Inside UPS: Split Shifts, Harassment, & the Fight for Better Conditions | Better Bad Ideas | Ep. 87

0:00This episode of Better Bad Ideas is brought to you by Labor First. Now let's get into it. Better Bad Idea. Welcome to Better Bad Ideas. We love doing these viewer response episodes. It gives us tremendous insight to what our viewers really enjoy. Now let's get into it. You know, everybody knows the Teamsters Union has been politically working bipartisan to try and achieve many goals and objectives that are going to positively affect our members. And it's no secret that our political approach has been getting a tremendous amount of attention, a good ambad. But you know, that's what we chose to do. We chose to take these positions politically on behalf of representing a very diverse membership. Now I think most people know that not every single

1:00person in a 1.3 organization like the Teamsters Union or 1.3 million person organization anywhere throughout this country, you are going to get every single person in that union or that organization with the same exact political affiliations. You're not going to get the same wants and needs that everybody that is in this organization or in this union has opinions on. For instance, if you live in one part of the country, you'll want some needs as a Republican, maybe different than another one of our members who lives in another part of the country that may be a Democrat. So we have to navigate through those relationships. We have to navigate through the wants and needs. And we have been attacked politically. I've been attacked personally.

2:02I've been attacked from the far right who don't believe that unions are valuable, who don't believe people should be in unions, who don't believe that people have a right to collectively bargain, who want to push a right to work agenda. And then I've been attacked from the far left, who don't believe any working people should embrace any other political party except for demographed. And Democrats, you know, as we've all talked about in many circles, and I think it was evident, not all Democrats, there's a lot of good Democrats, there's a lot of good Republicans. But some Democrats, this last election cycle, thought it was more important to fight and address social issues that unions have been addressing and fighting and combating for decades upon decades upon decades. So we're always going to have this debate on who's right and

3:06who's wrong. And for me, as a person, number one, I always like to objectively look at any and all situations. I like to look at any and all problems. I like to find solutions to those problems. And I don't look to find solutions to problems by labeling someone as something that's really not relevant to solving that problem or refusing to work with someone because they're affiliated with a different political affiliation than I am. I don't have that luxury. We don't have that luxury. Society doesn't have that luxury. Society and people like me and elected officials and people in general have an obligation to find solutions to problems. And you know, I mean, think about our personal lives. If there's a problem personally in your life, and look, I've subjected myself to many personal

4:10problems, self-inflicted certain arenas. And if you're not talking through those problems with your partner, your significant other, your husband, your wife, you are never going to find a resolution to that problem. You're going to just continue to look at it. You're going to continue to get more and more vigilant and not see a means to an end or a means to a solution. And that's what we're paid to do. I love going into situations that are very difficult, chaotic at times, maybe even viewed as impossible situations to write or fix. And there's nothing better than working with people that have differences of opinions, that have different affiliations, that may not be from the same geographical area you are. And it feels good when you can collaborate,

5:17debate, sometimes argue and fight. But when you solve a problem and you put aside all the bullshit rhetoric, you put aside all the bullshit differences out there, that's what we're supposed to do as a society. That's what we're supposed to do. And I say to people all the time, if marriage was based upon drawing a line in the sand and not having communication, they would be a 100% divorce rate in this country. And I think as a country, especially in the team's to union, political nature of this country, we've got to work in collaboration by partisan with people that we may not have liked five or six years ago. People we may not have talked to, people that weren't from our area. And there's no better example of what we've achieved, regardless of who's the president of the United States currently is or was. I mean, you think about over the last five years,

6:18fast-to-label contracts act. I'm going to continue to talk about this because it's not highlighted as significantly as it should be. It's not highlighted because not one political party utilizes as a weapon politically, not one political party chose this because it was popular. We got bipartisan results because it was the right thing to do by the constituents that these bipartisan politicians represent. And it was the right thing to do for working people in this country in the house. We've got our work to do in the Senate. I'm confident if we take the same approach, if we take the same discipline and we don't look at anybody's affiliations, but we keep demonstrating again that people should have the right to organize, people should have the right to negotiate a first time collective bargaining agreement. People shouldn't be retaliated for joining a union. That's what our focus should be. We're going to continue to make tough decisions.

