Farewell Mary Alice...

Farewell Mary Alice...

Mary Alice Taylor has announced that she has resigned her position as FedEx Veep and that she will leave her post shortly after the peak season. To many FedEx employees I've spoken to since her announcement, this news has definite positive implications. It's probably no secret that Ms. Taylor, rightly or wrongly, has been universally blamed for most of the grievances FedEx hourly employees have with the company. I've heard it said many times, by many different employees, that things started going downhill after she took over from Jeff Rodek. People have already speculated that she was probably asked to resign and given the opportunity to find another position before the resignation was formally announced to put a better face on the matter. The increase in union activity in various parts of the country was also speculated as being a major reason why she may have been asked to resign. This theory was further fueled by the fact that she issued a couple of letters to FedEx employees which tried to put a positive spin on what has apparently been widespread expressed dissatisfaction with the new IPP policy and procedures.

Like I said though, this is all mere speculation, and let's face it, none of us will ever know the real story. And even though I have heard female employees express disdain for Ms.Taylor, I cannot help but believe that sexism might have been a player in much of the vitriol that was aimed at her. I say this because, truth be told, much of the criticism I've heard from male coworkers of Ms. Taylor was laced with pejorative sexist language. Yet it is far more likely that the policies, procedures and wage stagnation most of us are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with have not been the product of a single mind. Certainly Ms. Taylor held considerable influence in her position, but the mess we are all in was, in all probability, a collaborative effort of most of the major players at FedEx's top management.

A strange phenomena at FedEx is the fact that you find few people who mention Fred Smith's name when they are offering criticism of any sort about the company. It's an unspoken kind of rule to blame anyone but Fred. To an outsider, this might seem illogical, and in fact, it is illogical. However, those of us who have worked at FedEx for any length of time understand the folk hero type status Fred enjoys within the company and that status makes us hesitant to blame him for our problems. After all, ya gotta admire a guy who takes an idea that earned him a C on a college paper and turns it into a multi-million dollar industry pioneer almost overnight! That kind of story is bound to endear Fred to anyone who ever thought they were underrated by a teacher or professor and gives average folks a reason to believe that they might also be capable of giving birth to a miracle as well.

If you think about it, this protective aura around Fred is likely a major reason why Ms.Taylor became the target of choice as our status within the company has slowly eroded. I don't want to come across as some sort of public relations man for our soon-departing VP, but I am a realist. I don't expect things to change for the better with her departure, however, I could be terribly wrong. I'd hate to think that FedEx management could be as devious as some I've heard accuse it of being, but it might be worth mentioning that the theory has been postulated that with Ms. Taylor's departure might come some substantial softening of policies and procedures. The theory goes that FedEx management would not at all mind allowing Ms. Taylor to continue to be the company's scapegoat, even after her departure, and could very well use her departure to soften things up a bit to hopefully diffuse the increasing pressure of unionization movements. Just yesterday, an employee called me up from another station and said that he has heard rumors of a 3% across-the-board raise with an effective date of November 20th. If such a raise does indeed become a reality, on the heels of her announced resignation, it will be damn near impossible to convince folks that she wasn't the source of all evil.

Hopefully most visitors to this web page will have read the letter GYY employees sent to management last spring (We Tried It Their Way). For seven months, management completely ignored that letter. In the meantime, the Teamsters Union has stepped in and begun holding meetings to get an organizing network started. Shortly after the union became involved in our plight, the company announced a slight concession in the JKT policy in that an employee no longer loses their propay if they flunk the test on the first attempt. Shortly after that, the company asked for volunteers from each station to act as representatives for regular skip level meetings to be held at the district offices where such representatives could air the concerns of their peers to higher level management. Both of these ideas were clearly mentioned in the GYY letter. It doesn't take a genius to notice the irony of the timing of these latest developments. The union steps in and starts to work with the largest (370+ employees) station in the country, as well as with other stations within one of the highest volume districts in the country and suddenly it seems as though management quickly blew the dust off of our letter and started taking it seriously....

Couple all this with the announcement of Ms. Taylor's resignation and the rumor of a raise and things begin to look real suspicious. The first stage of union busting tactics or mere coincidence? While we may never learn the truth, speculating sure is becoming more and more thought-provoking. In any event, it will be very interesting to see what the company does as the drive to organize increases.