Re: More UAW Horror Stories

Believe it or not, there is a federal law that says that practice is
illegal. It's in title 49 but not included in the handbook.
The fine is $10,000 and a 30 day shutdown.
I spent a year and a half looking for that law and finally found it.
Basically it says, the driver has two options. Either he can unload
the truck himself, for which he is compensated

Compensated by WHOM??? The Shipper? The Consignee? The employer (if a company driver)?

, or, hire someone to do
it for him. The company can not demand you hire lumpers.

Well at the only Wal-Mart DC I went to, my options were:
1) Hire a lumper
2) Don't get unloaded
I guess in option 2, I would have had to return the load to the shipper?

At all the walmart dc's I've been to they ask you if you're going to
unload or want walmart to do it. Except one. Menominee Wi does it for
free.

I was promptly informed that Drivers were not allowed in the dock area. And if I wanted a lumper to unload my truck (like, duh!), I had to pay for it.



From what I've learned over the years, most of the time the shipper
already knows the customer is going to charge and how much. They just
don't pass it on to the driver because they know the driver might not
take the load. What I don't understand is, why isn't this all worked
out between the two before the load is shipped?

The way I see it, the consignee (Wal-Mart, in the case we are discussing) is the "party" that wants the load. Shouldn't the party that wants the load be responsible for taking it off the truck? I don't mind unloading myself as long as there is power equipment available. (I'm not pulling 2500 pound pallets with a hand cart.) But if I unload myself, at least it gets done in a timely manner. What I don't get is the attitude of Wal-Mart where they say I'm not allowed to do it myself, and MUST pay for a lumper to get the load that Wal-Mart ordered off of my truck.

Like I wrote before, "Do you WANT this ***, or not?" If you don't want it, why the *** did you ORDER IT?????????????? -Dave

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