Reality Check EP 041

The main ideas from this information are: - The team discusses management's arrogance and their belief that they can do whatever they want. - The team recounts a recent incident where a driver was disciplined for insubordination, despite following guidelines for heat exhaustion. - The team criticizes the manager's lack of empathy and compassion. - They emphasize the importance of knowing your rights and standing up against unfair treatment from management. - They share personal stories of managers showing lack of understanding and compassion in difficult personal situations. - The team agrees that it is better to expect such behavior from managers and be pleasantly surprised if they act differently. All right. Teamster power 767 reality check with Jeff Schoenfeld and Garfield Hoover. So we're getting right into management's arrogance, arrogance to think they can do whatever they want. It's a prerequisite to work. It's like they go to an arrogance class. It's like they, they take them. It's like they got to get qualified to be arrogant in order to work in management for this company. Yeah. Yeah. But it's, it's, it's, it's, and sometimes it, uh, it absolutely goes too far. Just like, you know, situation recently happened to you. Yeah. Yeah. It's this, it was fresh last weekend when we recorded and, uh, obviously I was, I was pretty heated about the whole thing, uh, and, you know, to be honest, I still am, you know, because they, let me tell you, they, they went so far as to discipline this driver for quote unquote insubordination, uh, this week, uh, presumably for, for what happened that day, uh, and, and then they disciplined me, the steward for bringing it up multiple times, sending messages in the board, I even, I even posted, uh, uh, we have first and everybody should see these in their buildings, there's, there's first aid guidelines to what to do about the heat. Uh, and they shouldn't be up in your buildings or they're like in our building, it's on the, like, yeah, print on the yellow papers as first aid. And it says, you know, heat it, what it's got heat, exhaustion, uh, heat stroke, and then something else on there. And it goes through all the symptoms and then what all you have to do. And, um, this driver was complaining of lightheadedness and dizziness, which was, is, which is a, uh, symptom of heat exhaustion and over on the, on the right side, it was like what to do and big bold letters on the, on there, it says, do not return to work that day. And, uh, I actually, I actually made a copy of this sheet of paper and highlighted the symptoms and what to do. And, uh, I, uh, scotch taped it to my manager's door to make sure, just to let her know, Hey, these are, these are the things you, these are the things, these are the things you're supposed to do. You know, you're supposed to look out for people, you know, these are the rules that the union agreed that the union and the company agreed to. And you didn't follow them, but I got this, but that was unprofessional of me apparently. So I got disciplined for that. So, yeah. So the driver, he fell out, went to a care now, and then the, the manager instructed him to go back out and, you know, again, a lot of discussions this week with a lot of different people. And, you know, we know if there's a manager's going to tell us, yeah, you gotta go back to get right, whatever. But here's the thing also, when you, when you're having heat related issues, you're not thinking straight either, you know, and, you know, normal situation. I mean, that's, you know, if you, if you, if you got your wits about you and you, it's not so crazy, not even, not even close and, you know, but again, it does, it does, I mean, it plays a huge factor in everything, right? I mean, it's, yeah. And it's, so you said, you know, they gave him a, they gave you both discipline, but they gave the driver who fell out discipline and for what reason, what was the reason for it? Hint to term for insubordination. And to my knowledge, he's never gotten any other discipline for insubordination. But they, they wanted, I guess they just think, once again, going back on the arrogance thing, they think they can do whatever they want, but you refuse to properly, to properly and promptly follow instructions of your management team. Refusing to follow management team's instructions is considered insubordination, insubordination will not be tolerated. Future occurrences result in progressive discipline. You have been previously issued discipline for this unacceptable behavior. Therefore, pursuant to Article 52 of the Southern Region, this letter will serve as an intent to discharge you from UPS. Future improper actions will result in more severe disciplinary action up to and including discharge. So. That was the insubordinate. Yeah. I don't, and to be clear, the driver went back out and took stops off of the driver. The other guy was like, you shouldn't have, if, if, if it had been me, or if he had, he had contacted me before this happened, you know, I would have told him implicitly, like, no, get in your car and go home. We'll deal with this, we'll deal with this next week. Like you don't need to be out behind the wheel. But, you know, as far as I know, he, he did what he was told. So I don't know why this was even given. But our, our center manager, Hannah Garza, seems to think that she can just do whatever she wants. Wait, what was her name again? Hannah Garza. Oh, okay. I can say it again. Do you want me to spell it? I can do that too. Man, that's up to you. Do you like to spell it? Yeah. It's, you know, the, even the thought process for someone in management to even, even do that. That's, are you kidding me? Yep. Like