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11/9/97

Following close on the heels of the Pilar Barton termination, FedEx management was able to check off yet another name on its anti-union/anti-seniority hit list. I recently got a phone call from Al Ferrier, the founding father of the FedEx union movement, where he related to me the details of yet another incredible example of FedEx's idea of "Guaranteed Fair Treatment!" This particular story is about a courier who, over a period of 14 years of service to FedEx, had worked for (by his own estimates) some 10 different senior managers and 20 different OPS managers, and during all that time and through all those management transitions, had only received a single warning letter! That single warning letter, it should be understood, was issued by his present manager, who was also the manager that terminated him... It's also worthy of note that this courier had an utterly remarkable attendance record! Over that same 14 year period of service, he had only taken off 2 sick days! This guy was in Lou Gehrig's league in that regard!

So what was it that so dramatically changed about this particular courier after 14 years that suddenly caused him to step off the straight and narrow path he had consistently trod and led him swiftly into the ranks of the unemployed? With just a single warning letter in his file, one would have to believe that it must have been a monumental breach of conduct that led to his downfall! Was he caught dealing drugs? Was he involved in a hit-and-run accident? Did he get caught with a customer's diamond tiara in his pocket? Perhaps he decked his manager in a fit of rage? It just had to be something like that,...right? WRONG!

The cardinal sin this fellow committed was running a $0.25 a week football pool with a dozen or so other couriers in the station. That's right boys and girls, a lousy quarter chipped in each week by the participants which, by the end of the season, would net the "big winner" a windfall of around $75! Now there's a great reason to relegate 14 years of absolutely sterling service to FedEx to the rubbish heap!

Okay, so right about now, you're saying to yourself that there's got to be more to this guy's story than that and you'd be correct in that assumption. And if you've guessed that the untold part of this story has to do with union activity, enjoy a moment of smug self-satisfaction because you guessed right! For this fellow, who had given FedEx 14 years of service and had maintained standards anyone with a work ethic would admire, also just happened to be a supporter of the unionization effort.

FedEx, in its keen ability to prioritize the allocation of corporate assets to those things which are of paramount importance, immediately went into action upon being tipped off to the rampant gambling at this small Pennsylvania station by dispatching managers from neighboring states to investigate this sinister football pool. Those investigators pulled couriers in from off the road to interrogate them and ferret out the truth. They asked those couriers if they knew anything about drug use at the station, reasoning that perhaps one of the major South American drug cartels had some stake in the football pool. After all, drugs and gambling go hand in hand, don't they? Then they asked the couriers if they knew anything about theft going on at their station. Again, it's just common sense that investing heavy money like a quarter a week would drive most any FedEx employee so deeply into debt that they'd just have to resort to theft to break even! They asked the couriers about other gambling activities in the station because, it only follows, that folks who'd bet a quarter a week on one sport would likely be addicted to gambling so some of them were probably bookies too. And finally, the investigators asked those couriers the most pertinent question of all. They asked them if they had any knowledge of union activities in the station! Continuing along the already established lines of FedEx "logic" that the investigators were following, I guess their reasoning was that if people were running a football pool, organized crime must be involved and we all know that FedEx management clearly believes that the unions are run by the Corleone family.

To those of us who have been around long enough, the persecution of this courier is a clear demonstration of FedEx's selective enforcement of policy. Obviously the people who were gunning for this employee utilized the ubiquitous category of high crimes and misdemeanors FedEx calls "solicitation." Yet, FedEx management frequently turns a blind eye to solicitation. In my own experience, I've been approached by other employees to buy candy or cookies for school sales drives their kids were participating in. Other employees distribute and collect discount shopping order forms amongst one another. Still other employees have distributed and even posted flyers in the station for everything from parties to their personal appearances at night clubs. A manager, who was part of a band, and who knew of my computer skills, asked me to design cards and flyers for him. Another manager once had me do some graphics work for his wife's business. I can't even count the number of times my coworkers have approached me and offered me money to help them in everything from web page development to digital scanning, photography, software and/or hardware installation!

