Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170,000-a-year package with a mixture of anger and admiration
Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170,000-a-year package with a mixture of anger and admiration
Some tech workers questioned whether UPS drivers deserved high pay — others jumped in to note the importance of the jobs and harsh working conditions.
Firstly hilarious that BI is basically just posting message board comments as news.
But also those comments are expectedly hideous.
Meanwhile, several workers, including a Meta worker, said that software engineers were "underpaid." The TuSimple worker wrote: "the engineers that created that truck he drives are more important because the impact to society is higher, including providing a tool for work."
Software 'engineers' talking like they engineered trucks.
They made a gamified app forcing workers to make money machine go faster
Sour grapes from pathetic nerds with bullshit jobs
Did someone regret learning to code?I'm starting to regret it. I really did pick the worst time to try and get into tech.
Oh well guess forklift operation for me!
being a UPS worker fucking sucks tho, like yeah absolutely pay those mf well they deserve it but i've known a couple drivers and they work rough schedules and routes.
edit: even for 170k i wouldn't do that shit (plus no weed! could you IMAGINE?!)
UPS thanked the cops who shot up a truck when the driver was taken hostage.
fucking lmao
but with a ups uniform
No weed... Well there goes that career plan
Important to note: this article is old.
UPS is now laying off 12000 workers just after 5 months of the so-called “historic” deal (CBS)
From Yahoo Finance (Jan 31, 2024):
UPS (UPS) employees are in the news once again — but this time, it’s not gone their way.
The shipping giant, which forecast weak demand for parcel delivery in 2024, has said it plans to lay off 12,000 employees to save $1 billion in costs. It’s also mulling a sale of its Coyote brokerage unit.
This shocking announcement made on Tuesday comes just six months after unionized UPS workers landed a “lucrative” new labor deal, which will see delivery drivers earning an average of $170,000 in annual pay and benefits by the end of the five years.
“2023 was a unique, and quite candidly, difficult and disappointing year,” said UPS CEO Carol Tomé during the company’s earnings call. “We experienced declines in volume, revenue and operating profits and all three of our business segments.”
Yeah, most of them aren’t gonna see that promised 170k by the end of that five year contract.
Total scum behavior who woulda thought
UPS has also just been awarded to be the primary air carrier for USPS, displacing a 20-year partnership with FedEx. Clearly a very difficult year for them.
last i heard, it was 12000 manager level positions, not the unionized workers
This is from an interview on WSWS from March:
WSWS: How many workers were affected by the layoffs in your building?
Evan: My understanding is the whole building laid off about 78 people. It was the whole midnight shift—40 [part-time] workers—but also Twilight and Pre-load got hit with layoffs as well, so 78 total. A lot of people are mad about it.
The first wave started right after the new year. That was a big surprise. A supervisor told us, ‘Listen, they're gonna start laying off people.’ The reason given was that volume is getting short. A second wave of layoffs occurred shortly after and I heard there’s another one coming up.
Some workers without seniority were laid off completely. Anyone who had less years, they [UPS] didn't really take them.
They’re also bringing 40 full-timers from different [UPS] buildings to over here this week and dividing them up between the shifts. I’m very worried.
WSWS: You mentioned earlier that many part-time Midnight workers who were laid off also had jobs during the day. What happened to them?
Evan: Yes, most people had two jobs so they couldn't continue with the different shifts. So I could say out of the 78, there was like 13 people that actually were able to make it and be called in for a floor spot.
They can’t fire us, but they told us that if you don’t like it, quit. If you quit, they love that because that’s basically what they want you to do. They want to force you to quit. And you can’t collect unemployment because technically you’re not fired.
One co-worker, who worked at UPS for one and a half years, got laid off for three months. They moved him to Pre-load and told him to come back in three months and that he’s on call for one or two or three days a week. They just want him to quit.
WSWS: What has been the response of the union, including Teamsters local 804, to these layoffs?
Evan: So far, no one has spoken to me about it. They [the Teamsters] just say at least you got a job. The problem is they just stay quiet.
One union guy called me to ask if I got switched to Pre-load and I asked him, “Do you know what the hell is going on with the layoffs?” And he’s like, “What UPS is doing right now is wrong,” but that’s all that the union guy told me.
WSWS: So the Teamsters are just accepting it and not putting up a fight.
Evan: Yeah, of course. And that’s what a lot of people are saying and I believe it. The union guys never came up to us telling us that we were going to get laid off.
They’re not even helping us. They’re not fighting, they’re doing nothing.
I don’t know if this is psyop or anything but it does seem like it’s affecting a lot of the part-timers. And as I recall, the new contract explicitly restricted the number of conversion to full timers (which I don’t know if they’re being laid off or not).
There's an informative revleft episode that people might be interested in, interviewing teamsters members campaigning against the recent UPS contract
Title says: Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170,000-a-year package with a mixture of anger and admiration
Bullet point says: The average UPS driver could get $170,000 in pay and benefits in five years' time in a new contract.
Quote from the fifth paragraph, "It's important to note that the $170,000 figure represents the entire value of the UPS package, including benefits, and doesn't represent the base salary."
Engineers not being able to read challenge, impossible.
The article is poorly written; it also says the $170k figure is salary plus benefits per year:
During an earnings call on Tuesday, UPS CEO Carol Tomé said that by the end of its five-year contract with the Teamsters union, the average full-time UPS driver would make about $170,000 in annual pay and benefits, such as healthcare and pension benefits.
Try unionizing too then dumbass tech bros holy shit it's literally that fuckin easy
Unfortunately they’ve been gorging themselves on the trash bin so heavily they really think unionizing will destroy any ability to “innovate.”
Capital juicing labor infighting with an article that could've easily been written by a language model plugged into some salary discussion site they're clearly marketing... The future is looking great
UPS drivers earn that shit by working in grueling factory conditions for years or decades as they gain enough seniority to drive, and then it still sucks unbelievable ass. UPS offers great healthcare plans because it will destroy your body and soul.
Will Americans ever break out of the master-slave mentality? Never a response of “shit how can I get paid that much??” only ever “know your place, servant”
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this is one of the many reasons tech Bros are insufferable people... it's not enough to get high salaries, be treated like living gods among sheeple, and have everything you demand be given to you, but you also want to make sure NOBODY else gets anything because that somehow detracts from your specialness
Other tech workers on Blind expressed a similar level of discontent. Insider didn't independently verify the users' identities.
Okay, I don't doubt there's a lot of snotty smug tech workers, but I will say this article is just reporting on anonymous posts on a forum. I know tech workers and while they can be douchebags I don't think any of them would be this AGAST at learning delivery drivers were making about as much as them. They'd probably just shrug it off and say "well I guess they have a good union".
Absolutely. Pretty funny that a respected news source is just like here's some anon posts we found.
I also have tech worker friends don't worry
One criticism I have for myself and others here is that we often make these statements without really knowing what insert whoever were mad about do on a daily basis.
We look bad when we say something proudly and it's flat out wrong but feels good.
That being said there are obviously tech workers who hate the idea of someone not doing something the way they did it exactly so it's undeserved. Fuck those guys.
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Tech workers about to find out you can’t replace a delivery driver with AI and you can’t outsource a delivery to an equally capable worker in a less wealthy nation.
