April Update |
On April 5th, The Teamster’s International held a national conference call which more than 80 locals from coast-to-coast participated in. The purpose of this conference was to allow FedEx employees throughout the country to voice the concerns most important to them so that other FedEx employees and Teamster organizers could get a good idea of those issues which lie at the core of our determination to organize. While wages, benefits and unfair policies received repeated mention during the conference, it became clear that the thing that was uppermost on the minds of those voicing their concerns was the level of intimidation engendered by FedEx management where union activities are concerned.
The intense fear FedEx management has succeeded in implanting in the minds of its employees throughout the company came through in the voices and words of many who spoke at the conference. Many people seemed completely oblivious of the fact that they have rights under the law to engage in certain union activities. Some expressed fear of engaging in union activities even when on their own time away from FedEx property simply because they thought word might somehow get back to management and they’d be targeted for harassment as a result.
Many Teamster organizers from various locals also used the conference to ask questions as to how they should go about their fledgling efforts to contact and organize FedEx employees in their areas while others reported on the levels of progress they had thus far made in working with FedEx people. The overall result of the conference was that one came away with a feeling of excitement and optimism about the crusade to organize FedEx. Progress is being rapidly made in every geographical area of the country!
I took notes as best I could without benefit of knowing shorthand and here are some of the reports I managed to jot down. In some cases the quality of the phone connection wasn’t all that great, so if I accidentally get the union local number wrong, bear with me. If you know the correct local number, send me e-mail and I’ll make any corrections as needed.
Local 135 in Evansville reported petitions filed for 6 FedEx stations in their area. Local 163 in Riverside California is already working with FedEx people in their area. Local 174 (area unknown) is organizing 6 stations in their area. Local 344 in Wisconsin is working with FedEx people in Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison and Wausau. Local 542 in San Diego has organizing underway for two of the 4 FedEx locations in their area. Local 651 in Kentucky reported that the FedEx station in Lexington has already filed its election petition. Local 667 in Memphis is working with people at the metroplex. Local 769 in Miami has an organizing committee of FedEx workers already working on area stations. Local 42 in Kansas City reports it is currently working with employees from 5 area FedEx stations. Other locals reporting early organizing efforts were 631 in Las Vegas, 23 in Boston, 315 in California, 238 in Iowa, 516 in Oklahoma and 957 in Dayton, Ohio.
There were many more locals reporting activity but I simply couldn’t write them all down. I spoke twice during the conference so there were long periods of time where I was standing by the microphone waiting for my turn to speak and I didn’t make any notes during those periods
The UAW just recently filed district-sized election petitions for the Metro New Jersey District and the Washing D.C. Metro District! Coupled with the already-filed Liberty District, this makes 3 full FedEx districts which the UAW has succeeded in filing! I also received word that UIZA in Clinton Township has over 65% of their employees signed on with the UAW!
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck! Right? Not according to the misers at FedEx’s corporate headquarters! Puerto Ricans are bona fide U.S. citizens with all the rights and privileges of U.S. citizens born on the mainland. Puerto Rico is also a sovereign U.S. territory. They use our money, pay the same taxes and participate in national elections as well. However, to FedEx honchos, Puerto Ricans are categorized as foreigners! Why? Take a wild guess!
Did you guess money? If so, you’re a winner! You see, Puerto Rican FedExers had been led to believe that they would also be getting that 3% anti-union raise some of us just got. However, they just learned from their managers that Puerto Rico had been lumped in with FedEx’s Caribbean and South American operational jurisdiction, and since the raise was limited to FedEx’s U.S. personnel, Puerto Rico was deemed to be out of that loop! The courier who sent me this bit of news says Puerto Rican FedExers are overwhelmingly outraged by being victimized by what amounts to the old shell game as practiced by corporate management and are letting management know it! As I write this, FedEx personnel representatives are supposedly engaging in talks with employees over this fiasco.