The aforementioned kind of "solicitation" is simply a natural development where people work together day after day in close proximity. We get to know one another's interests and special talents and quite naturally, we develop networks as a result of our familiarity and even friendship with one another. A penny-ante football pool is probably something you can find at virtually every station in the FedEx system. It is as natural a progression from casual sports banter as someone asking for my help with a computer-related problem after learning about my interests. There's nothing at all either sinister or counterproductive to the work environment about such friendly competitions. If we were talking high-stakes gambling where someone could be seriously financially harmed, I could see FedEx intervening. But this is nothing more than a harmless diversion which FedEx is opportunely using to rid itself of yet another senior employee with pro-union views!

While the termination of any employee for such trivial nonsense is sufficient reason for all of us to be angered and concerned, there are extenuating circumstances that make this case of kangaroo court persecution especially unfortunate. You see, the courier in question just happens to also be the father of six children. In this day and age, raising a family of just a couple of kids is enough of a financial and emotional challenge! One thing you can take to the bank though is the fact that FedEx management doesn't even give a momentary consideration to the consequences their arbitrary decisions have for not only the lives of the employees whose fate they detachedly apply their rubber stamps to, but for the lives of so many others who may depend upon that employee's paycheck...

This case, coupled with that of Pilar's, should serve well as an awakening splash of cold reality to those of you who might have become complacent, detached and otherwise lulled into a false sense of well being as a result of the policy changes and nickels and dimes that Fred has doled out over the past year. Anyone who believes that the company has done some sort of radical turnaround and has humanely finally seen the errors of its ways only needs to look at the continuing aggressive actions FedEx is utilizing to thin out and silence the ranks of the most senior and/or most vocal critics of its treatment of its workers.

There will be a FedEx/Teamsters meeting in Indianapolis for any and all FedEx employees on Sunday, December 7th. The meeting will begin at 2:30 P.M. and is scheduled to end at 5:30 P.M. It is being held at the Teamster meeting hall at 1233 Shelby St. in Indianapolis. The meeting will feature a guest speaker from Washington, D.C., Teamster representatives from several cities across the country, UPS workers, Teamster trucking representatives and FedEx employees from several states.

This meeting presents FedEx workers with the opportunity to learn their organizing rights under the RLA and have any other questions they might have answered by authoritative sources. Please plan on attending and help make this meeting a great success!

"When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church - and there was nobody left to be concerned." ---Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

If ever there were any doubts in my mind that many of my fellow FedEx coworkers are totally dedicated to the cause of bringing fair play to the our rank and file, they were dispelled by the union meeting a few weeks ago here in Chicago. At their own expense, FedEx employees from hundreds of miles away either flew or drove to Chicago to take part in what could best be described as an all-day brainstorming session on that unseasonably frigid Sunday. What I personally came away from the meeting with was a keen appreciation for the old wisdom that one is never too old to learn.

Once everyone had a chance to gather samples from the huge table full of informative flyers that were laid out buffet-style at the conference hall door, we began introducing ourselves and giving a brief inventory of our longevity, positions and locations to the others assembled. Then John August, from the Teamsters Washington, D.C. headquarters asked us to describe how we viewed the current organizing atmosphere at our various locations. The almost universal appraisal seemed to be that though the anti-union raises and policy changes FedEx had rolled out in the face of the union threat had indeed lowered worker union activism, the UPS strike had again raised everyone's level of involvement and anticipation. That resurgence in interest, however, was again dampered by the lull in FedEx-oriented union activity immediately after the strike. Many expressed the feeling that an opportunity was lost to capitalize on the UPS strike success and also voiced concern over the role the internal problems the Teamsters Union was experiencing regarding the union's presidential election. I'll go into this subject later in this update as it was addressed later in the conference and I'd like to stick to the actual time line of the meeting.

During the recitals of concerns by the FedEx employees present, an employee from the Albany, N.Y. area recounted how management in his area were not only showing anti-union videos, but were also bringing employees individually into their offices to counsel them on a one-on-one basis against participating in any kind of union activities. Someone else also recounted the case of a CTV driver by the name of Mike Iacanno (not sure of the actual spelling of his last name) who was recently terminated after 22 years of service to FedEx for refusing to take a drug test. Of course that sounds like a justified termination until you understand that Mike had punched out and was actually in the parking lot walking toward his car before someone in management saw him leaving and ran out to tell him that he was scheduled for the test! When Mike told them that they had all day during which to notify him of the test and that they could test him tomorrow because he was now on his own time, no threat of termination was forthcoming. In fact, FedEx management let him work the entire next day and then informed him that he was terminated when he had finished his shift!