7:24Those decisions are not self-serving. We do not get the ability to make decisions because Sean O'Brien believes this is right. I don't get to make a decision because Sean O'Brien thinks this is the only way. I make decisions based upon input from the very diverse membership and the very politically divided political affiliations are members seek. And we have to find ways around these problems. The easy thing to do, I think today, is to complain, kick and scream, attack people on social media, and just be spew venom all over the place. And that's not helpful. Regardless who the president of the United States is, regardless who's in power on the Senate in the house, regardless of anything else, life needs to continue. Problems need to be solved. Solutions need to be achieved by collaboration with people that we normally wouldn't talk or collaborate with.

8:29And that's going to be my focus, not only in the labor movement, but in life in general. We solve problems, not for ourselves, but for the betterment of others. Now with that, let's get into some viewer questions. This episode is brought to you by Ketchers Law Group. Proud advocates for injured workers in their families since 1986. If you've been hurt on the job, navigating the work as comp system can feel like fighting an uphill battle. That's where Ketchers Law comes in. They've recovered over three billion dollars for hardworking people just like you, and they don't back down when your rights are on the line. They know what it means to stand shoulder to shoulder with unions and workers across the country. Because it catches law, it's not just about compensation, it's about justice. To learn more, visit ketcherslaw.com. That's kech.eslaw.com. This episode is brought to by labor first. The leader in healthcare and navigation and advocacy for union health plans and members. Navigating healthcare isn't easy and it shouldn't fall on the

9:33shoulders of members alone. That's where labor first comes in. They work one-on-one with active employees and retired members to help them understand their benefits, resolve issues, and get the care they've earned. For answering tough questions to fixing billing problems, labor first is in your corner every step of the way. No call centers, no run around, just healthcare advocates who care. Labor first was founded by a proud team of Son and grandson. For over 60 years, his father and grandfather led teams to his local 837, now local 107 in Philadelphia with pride, purpose and grit. That same union spirit runs through everything labor first does today. Now, hundreds of union health plans trust labor first as a true partner, delivering results, supporting members, and never forgetting who they're working for. When it comes to protecting what members have earned, labor first stands with you. To learn more, visit laborfirst.com. Terry Davidson, count on us retirees. How many teamsters are we? Everyone included. I know we got 1.3 million active members. I would suggest

10:38we're close to 2 million combined. Don't hold me to that number, but I can get that number. Retires, I want to touch more retirees from men. Retires are probably the most important people to this success of this organization. When you look back at where we were 50, 60, 70 years ago, retirees sacrifice so much. I mean, some retirees took strikes where there was no $1000 per week strike benefit like we have today. Some people don't realize that retirees sacrifice wages and working conditions to stop pensions, pensions which by the way, in the teamster world for the most part are the same as the amount of earnings you earn while you're actively working. So retirees are always going to be highlighting this organization as long as I have the honor and privilege to serve and as long as the members want me. Retires will never be forgotten on their commitments to

11:42this union. And I've got to tell you, my local union, local 25 in Boston, there is a group, always has been a group, as long as I can remember that whenever there's an issue and you put a call to arms out, the first people to show up are the retirees. And I think it's because we give great coffee and donuts, but I think the commitment, the fire and loyalty the organization still exists. Anonymous asks, how do unions win over workers and write the workstates where anti-union message in is everywhere? Gotta be present. You gotta be out there and showing what union membership is all about, showing how, you know, when you have union density and you have solidarity, you're able to negotiate the strongest contracts. Look, there's no doubt if you looked at statistics throughout the country and you did an apples to apples comparison of what communities look like that are non-right to work versus right to work. The non-right to work have better property values,