As I've recently learned from management, graphs, charts and tables are powerful tools of persuasion that can be very useful in getting a message across! I'd like to prepare more of these types of illustrations for this site that will paint accurate portraits of our financial straits as employees. I am therefore asking for your help in gathering data for such future presentations I can feature here. Any and all information from old proxies, pay stubs and pointers to resources where I might find financial data would be deeply appreciated. For example, so far as my feeble memory serves me, here in Chicago, we've had one MLI in the past 10 years and as a company we've had two raises during that same period. I could be mistaken though, and that's where I need your help. If you've saved your check stubs or just have an excellent memory for such things, I'd like to hear from you. My most immediate need is any information on the dates and amounts of corporate-wide raises over the entire 25 years of FedEx's existence. Specific information on Chicago area MLIs would also be nice, but not nearly as important as the system-wide raise information. If you can help, please e-mail me as soon as possible! Thanks!!
What follows are some excerpts from e-mail I’ve received recently. Where necessary, the names have been omitted to protect the innocent.
Andrew Kubicki from FULA wrote:
“Your March update has probably to date been the best article on the page. The reference to Dr. Deming’s 14 points offers irrefutable proof that the course FedEx has chosen is one that ignores our past success. It still remains for me a great irony; how can FedEx adopt a style of management which has alienated from UPS the customers we now have because we have treated these customers differently from UPS. It is scary enough, that UPS has lately become a more dynamically managed company than it was in the past. We were David, UPS was Goliath. Our weapon was our ability to treat our customers as special- we were able to give them the care and attention that UPS wouldn't think of! UPS had the attitude that they did not need to advertise, after all, "EVERYONE knows who we are!" UPS did not need to offer discounts. If a customer was not ready on time, "OK, we'll see you tomorrow! You can ship your important package then." Customers still tell me how they hate UPS because of this. Notice, this is an emotional reaction to their perceived treatment by UPS drivers. "FedEx couriers are always courteous and have something nice to say" is what I've heard.
Sheer size and capital reserves of UPS is scary to a FedEx employee. UPS has enough capital to drive us out of business! But we didn't worry because of their rigid management with its' "we're the best in the world" attitude. UPS of today is different. UPS has learned many things from little David, including that time invested with a customer pays off in the end. Why, UPS even advertises and offers discounts! But poor David... he must have lost his sense of what works. In some sick way, he now admires Goliath and wants to be like him!
What kind of logic lead us to the adaptation of management tactics that have been proven as inferior to what we had? What kind of logic lead us to embrace these tactics while our competition abandoned these very tactics and adopted our old successful ones of yesteryear? We even hired former UPS Industrial Engineers (I wonder why UPS didn't keep them) to make sure we "get it right"!!!!!!
Beam me up Mr. Scott!
A real life example of how our misguided new philosophy is causing problems we never had in the past is the way we handled a zip code change. How can a zip change affect us? Our customer database, which contains all information needed to service our customers, is arranged by zip code. All info is in this database, including a sector number. This sector number determines which route gets the pick up should this customer call in. With time, our dispatchers have been working hard at updating these files to reflect the new zip. Our area is mostly residential, with close to 600 customers per zip code being on the signature release program. The signature releases are dependant upon...you guessed it! the database file! For each zip code that a courier delivers in he/she needs a separate signature release list. In my area, I have two zips, so I have to have two lists. Because of the zip change, some customers were showing up under the old zip, while others were showing up under the new zip. I now have to have four lists! The zip change happened in July of 96. I am still working off four lists. Couriers who run my route on my day off or on Saturday bring back releasable packages because they cannot find the recipients on one list. Our dispatch (under time constraint almost as unrealistic as ours) thought that they updated everyone and was not too motivated to find out why we still had some customers under the old zip.
We couriers have been frustrated with this and have been letting our management know, but alas, they too are under unrealistic pressure and the problem was not great enough to warrant too much attention. They were told by dispatch that it was done already. (I must point out here, that our current Sr. Mgr. is actually indeed very attentive to our needs, but there has been a break in communication between most parties involved in this matter.)
