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.
Some tech workers questioned whether UPS drivers deserved high pay — others jumped in to note the importance of the jobs and harsh working conditions.
As a tech worker, I'm super happy they're being compensated so well. We're witnessing the power of workers organizing and I'm loving it. I would like to see unions in tech become a thing, but it's impossible to organize anything with the people here and talking about it openly will get you fired for "completely unrelated" reasons.
68Hey, I'm a union organizer at a tech company! Union support is more likely than you think in the industry. It's all about a strong OC forming connections with your coworkers. If you want to be the change, reach out to CODE-CWA!
40I think there is real pressure to divide different workers. This article is just one I've been seeing that had this narrative. And no tech worker I know is angry.
38It's okay to be angry when it's directed the right way. It's not the driver's with whom anyone should be upset; it's the executives refusing to provide fair compensation that we should all be angry at.
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At my work I’m the office guy and I work closely with our service techs out in the field. I’m acutely aware they earn more than me and honestly, they deserve every penny of it. My broken old ass isn’t getting on a roof any time soon 🤣
7The only thing I’m really afraid of is that with organization, they’d learn how little work I actually do.
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All work should be organized work.
55Yeah this isn't a bad thing. If anything it's an excuse to ask for more. Tech workers are notoriously shit at unionizing.
4
Having worked for UPS in the past, these guys definitely earn it. Long days, boiling hot or freezing cold, and wrecking their bodies the entire time.
43Definitely true. It's kind of like any physically intensive job that you can only keep up for so long before your body gets messed up to the point where you have to quit early. That "big money" isn't forever, it has to be saved up while it's earned for retirement later, which might be sooner rather than later due to physical disability.
Plus there's the lack of holidays, and in fact crazier work hours with fewer breaks and no days off during the holidays, because that's when there's the most shipping going on. Much harder than coding or other tech work in air conditioned rooms and breaks during holidays, etc.
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"This is disappointing, how is possible that a driver makes much more than average Engineer in R&D?" a worker at the autonomous-trucking company TuSimple wrote on Blind, an anonymous job-posting site that verifies users' employment using company emails. "To get a base salary of $170k you know you need to work hard as an Engineer, this sucks."
Maybe get organized, and you can get better pay too.
22Engineers are among the most atomized groups of workers I’ve ever interacted with. So many of them genuinely believe that they’re the smartest in the room, not matter who is in the room with them or what the topic is, and they believe they deserve more than anyone else. I’ve been working on radicalizing one of my engineer friends for close to a decade and the most I’ve gotten him to do is admit that things could be better. That said, my pops is also an engineer, and he’s an old school socialist, been supporting Cuba since the 60s, and is radical enough I can’t share some of his perspectives here and feel safe, so it is possible for engineers to have class consciousness. It might be harder for those who didn’t grow up subsistence farm laborers like my pops though…
2
The only people I am against getting raises are management and above.
12Blind is full of a certain type who are obsessed with net worth and superficial career goals, not surprised in the slightest
8This exact article was posted here yesterday: https://lemmy.world/post/2956248
6By you! Thanks for making this comment. I thought I was going nuts with the deja vu.
9And I’m posting from kbin, and not everything gets pulled in from lemmy communities. I checked before posting, but there wasn’t a post for me from kbin. Federation is still imperfect.
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Doesn’t it take at least a decade of working in the warehouse to get a seat in a truck? And how many years do you need to drive before you reach that salary? Tech workers can earn six figures right out of college.
2I was going to say, $49 for full time drivers and like $25 for part time. Part time meaning those guys waiting to get a route. That’s $52k for the people waiting for that big payday.
2See my comment to OP. The 170k figure is based on the end of the contract. Full time drivers will be getting minimal raises each year. The media, UPS and the Teamster's are all bullshiting everyone. Even the AC going into trucks is bullshit. They are implementing it over the life of the contract. Most current drivers will never drive a truck with AC in their career.
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Also, the media who is obviously not on the unions side, is not mentioning that the pay increases are based on the end of the contract.
Drivers are not going to make 170k if the contract passes the vote. They will be making 170k in 10 years. Their base pay will increase 5% the first year, and then every year they will get a 75 cent raise.
Does anybody want to guess what inflation will drive tech engineers salaries to in 10 years?
If inflation continues as it has, UPS drivers will be locked into wage increases that don't beat inflation.
UPS is also experiencing record setting turnover rates for employees right now. They are giving write ups to employees en mass. Literally lines of workers waiting for their turn to receive their write up each morning.
The contract being called a massive win by the media, UPS, and the head of the Teamster's is actually bullshit. Very few drivers support it, and it will probably not pass the vote.
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