12:45have better homes, have better school systems, have better programs in the community. And you've heard me say this time and time again, good jobs create good communities. Tim Tom asks, why have the supplements not truly been addressed by means of benefits? If members do the same jobs, they should have the same benefits. Pay time off, sick days, option days, discretionary days, vacation time, vacation payouts, paid breaks, holidays, pensions, etc. Unfortunately, the list is long. If leaders want a union the truly unite, then the gaps should be closed so members don't have the fight for what other members and other supplements have. Just as the fight for same pay, we have leaders continue to avoid this. Members need more time off of our industry, has high divorce rates, high suicide rates, high mental health issues, but leaders continue to avoid this. Maybe if there were turn limits, members may be good, get a bigger focus. Look, every supplement is different. And that's why we have a national master agreement.

13:51The wages and for the most part, the benefits are consistent across the board. None of our members, and this is UPS question I would assume, none of our members full time active, paying anything towards the cost of the medical. None of our part time is paying anything towards the cost of the premium of our medical. All of our members full time and part time receive a pension benefit. All of our members are covered under the national master agreement with all terms and conditions. The supplements are geared towards area work standards and practices. And the reality of it is there are different allocations for time off in different supplements. For instance, some supplements have veterans day off. Some supplements have an extra sick or personal day, but don't have veterans day off. Some supplements have seven weeks vacation.

14:51Some supplements have six weeks vacation. But some supplements have the day after Thanksgiving as a overtime paid holiday. So each supplement may have different paid time off allocations, but every supplement is different. One supplement may have seven weeks, like I stated earlier. One may have six, but that six week may have two or three additional sick days or personal days. So it's all different, but at the end of the day, I would just suggest this. You know, time off is extremely important, especially this day and age, family time, spending time with family. There's no doubt working a lot of hours takes its toll physically and mentally on working people on families. There is a very high divorce rate in many of the industries that we represent. But at the end of the day, each contract cycle, we just got to focus on what's most important,

15:52what the wants and needs of our members are, and as negotiators bring those issues to the forefront and try and achieve them. And that is specific, we're paid time off. Greg Boil asked, what is the union going to do about UPS force and inside full-timers to work a split shift to get their eight hours? Well, again, that just comes back to continuity of shifts. You know, there's layoffs going on right now because volume's down. So there's no doubt that UPS has an eight-hour obligation to full-timers. So in order to achieve that eight hours in some of the smaller buildings, drivers that are laid off may have to work two split shifts to maintain their eight-hour guarantee. And we can address that in negotiations as far as trying to create opportunities whether it's consecutive shifts or where we can create consecutive shifts. Anonymous asks, what industries do you think are quietly ready for a major union push but aren't getting enough attention? Well, I think you're going to see a white collar world that's going to be

16:58affected by AI and this technology. I mean, you're going to be looking at a lot of jobs that have no protections that potentially could have opportunities to train in other areas. I think you're going to see public sector continue to grow. Public sector has been one of the largest growth opportunities for us throughout the country. I think in the construction, ReadyMix, arena, especially where there's going to be all these data centers being built and infrastructure to support these data centers, whether it's nuclear power, whether it's new grids. You're going to see tremendous growth in a lot of these for the teams. There's a lot of construction. ReadyMix is going to be ripe for the picking. The cannabis industry, there's 425,000 W2 employees. Once cannabis is legalized federally, you're going to see a big push of acquisitions from private

18:04equity, trying to buy a lot of these mom and pop operations. So I think we've got to look at first off looking at the traditional industries that have been neglected and that should be organized. You can leverage, especially with these data centers in the construction industry. Most of our pension funds are investing in these infrastructures, funds, and private equity that are building these data centers. So leveraging our contributions in the pension funds and the ability to provide capital should leverage us with jobs and opportunities in careers. So I think there's a tremendous amount of opportunity, but I would say public sector for the teamsters is continuing to be growth. I think the healthcare industry, especially nurses, we just secured a historic contract, 10,000 nurses, a core well medical in Michigan. And look, a lot of these healthcare

19:04jobs, nurses, maintenance, cafeteria workers, janitors, they can't be replaced by AI. So I think that's going to be a great opportunity for us to represent those folks. This business asks, when are you going to get rid of Article 40 and let us air handlers get the same benefits as the other UPSers? Yeah, Article 40 has always been a controversial article. I think each and every negotiation it changes. That could be a proposal. I know it's been a proposal in the past to eliminate Article 40 and just have the inside employees hand the air and have the package car drivers deliver the air. Eliminating the Article 40 would also eliminate a pot time air drive. So sometimes you got to be careful in what you wish for because you don't want to take a position that could hurt or have a negative impact on your co-workers and our members.

