Ask Away
Welcome to our Ask Away forum - this is your opportunity to ask us anything you like about Teamsters Canada and joining our union. Simply click on the Submit link below to type in and send us your question. We'll give it a look and if we think it's a question all website visitors might be interested in, we'll post it with our answer in the area below.
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No forced overtime
My manager said that if we join the teamsters we will be forced to work tons of overtime and do 120 stops a day. Is this true?
Totally false!! Purolator and UPS are run differently than FedEx. Primarily the routes are much smaller than an average FedEx route… not to mention that at Purolator and UPS the ground and air freight are combined on the trucks.
Both Purolator and UPS collective agreements have protection against forced overtime:
- Purolator Collective Agreement – The company can only force you to work ½ hrs over your hour-band. So if you have an 8 hrs guarantee route the company can only force you to work 8.5 hrs in any given day unless you want the overtime.
- UPS Collective Agreement – If you feel you are working excessive overtime you must first approach your supervisor. If your supervisor fails to deal with the situation you write a letter to the Division Manager (90% of the time the problem is fixed at this stage). If that doesn’t work you can file a grievance…. depending on the route and family situation most grievance resolutions provide zero to 1 hrs of forced overtime. Remember, UPS full-time drivers are all guaranteed 8 hrs per day of work and load-balancing for exactly 8 hrs is difficult.
The law protects you
The Canada Labour Code makes it crystal clear that you are protected from intimidation or worse from your employer as you consider joining a union. Here's what it has to say.
No employer or person acting on behalf of an employer shall:
(a) refuse to employ or to continue to employ or suspend, transfer, lay off or otherwise discriminate against any person with respect to employment, pay or any other term or condition of employment or intimidate, threaten or otherwise discipline any person, because the person
(i) is or proposes to become, or seeks to induce any other person to become, a member, officer or representative of a trade union or participates in the promotion, formation or administration of a trade union.