that's, that's so above and beyond, you know, and I don't, is every manager going to do that? No. I mean, but this, I mean, I don't know where she thinks she can get away with something like that, you know, and, you know, we have to show her from our side that no, you can't get away with that, you know, and, and, and you, you can't do that, you know, and, and, and be proactive in, in, in, in stopping that thought process. I mean, that's, that's, that's a boatload of arrogance right there. Yeah. And, and I've heard, and like, you know, one of the reasons why we do this podcast is so we can inform people and people know what their rights are. So then when they're in situations like this, they can think it's like, oh, well, you know, I have things that I can do. Like I have, you know, I have things that are, that have my back, you know, um, years ago, one of, one of my friends in my current center, uh, he worked, uh, this is before our building even opened. Um, he, he, uh, he and his wife were having a, or his wife had had a kid. And, um, without getting into details, the child ended up not making it. And, uh, he was going to work, you know, just like normal. And when it got close, when it, when things started to go badly, he tried, he was in work one morning and his wife called him and he was trying to leave. And the manager told him, you know, the manager knew about all this. He had been very open and, and, you know, told everybody all this. And, and the manager told him, if you leave, I'm going to fire you. Wow. I mean, that's, I mean, at that point, that's not even a question. No, you leave. Yeah. You know, like, you know, if, if I had been his steward at the time or a BA or whatever, you know, I would have given him that advice. I said, you get in your car and you leave, you know about it. You've informed management. This is a life and death situation. You know, you go be with your family. They're not going to fire you for this. This is not, that's not how this is going to work. And any steward or business agent worth them, worth their salt should have his back on that. And, you know, and this is any, any other situation that anybody you may had. I know, you know, most people that are listening to this have probably been with the company or intend to be with the company for, you know, 20, 30 years. So there's going to be life, there's going to be death that's going to happen in that time, and it's going to be unexpected. And just because you don't have option days or vacation time or something like that, doesn't mean that you can't go be with your family when that time comes. And so long as you're being honest and open and you're communicating with not only your management team, but your, your, your stewards and business agents, it should not be an issue for you to go and be with your family in those times. And like I said, any business agent or steward worth their salt ought to have your back 100% on something like that. Yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's some of the things are just beyond like, uh, like inhumane, like, but you know, I remember years ago, my dad was sick for years, had heart issues and, you know, he was, he was in a bad way and, you know, up in New York and I had to fly up and I got tickets, you know, I had to get a ticket, um, uh, for my wife and myself. And, you know, I said, Hey, you know, and I'm, I'm, I'm, I don't mind. I told my manager right away, obviously, you know, and I said, you know, it's, it's, you know, and I showed him, I showed him the tickets, you know, I don't have to, you know, Hey, look, I got tickets here or there I'm open. I don't really care. I have nothing to hide. He goes, you paid that much. And I looked at him, I said, I paid that much for my dad. Yeah. I paid that much. I would have paid double that. Yeah. You know, I don't really care. I said, are you kidding me? I told him that as I said, are you kidding me? Uh, like I was just like, Hmm. And then, you know, but it's expected, you know, management's going to do stuff like that. But you know, it's like, you're kidding me for my father. But I, I, I pay any, any monetary amount, it wouldn't matter. But, and that's, that's what, that's what they do. And we need to, you know, expect those things. Like I said, not every manager is going to be that way or whatnot, but they are, they are, but expected from everyone. I mean, they will be, but expect it from everyone. Yeah. I would rather expect it to from them and be surprised that I don't get it. Absolutely. No question. Because you know what? Even the ones that were like, Oh, you know, normally, okay. They could be having a bad day and they go off and they do that. So I, like I said, you expect it from them and, you know, I want to go back to, you know, any, any letter, if you're in a, if you're in an office and, uh, you know, with a, with a member and there's, they write the discipline, you look at the paper and there's some things wrong with it, the date's wrong, the names on it are wrong, you notice that you don't say a damn thing, you keep quiet. And, you know, you, you know, afterwards you speak with the member, you, you let them know, Hey, this is, this is, this is what happened. These things are wrong. You know, this is, it's not balanced. You know, it's going to, it's going to get thrown out because I mean, they can't, they have to write the right information, everything on there. And that's, that's the first thing we scan for. We see the discipline, boom, we start looking at it. They, we look at a breakdown, the letter right away, the discipline letter right away for everything. But again, you don't look up, make noises, do anything. You just, okay, great. I