20:08Anonymous asks, what's the biggest mistake workers make when they're trying to organize for the first time? Trusting the employer. I've seen it many occasions where, and I've been an organizer, where you meet with a group, you explain them the benefits of being in a union, you demonstrate by utilizing workers from similar industries and talking to them and then their employee gets wind of them and the employer says, look, you don't need a union. Trust us. We have friends. We made mistakes. The biggest problem that we have in organizing drive is captive audience meetings and workers given their employer a second chance. You give your employer a second chance. The chance you have a getting a union in your workplace, a slim ton on. So trusting an employer is your biggest mistake. Nicholas Mitchell asks, how do we add more UPS jobs in a market where more and more customers are shopping shipping rates and we're one of the highest cost per parcel. And how does

21:11asking for more money end up equaling more jobs? Oh, this is definitely a fucking manager. This is probably Carol Tomay. Is Carol Tomay right in the bed about ideas? I wonder. Look, it's simple. The excuse not only UPS, but corporations have always used is when prices increase and stake instead of taking a little bit less in your profit margin, they pass on the cost to customers who customers now will look for a cheaper alternative. I got a better bad idea. You know, keep prices where they are. Take a little bit less in your profits. You'll be remaining profitable and you'll be protecting your business. It's not up to workers in America, workers at UPS to sacrifice wages and benefits to protect interest of employers who don't respect and want to reward. So simple, simple. And I'm a, please, UPS managers, stop writing into my fucking show. Stop your own podcast. Leonard Romo asks, the absolute worst part of working at UPS is dealing with

22:14the harassment from the company. Harassment cases at UPS are almost always settled with some generic empty commitment from the company. Well, before any possibility of a penalty or being awarded, what's the plan to actually address this in the next contract? Well, I'm going to propose the next contract that prior to any management people at UPS or supervisors, meaning with our members, that they take a dose of sodium pentathol because a problem with UPS and the management is they have a real fucking problem telling the truth. They suffer from a pandemic called liabities. And we need to propose trutzelin in any and all dailings with management. Look, the reality of it is is this UPS is going to lie cheating still to obtain their goals. And that is to do more with less and to make as many profits as possible with less people with total

23:17disregard to the people that have made them the success that they are plain and simple. So we got to combat it, negotiate strong protections and conditions. And look, UPS contract is the best contract in the labor movement. I don't care what anybody says. You know, I had a, I recently had a debate with a 25 year old package cod driver. I think it was in Texas or wherever it was at. Maybe it wasn't Texas. Maybe it was Indiana or something. And he said to me, this contract sucks. And I said, compared to what? He looked at me like, what do you mean? I said, compared to what? What other contract have you worked under? Oh, I never have. You never worked under you to contract before. No. So how can you say it sucks? It sucks that you don't pay anything towards your medical. It sucks that you have a pension that you're going to be able to retire on. It sucks that you got all these paid holidays. And if you work them, you get overtime. It sucks that you get paid vacation. It sucks that you got a grievance procedure. It sucks that you can have retiree medical. It sucks that you have a path to a full-time career. Tell me what is better than the UPS contract.

