Circa 1999-2000, my first job working in a union. A grocery store warehouse. i was in my 20s taking a year off from college. I was also transitioning from active duty Army to the National Guard weekend warrior way of doing things.
Now to understand the story you need to know a few things about how things worked in this warehouse. there was a seniority list of about 100 people. Various shifts and jobs that were all bid for once a year. 8 hour shifts, 10 hour shifts, different days off, etc. The lower portion of the list were the order pickers. Stacking pallets of groceries and taking them to the loading docks. this was the only job that where you were measured by how fast you go. you were only gieven so much time per order. if you didnt make time you were subject to write ups and all the fun stuff that can follow. Being a union environment is was STRONGLY encouraged that you DO NOT go any faster than the time given for each order.
A note on seniority. If a senior man came in on his day off to work overtime, for that day, he went to the bottom of the seniority list and thus would have to be an order picker because it was not his regular day that he bid for. This is important and will come up later.
Now its also important to note that at this stage in my life and still now for the most part, all those Army words were still ringing in my head loud and clear, DUTY, MOTIVATION, DICIPLINE.
It took me almost 60 days (my probationary period) to learn the system and develop a pace that would allow me to make time. This was normal, either you were making the cut by 60 days or they let you go. your time was calculated weekly. 100% average meant you wee meeting the standard.
As time went on i found i was able to exceed the time standards on a regular basis. At the time i was just impressing myself. And if i needed some extra time later then i had some to burn and still make 100%. Well, the union guys didnt like that very much. I was repeatedly told to slow down, dont work so fast. If they keep seeing me work so fast they will adjust the time standard and that there are guys who are struggling with it now and they will lose their jobs. Guys that have been there longer than me. Now i just thought that was the dumbest thing ever. Because if I slow down then the loads dont get on time, and if they dont get out on time then im more likely to have to work forced overtime becasue no one goes home until the work is out. the union contract allowed them to force us to work up to 15.5 hours a day, 6 days a week if needed. So that translated as "slow down = more OT whether i want it or not". And there was already plenty of this OT going around because of thanksgiving and all those kinds of days, without me slowing down. And besides i was 1 person out of maybe 50 pickers, wtf difference was i going to make by myself.
One day 4 guys decide to corner and confront me in the back of the warehouse and try some intimidation tactics. I guess they felt they werent getting through to me and that 4 guys should be sufficient to go after an "Army of One" haha yea i thought it was funny. pickers have with them about a 30" long and maybe 1/4" diamter metal rod with a 90 degree bend at the end thats about 3 inches long with a handle at the other end. this hook was used for pulling cases of product to the edge of high shelves so we could grab and stack them. After about a minute of listening to the bullshit spewing from these guys mouths (all of them older than me, family guys mostly) i had enough. i grabbed my hook and took a swing at them all. Asked which one wanted to lose an eye first. I dont have any delusions that they were scared of me but i do think they might have thought i had a screw loose. At that point either one was fine with me. The war started that day....
At the time i was averaging about 102-105%. The guys decided they were going to help me slow down by getting in my way with the forklifts or trying to sabotage me or leaving pallets in the aisles i was coming down. I guessing they werent going to risk physical confrontation. So, I fought back. I went faster. Before long i was averaging almost 115%. I was putting up numbers no one had done before. And not because it wasnt possible. The union mantra just doesnt want you to exceed at anything. Now to put it in perspective 115% in time roughly meant that at the end of a 40 hour week i did 42 hours of orders. TWO FUCKING HOURS.....IN A WEEK.
Then it happened. i was grabing a case and one of the guys (a 17 year man fully vested) chose to try and fit his forklift in a space he knew it wouldnt fit. Hit my pallet jack (which my foot was under) and then took my pallet jack and myself for a ride. My foot got caught and he proceeded to drag me 50-60 feet before my shoe ripped. I almost lost my foot, broken bones, sprained ankle. A new guy i helped train was behind me and watched this happen. There was no one else down this aisle. He helped me walk to the office where there was an aid station and report the "accident". He was nice enough to write a statement of his own. I was lucky i guess, 2 weeks out of work, then return with light duty for a bit. My foot was being twisted off my leg like a bottle cap.
Now due to union contract and company rules the first thing done when there is an accident is a mandatory drug test. Mister forklift asshole tested positive for weed. Instant termination, forfiet all benefits, retirement, pension, EVERYTHING. Justice (of some kind) had finally been served. Every single one of those bastards left me alone after that. Maybe they all were smokin da weed eh? lol.
A union steward approached me and said to look at what I had done. "he had a family and kids and now he is out of a job and with the drug test will have a tough time finding another". I said I almost lost my foot asshole, he got what he deserved for intentionally running me over with a forklift so FUCK HIM.
Shortly after that the company time study happened. A 3rd party group comes in and follows pickers to evaluate if changes are needed to the time standards. Here is where the earlier point comes in. If a senior man on his day off is picking, he is still held to the standard regardless of anything else. Every person above me it seems came to me at some point to ask me if i was "going to change my ways and do what was best for the union brotherhood" to which i said of course. Anyone that cant keep up with me doenst need to be working here. The orders were hand picked by the contractors. When it was my turn i was given an easier order. About 10 guys stood by as i punched on the order and about 20 or so were waiting for me when i got back to code it off to see what % it would be. Like i said this particular order they gave me i would have an extremely hard time making just 100% as it was, let alone go slower. By now its not hard for anyone reading this to figure out what i did. I raced that order like nothing i had ever done in that place and coded of 125%. The question was then asked out loud why i was the only one that was able to make the numbers that day. I quit a few months later when i went back to school, but as far as what happen with the time study its not too hard to figure out what happened after that....
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