[stevenmays]

I have a family member who drives for UPS. He shit himself while driving because he wasn't allowed to stop outside of assigned breaks. They also tried to fire him because he had to take off for cancer surgery (minor melanoma). He tells some horror stories.

[louprado]

A few years back our UPS driver arrived with our packages but could not scan them because his scanner is forcibly disabled during assigned breaks. So he hung out for about 10 minutes and expressed annoyance that he was being controlled. Perhaps they now have flexibility as to when their assigned break occurs.

[Apofis]

How the fuck is a unionized company allowed to do shit like this?

[rpiguy]

Ultra intense competition. The companies do what they need to do to stay alive and satisfy their shareholders. Fedex and Amazon are fierce competitors for UPS.

Amazon in particular has incredible power since they can decide what they themselves will ship, and what to send to others to ship. This allows them to self-ship lightweight, regular sized packages, which are the most profitable things to ship, and send the harder to ship items to carriers. It is a brilliant form of arbitrage.

On top of that all of the major parcel companies are at least partially competing with a giant, government subsidized entity (the post office).

We are coming off of a long recession, meaning the workers themselves have been grateful just to have job. Long recessions breed labor abuse, because the workforce is willing to accept it.

Lots of reasons. I am sure it is technically unlawful to make an employee shit him or herself, but what is allowed is not the driving factor here.

[hansthehorse]

The only government subsidy the usps gets is the law that forces everyone to send mail through them. They receive no federal money.

[wccrawford]

Things have to get bad enough to convince the workers to give up pay for a while to do the strike.

[Thlom]

Don't most unions have a war chest they can pay members on strike from?

[drzaiusapelord]

This is a job that pays about $35/hr which is what the union helped them negotiate. They'd rather piss in bottles than lose $35 a day on an hour long break. Their union won't force an hour long unpaid break, so the drivers just do their own thing on the clock.

The union also fights against CDL requirements for better/safer drivers and allows excessive overtime because it pays out so much.

Its not a good union by certain measures, like a lot of big unions focused on low/no skill labor it can help raise salaries (and raise product cost) but also not be helpful in anything they think 'hurts' workers like mandatory unpaid breaks, CDL requirements, background/credit checks, etc.

Modern unions have little in common with the unions of old that existed before we had any real safety regulations and far less labor regulation. Now they exist almost solely to return as much financial value as possible (wages) for the investment (dues).

[emidln]

> Credit checks

If you're implying credit checks don't hurt workers, you can GFY. Medical bankruptcy is real in the US and being unable to obtain employment because you were sick and couldn't afford a $300,000 bill is asinine.

[dsfyu404ed]

>The union also fights against CDL requirements for better/safer drivers and allows excessive overtime because it pays out so much.

Considering the work pattern of last mile delivery drivers compared to OTR truckers and how rarely both groups fall asleep at the wheel and crash into things this doesn't bother me in the slightest. Being subject to all the regulatory overhead that goes with a CDL would be bad for, the workers, the employers and anyone buying their services. It's not like UPS drivers are falling asleep at the wheel and running over little old ladies left and right. There's no negative externality that can be eliminated by regulating delivery drivers.

[loeg]

They're driving a big honking vehicle. That usually requires a CDL. If the CDL requirement was dropped, pedestrian fatalities would rise. This is a surety.

[s73v3r_]

Name one benefit to workers that credit checks would bring.

"Now they exist almost solely to return as much financial value as possible (wages) for the investment (dues)."

And the company doesn't exist for the same thing?