24:24And he didn't have an answer for me. At the end of the day, he said, well, I mean, I just have people complain all the time. So I assume it's the contract. And I'm like, listen, with team sense, that's all we do is fucking complain. So it doesn't have anything to do with the contract. By the end of the conversation, you know, I had them, you know, basically looking at it and saying, you know, you're right. And I said, don't go talk to your friends who didn't, who not work in a union job. Do they work Monday through Friday? Yeah, you work long hours. You work for a prick. You work and you get harassed. But you're going to make $50 an hour. And look, the worst part of UPS, and again, I've never worked there, but I've represented them 25 years. The worst part about working for UPS is the first 10 minutes in the morning when you're in the shop in the last 10 minutes a night. Other than that, if you're doing your job, fair days work for a fair days pay, you're going to have no problems. Aussie Harrow asks, if unions could effectively fight against subcontracted work to companies that violate labor laws and DOT regulations, what makes us think

25:28they'll be able to stand against AI and automation when those technologies begin taking away more UPS employees. Well, AI and technology here, there's no doubt about it. Again, we can do one of two things. We can either find solutions to problems and protect jobs and create jobs as a result of them, like we've done in many industries. We're doing it actively right now, trying to find jobs at UPS that our members who potentially could be displaced. Or we can just blame someone else. I mean, the bottom line is we've got to be engaged. We've got to look for opportunities. It can't be sitting in our office. And we need member feedback on what they think, the technology or the potential of technology is going to have on their jobs and collaborate and come up with a solution. The cardboard jetty asked Mr. O'Brien, many years ago, if you were called DHL tried and failed to muscle into the American parcel carrier market. Now, if the articles are to believe Chinese government back companies like Gofo have made inroads in a very short time.

26:32Does the union plan on lobbying for legislation to curb growth of these foreign subsidized competitors? Well, I think right now, one of this administration, we see what's going on with tariffs. We see what everybody has their opinion on tariffs and what countries should be tariffed and what shouldn't. There's no doubt China should not have a strong presence in any industry in the United States. It should be made hard for any foreign subsidiary corporation operating in the United States where we have capable, a capable and reliable workforce. So I support any and all efforts to keep foreign subsidies out of our country and let's promote good union American jobs. Seth Austin asked, education and technology for members, we need a better system to update our approach. We need an app that posts grievances, results, locally panel, nationally, etc. We need

27:34to be able to follow grievance electronically and move away from paper. If this exists in other regions, please send it to local 391. Thanks. Times have changed and we have not. Yeah, I mean, every local union every era does things differently. Grievances, there has to be some sort of effort made on a grievance, on a grievance to file an accurate grievance with credible information. And some people do it electronically. Could we look at creating a nationwide app? I believe we could. I think we had, we have an app on the UPS front nationally, but look, technology window differently, anybody else. If there's an easier way for our members to enforce their rights into file agreements, I'm all for the technology and I'll be the first one to tell you that I'm not the most technologically savvy guy. So I will

28:36bring those concerns forward and see if we can solve that, provide a solution to that problem. CL Boston, baddie, ask, you claim to be completely against AI yet appears you're using AI generate filters on your podcast to make yourself look more fit and jacked. Be honest. Do you really think people believe those muscles are real? I think my mother just said that. That's got to be my mother, right? I think my mother. That's my mother. Right? As I said, my mother is question. CL Boston, baddie, whoever that is. That's my mother. I can't believe my mother would ask a question like that. There's no AI filters. So you're naturally that big. No, I'm not big. You know, I'm just trying to stay fit. That's all. Your triceps are that big. I'm just trying to stay fit. Big boy. Thank you very much for another great episode of Better Bad Ideas. We look forward to seeing you next week. We love doing these viewer response. Please check us out on all our social media platforms. Thank you.

29:59And don't miss Nikki Glazers on a apologetic comedy November 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavata.com. Only at Yamavar Resort and Casino celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in must be 21 to enter. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile with your summer price forecast. Now, unfortunately, we're seeing rising costs across the country with possibility that big wireless hates you. 100%. Now over here at Mint Mobile, we're seeing sunny skies and dropping prices every plan to just $15 a month. Give it a try at MintMobile.com slash switch. Up from payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 month plan required, $15 per month equivalent to taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow in at work is busy. See terms.