What solved this? I had to call our dispatcher, and go over step by step, what I do to update a zip. She did the same and after a 25 minute conversation, we've nailed it! Now, this conversation cost me running very late that day, because I called from the road. Fortunately, pickups were unusually light that day. We both said that this would never have happened in the FedEx of yesteryear, it would just have been fixed!
What was the bottom line? In the old days, management would immediately have assigned some couriers to spend a little time updating these zip codes. It would have been accomplished faster, and with fewer customer complaints. Because we have compartmentalized the company and lost some sense of being a team because each department has a difficult time meeting expectations placed upon them by people who are obviously so far removed from the operations that they know not of what they expect, they didn't have the time to invest in something that was not planned for-a zip change. To save money, signature releases are now entered by the BSC by people who have no clue how to spell the street names scribbled by customers on the forms. We are saving money upon completion of the task. We are losing it by having to locate and then fix any errors made at time of completion.
I am sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg. We are on the Titanic. We need to change course!”
An MKE employee wrote:
“Well Federal has done it again. Let me start at the beginning with this story. I have been with the company for ?? years. I have been a tractor trailer driver since ????. I was also a defensive driver instructor.
We had a part time cargo handler apply for the position of a swing driver full time. He was accepted. Well, I was given the job of giving him his defensive training. The student's name is XXXXX XXXXX. Well the problem with this was XXXX was my friend long before he started with Federal. Well at the end of the class I had to give him a road test. With a lot of pain and grief I had to fail him. He did not understand even the concept of defensive driving.
This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I went to the manager YYYY YYYY and gave him the road test report and told him I could not pass XXXX. He was very unsafe and didn't understand. I was told by YYYY that we didn't not have any choice we have to have him. So he was given to another defensive driver instructor ZZZZ ZZZZZ. The results were the same. He could not pass him. The same reply came from the Manager. So this time the Manager took him out for a road test and you guessed it. He passed him. They had to help him pass the interactive video for the completion of his training disregarding all our objection's. Well XXXX became a driver. Not a safe one but a driver. He was now full time with CTV wages.
Well I believe XXXX had a couple of small incidents that were deemed preventible he was still alright. On ??/??/?? XXXX had a rear end accident on the Ill tollway where he hit the rear end of a truck that cut in front of him at a toll both. It was deemed preventable. On ??/??/?? XXXX was sent to Blythville AK for DART training he received an unsatisfactory grade for the course he was then sent home. XXXX was then enrolled in the Defensive Driving Course in Blythville AK ??/??/??--??/??/??. He did not successfully complete this course. Today they have given XXXX this l etter that I have a copy of in front of me which states I quote.
Because you have not passed the mandatory training required per the mandatory training Policy 9-50 you will be removed from your driving position effective immediately. You will be placed on a 90 day Leave of Absence without pay effective ******. you will have 90 days in which to find a non-driving position at FedEx. if you do not find or accept such a position within the 90 days you will be considered to have voluntarily resigned.
The rest goes on to say if you feel you have been treated unfairly bla, bla, bla.
The unfair part of this whole thing is the wrong person is being punished. XXXX is a four year employee that should not have been driving in the first place and would not have been if management would have done there job and not pushed him into the position. The Manager YYYY YYYY is at fault here not XXXX. The accident would never happened if he was not a driver. Now he will hopefully get a position but he will lose full-time status and also lose $5.00 per hour. I don’t believe a GFT will help him. And I don’t know the first thing about how to do one. Maybe you would let me know what you think. He has 5 calender day's from receipt of this letter which was given to him today. XXXX did not sign this letter , but the Senior Manager put this note on the bottom { This letter was discussed with XXXX by YYYY YYYY on ??/??/?? He chose not to sign at this time.”