just noted, noted that there were three things wrong with it. And we deal with it. We still hear what they have to say. We go through the normal process and that's just something for stewards to be aware of. Yeah. And it's a good idea to like, um, like with warning letters, warning letters, probably one of the most common things most stewards will deal with, you know. Yeah. Um, you know, you get a copy and the company gets a copy. Obviously you sign the company's copy and then RTS it for the members. Um, I don't care how valid the discipline may or may not be. This member should never be signing it. They should always be RTS. Ever. Ever. And then you've got, and then if you've got, if you're sending in a warning letter, it's like, I don't know how it is on all locals, but for us, we have a specific sheet we do for disputes, for warning letters, we don't necessarily file a grievance for a warning letter. And, you know, I, and I send the disciplinary letters in with the disputes. So if there's a problem with the dispute letter or with the, with the warning letter, you know, point them out, write it on the sheet, you know, circle it, you know, uh, like wasn't this date, you know, wrong names, these people weren't present at the meeting, you know, he didn't do this, whatever. And as a steward, notate that stuff on there. Let the, let the, uh, steward, let the, uh, member fill out the dispute, put on there, whatever he needs to put on there to say, Hey, you know, whatever happened, this, that, or the other. And then you, when those get faxed in, you know, you send in that letter with it, with your notations on it that says, Hey, you know, Hey, you know, maybe they, maybe for instance, you know, this is an example of anything that's actually happened, wink, wink. Um, you know, they went out and did an observation on somebody and it was one supervisor went out and observed them doing that. And they saw that and was like, well, how do I know that the supervisor observed that? You don't have any pictures. There wasn't two of you. So it's your words against the, it's your word against the drivers, whether this happened or not. So, you know, you know, I, I notated that on the, um, on, on our copy of it. I said, Hey, Caleb was the only one present. Um, and, you know, you send that in. And when it comes down to, if he, for instance, usually from what I understand, those things don't come up until it progresses further to like a suspension or a discipline or a, or a discharge. And then they come back and say, how well were these warning letters valid? And then you say, and then you see that the way you see that what's on the warning letter, you see the notations that were made and be like, Oh, well, this warning letter wasn't valid. You only had one person here. So now the suspension and the discharge are invalid because they never gave a proper warning letter. I'm thinking after that. And, and, you know, the thing is years ago, like on anything, now they just do methods violation. They don't say specifically. And I don't know where, I don't know where that went, you know, felt by the wayside. But what I do on each one, okay. Well, you say there's methods. What were the methods? I write it on the, on the discipline letter. Because there's 340 methods and if you get disciplined for, are there more now? I think they adjusted them. I think I've never, I've never actually seen one. I've been with the company for 17 years. I've never seen these 340 methods. If you get disciplined one day for a methods violation for, you know, three point, you know, not using three points of contact, getting in and out of the car. And then a week later you get it for walking in front of the truck instead of walking around the back of the truck. That's, they're going to shoot, they're going to group those as methods violations, but contractually that should be, that's two different, that's two different violations. So like it's two different levels of progression. I mean, they say it's just methods, but no, I mean, you do one thing, you're doing the next. I mean, it's, it's, you know, I say no, I say no, but it's, it's, I mean, there's a lot of things, but you know, and, and again, we, we started off with it, it comes to everything that goes on as management arrogance to think they can do whatever they want. And we're here to say no, no. And, you know, we want everyone to become stronger and, uh, you know, if anyone's been in that situation and, you know, uh, where the management is just telling you to do something, you know, unsafe or unethical or whatnot, send us an email. Let us know about it, you know? And, and, you know, it's, it's, we want to know, you know, how bad this is. You know, we know what's going on here. We know what's going on in the country. We just want to hear those different stories and, you know, situations that have happened, you know, and, you know, it's a shame that they do, but we have to be able to respond, you know, we're, we're, we're not, we're not playing victim, we're going to say, no, we're not going to accept this. It's unacceptable. And the more examples we have, the better prepared everyone is. Absolutely. And that's, that's the key. We want just everyone to be prepared. So, uh, so, uh, so for my, uh, myself and Garfield, I want to thank you for listening and, uh, watching and, uh, have a good day. We all deal with national language, but on this podcast, when it comes to supplemental language, we go 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, seven, six, seven reality check at gmail.com that seven, six, seven reality check at gmail.com. And remember strong people stand up for themselves, but the strongest people stand up for others.