we told that the inside camera slash sensor doesn't work? Yeah. Camera, wink, wink, nod, nod because, you know, they – and, you know, I'll tell you something. You could tell. If they're calling you in the office, you know, a member in the office, after something happens on the camera, it just happens to be they're calling you in the office because they had a feeling you were doing something or they actually were watching you in there. And, you know, we just – we never – it's kind of worth going around because it's just – it's like how do they know? How do they know? How are they bringing people in? But, you know, it's – this whole thing with the camera, for me, I just go about my day, do what I'm supposed to do, and not worry about it, don't touch it, don't get mad at it, you know. And what was that? It was – I'm just going to zero off for a second here, you know. I'm a package car driver, not a torpedo technician. What was that? I'm a Star Trek or something? You know, the guy's like, you know. I mean, it's crazy. Like, what are we, mechanics and stuff? No, I'm not touching anything. I'm not doing anything. I'm just – you know, and here's the thing, like anything else, if they start you doing it, look, uh-oh, we've been doing it for – look, everyone's been doing it for six months. Look at this. That's it. It's common practice now, right? Yeah. That's, you know, we can't let them just get away with anything. I mean, you know, if we can't have our, you know, any of our locals across the country do it, we have to, you know, get together with stewards and help the members and just say, hey, listen, this is what you need to do or, you know, anything important because you don't want anyone touching those cameras. That's the bottom line. Yeah. It's going to fall under you messing with UPS equipment and tampering with UPS equipment, and that's something that they're going to fire you for, and it's not worth it. And I had a couple of guys say, hey, well, what if we just write it up once? I'm like, no, because if you write it up once, then you're acknowledging that you knew it didn't work. So, like, don't even acknowledge it. You know, if it does work, great. If it doesn't work, whatever. Like, I'm not going to support them disciplining people based on it, and whether they work or not, they're going to have to figure out how to get them fixed, get that information to the mechanics. They're sitting on their asses all day in the office all day. You think they could walk back there and, hey, hey, mechanics, the camera in this truck doesn't work. Can you get it fixed? But, you know, like everything else, it falls on us. Well, and like I've said in other episodes, you know, we don't recognize the numbers. We don't recognize the camera. I mean, we know it's there, but, I mean, during the day, I just go about my business. I don't even look at it, you know. I just do what I have to do, and that's it. But there was one other thing I wanted to talk about. So, recently, the last couple of weeks, the supervisors on Roseville, you know, they'll go, you know, do their ride-along with the driver, and they'll come back, and they'll call in the steward, or go in as a steward, and they're doing everything on the computer now. So they'll type in things, and they'll ask, oh, well, you know, it's, you want to sign? No, no, I already told the driver beforehand what, you know, what not to do. They're not going to sign anything, you know, and RTS it. They're going to ask for a commitment. And they went out there. You know, you don't get into anything with a commitment. Your commitment every day you come in is you're going to work safe, and you're going to do what you have to do. You don't need any extra commitments. They can hold you to, and if one day you don't do it, all of a sudden, boom. So no commitment, you know. I'm not saying you're not going to work safe or anything like that, but, no, you don't do that. And, you know, the steward, you know, will sign on the computer, but there's one thing. So based off of this, I said to one of my on-road suits, I said, well, I have Adobe fill-in sign. I have a, you know, I do my read-ins on Adobe fill-in sign, right? I mean, it's easy. So he wants us to sign on the computer. I said, hey, why don't you sign on my Adobe fill-in sign, too? And he looked at me and was like, give me an answer. And then afterwards, he's like, well, okay, I mean, I'll do it. Then he's like, well, you know, but, you know, it's still trepidation. Like, okay, wait a minute. And I'm like, well, if we're going to sign on that computer, we're going to sign on my computer, my phone. You know what I'm saying? What's the difference? Tell me what the difference is. I haven't experienced that. Maybe they're not doing the computer thing in our building, but, like, you know, I don't know how that stuff works. You know, anybody who's bought a house or anything or a car or anything in the last, you know, five or six years knows that everything's on computers. And, you know, if you've got an account with that stuff, like, your signature's there. So now all of a sudden they can just put your signature on anything they want? No, hard pass. You're going to need to print out a piece of paper and I'll sign it. But I'm not going to sign anything on your computer. Yeah. So it's – and the thing is, you know, we just – I make them print out everything because we're allowed to have a copy. Yeah. So that's the way – that's the way it works. We get the copy. We say, okay, we're going to print it out. And the first time, they're like, well, we don't – we can't do that. We absolutely can. This is part – this is the member's, you know, information. They're going to get a copy of it. Yeah. Ever since then, we've made them print it out. So, you know, that was the only way that was going to work either. So – but all right. Just wanted to cover a couple of things. There are a couple of things going on. As always, there's always something going on. And for Garfield and myself, everyone have a good day. Bye. We all deal with national language. But on this podcast, when it comes to supplemental language, we deal mostly with the southern region. And as always, it's best to get advice from your local stewards or business agents. If you would like to reach out to us with any questions, we have an email address, 767realitycheck at gmail.com. That's 767realitycheck at gmail.com. And remember, strong people stand up for themselves, but the strongest people stand up for others. Thank you.