Folks, we all know we cannot rely on FedEx for a fair shake! If we won’t stand up for each other, we will forever remain isolated and alone! How the other driving instructor could possibly be afraid of simply telling the truth is beyond my comprehension. How can you look yourself in the mirror knowing that a coworker is being unfairly shafted and you buried your head in the sand when you have it within your power to do something about it!? All I can say is that I hope that one day that other driving instructor finds his head on the chopping block and when he looks over his shoulder he sees nobody trying to stop the fall of the axe!
Jeff Martinsen from SJCA wrote:
“On another front, DAG and RDD (Victorville and Redding, Ca) received MLIs'. Both stations have union activity. Looks for sure that the company is bribing our workforce. I'll do some checking this weekend and give you more info.”
An LUF courier in AZ wrote:
“thank you thank you thank you! thank god someone has the know-how and took the time to create this site! I am passing it on to everyone I know. This company has got to be stopped; I just had my new review under the new system, got a 5.1 as opposed to my previous 6.8....and that was because they made an exception! to my "on road productivity" not to mention all the other bull-shit which I would have GFT'd but am in fact, transferred out of that station, and now going to be part-time so I can go to (school name omitted) and get the hell out of FedEx, after 9 and ˝ years.
I haven't even read anything yet on the web sit other than your comic picture of the bio courier...and all sad but true, but was so excited I had to write you right away.
This is great because I was wondering when we could even unify enough to be able to communicate with each other, as the company uses all its resources and slick advertising to propagandize the mass work force. I know I am slow, but I have come to the conclusion that FedEx has outright lied to us about the new review being designed by "a group of our peers" and that they are "paying out more" under the new system. Bullshit on both counts. What can we do to help up more organize for Teamsters representation? I know I am ready....”
FEDEXMAN@aol.com wrote:
“I’m glad you liked the Demming info. I still look for ways to show the stupidity of current management. Have you ever looked at the Courier Route Planner? In most every station there are two Silicon Graphics Workstations ($30000) that can plot where you were at yesterday based upon your supertracker address info. That way they can see where you backtracked and made mistakes. Strange though that not one cent has been spent on tools that help couriers and prevent them from making mistakes. The current trend continues to be how to place the blame, who to point the finger at, and why we can now show in color where you were at and when... even if we don’t know why. PS.. it only works when couriers use exact matches to address info stored in the database (ever try to fit a Spanish street name into a supertracker without using an abbreviation?) So another Zapmail has hit the fan and now you can see these expensive pieces of equipment running screen savers in dedicated rooms at stations everywhere.
It isn't enough to simply know that these wastes continue to go on with repeated justification that management simply can't afford pay or benefits increases. It must be known to the general population that we are being run by fools! What kind of a person continues to repeat the same mistakes without learning what they did wrong and applying it to future decisions? Why have we adopted the budget theory from the military and their " if we don't spend it , we wont get as much next year" attitude toward projects that were flawed from the beginning? Why do we allow engineers to make decisions without doing the job.. getting their hands dirty before coming up with the great plan to crank up the speed on the belt because it looks good on paper?
Someone needs to refute Fred's most recent comments about why we need the Railway act and show how self serving his attitude toward what it would do to the company is. We cannot block the sky like a train from 1926. Our competition would gladly take up the slack should a local decide to strike. That management may need to rethink their attitude that employees are merely an expense and no longer considered an asset to the company.
I could go on and on but it just isn't worth it to me. I have become less dependent on Fedex through my CDL and can transfer with only the loss of my vacation time to another company with competitive benefits and pay. My justification for my efforts is that we would not be in this position had management been listening to the employees. Greed has become their goal and employees have been pushed aside as the tool that gave them their profitability. I sympathize with those who feel trapped by their dependence upon Fedex as their employer, and hope they find the guts to move ahead or make changes to correct the situation.
Feel free to edit or cut & paste any opinion I have expressed here but I don’t want my ##### address given out. You may credit the FEDEXMAN@aol.com as a contributor and I wish you the best of luck in getting the members necessary to take the vote. I can't say how much longer I will be with Fedex but while I am here I will work for change.”
Swamprat from MQY wrote:
“Almost every employees timecard at MQY was intentionally changed so as to reflect many fewer hours than was actually worked. This was done to send a bogus report to MEM showing how well management had controlled FTE's that week.. Usually Tuesday morning, these same managers went into FAMIS and corrected the falsified timecards... This went on for quite sometime, until one day when they forgot to change all the timecards before noon on Tuesday, that week half of the station got shorted a bunch of hours...
Myself and the employees affected believe the only reason they had in doing these deeds was to make the numbers look good to the district director so that he would not chew them out for excessive OT... Hence Personal gain...
Any idiot should have been able to see through this farce... Not to mention the part of P&P that cites stealing from or otherwise defrauding another employee. I firmly believe the intent to conceal should have been obvious from the outset.. Matter of fact, the same thing happened while I was at CKV (a satellite station of MQY) a few years ago. That time a dispatcher was fired because he was acting as directed by a manager to falsify timecards and he got caught and nothing happened to the manager.
Anyway both managers came back to work.”
Swamprat also wrote:
“I refer to the old company as Federal and the new as FEDEX there is a difference as you are already aware)...
A Former FedExer writes:
“Good day to you; had I had this site available to vent my frustrations it's possible I could still be a Fedex employee. I started in October of 1983 and left in December 1996. My employee number was 30017 now retired as are more numbers than Fedex would care to talk about. PSP was a pure joke the last several years. Shareholders obviously were more highly valued than were employees. Go to www.insidertrader.com and see for yourself why this is so. Upon your arrival there check Forms 144 and you'll see 8 directors and of course the chief financial officer just unloaded nearly $14,000,000.00 worth of those shares you employees worked so hard to value at these levels by giving up your raises, breaks etc. and from what I now understand Propay.
Sorry assholes in middle management don't have the guts to say anything or stand up to those directors who walk in and state at meetings they don't make that much either. MY ASS. If they can sell $14,000,000.00 worth of stock and say this they are obviously probably not very truthful about other things. I have an entire book to write but I think I'll log off for now. BTW my sleep patterns etc. have improved vastly since hiking. There is life after but no vietnow or other similar support groups.(g)”
A UPS driver wrote:
“I am a UPS driver in Austin, TX that is going to be coordinating the organizing efforts in the central to south TX area. Our Local Union # 657 has a vast area to cover and I have a tremendous task ahead of me. I haven't many contacts with FEDEX personally, but will be initiating a worker to worker campaign with my fellow UPS employees. I am encouraged by all those FEDEX employees that I speak to and must feel sympathy for your situation. I am weary of the company tactics and can only imagine how it must feel to stick your neck out and put your job on the line. I realize that people must fight and will help them with all the energy that I can as well as pertinent information.
One of the purposes of this letter is to get stories from other areas as they haven't any idea that the efforts going on around the country. Many that I have spoken with do not even know what is going on at all, but have been watching the anti-union company videos. I am enlightened to hear them say they are ready and want to come aboard. I anticipate resistance from many but haven't ran into one yet. I am now armed with authorization cards and distributing them to areas of my local union now. Hopefully, I will begin to find FEDEX employees to form an internal V.O.C. and file petitions quickly with their help.
My goal is to have petitions filed within 6 months and am being optimistic with my approach. I don't want any to be the chest thumping unionist that will inevitably lose their jobs a long organizing drive. If perhaps they choose to do so, then I will definitely inform them of the risks and their rights. It is my understanding that the company is definitely using Unfair Labor Practices and that their is nobody going to hear these incidents while the jurisdictional dispute is uncertain. I am aware the NMB is not going to move on this and we have to organize for a RLA drive.
Anyhow, if you do a e-mail list please add me to it and I will continue to visit your site as long as you can keep the attorneys from shutting you down. I will refer as many people to your site as I can and can only hope that one day we will succeed in our efforts.”