John August then appraised us of the Teamsters' view on the organizing campaign of FedEx. He told us that the Teamsters regard the organizing of FedEx as the priority issue on the Teamsters' agenda and reiterated Carey's pledge to bring the fight to Fred's doorstep. He went on to tell us that this would be the largest organizing effort in this country in the last 50 years and that it would directly affect the way America will do business in the next century since FedEx has blazed the trail where worker exploitation tactics such as subcontracting and saturation of part-time workers in the rank and file are concerned. He wound up the IBT's perspective on the FedEx organizing effort by giving us a realistic idea of just how long this campaign will take by citing the examples of the U.S. Air and Continental Airlines campaigns which took 2 years and 18 months respectively.

Next on the meeting's agenda was the subject of organizing under the RLA. John said that the RLA was clearly the most anti-union piece of legislation to ever have been passed in this country but that it was useless to get bogged down in lamenting that fact. He also told us that although the RLA only required 35% of the eligible workers sign cards before a petition for a union vote can be filed, filing with just 35%, in his opinion, would be a sure ticket to defeat. Several FedExers, myself included, took issue with that observation stating that we thought that the support for unionization at FedEx is far greater than any card-signing campaign could ever accurately reflect. Speaking for myself, I feel that so many FedEx employees are fearful of signing a union card for fear that their managers might somehow find out they had signed a card and target them for harassment or worse but those same workers, when confronted with a secret ballot vote for a union would eagerly cast an affirmative vote.

Other aspects of organizing under the RLA were mentioned as well. For example, under the RLA, workers must be organized according to class and craft rather than by location. This may mean that couriers, mechanics and CSAs would have to be organized, petitioned and voted as separate units. Then John made one of those points at this juncture which prompted me to state early on in this article that I was reminded that one was never too old to learn. He pointed out that under the RLA, a non-vote is counted as a no vote for the union and asked us to contemplate how unfair that rule is. He stated that not a single candidate for office in the history of this country could have ever been elected under the same rule! Think about that for a moment! I've repeatedly railed against the RLA since the very first articles I published on this site, yet that utterly true and devastating analogy escaped even my critical mind! I cannot help but wonder if John was aware of just how angering his matter-of-fact revelation should and could be, not just to FedEx workers, but to any human being who draws breath on this planet and has any sense of fair play lingering in their souls!

Although John August stated that we all need to live with the unfairness of the RLA's rules and get on with doing what has to be done to make our campaign successful, I feel it is crucial for everyone to understand precisely just how anti-union this piece of legislation, crafted by our government and lovingly embraced by big business, actually is! The reason I believe this understanding is so crucial is because I feel that arriving at such an understanding might very well sway those who may now be sitting on the fence where the issue of unionization is concerned. To that end, I'd like to present the the following facts.

In 1996, only 49% of those eligible to vote in this country cast ballots in the Presidential election. Of those who cast ballots, only 24% voted for Bill Clinton. That essentially means that the most powerful man in America was granted that power by less than one-fourth of the eligible voting population of this nation! However, if the same rules applied to workers' rights under the RLA had been applied to that same 1996 Presidential election, Bill Clinton would have been defeated by a 3 to 1 margin! Not only would the votes cast for his opponent have been counted against him, but the votes of those who had simply stayed home and not voted at all would have also been added to the tally against him! Similarly, Clinton's opponent, Bob Dole, would have also lost the same election by nearly the same 3 to 1 margin. If RLA rules applied to political elections, no election results would ever culminate in the actual election to office of any candidate until such time as a majority of Americans eligible to vote actually turned out to cast ballots AND that same majority ALL cast their ballots for the same candidate! Put simply, democracy practiced under the same rules as the RLA imposes upon union elections, would be utterly untenable!

The point I am trying to convey to anyone and everyone who reads this article, whether your sentiments are with us in the pro-union movement or not, is that you should at least have the integrity to acknowledge that the government has legislatively stacked the deck against us and that our management not only supports this clearly unfair legislation, it actively and passionately pursued and embraced it! This indisputable fact alone should cause anyone, with any reasonable grasp of and belief in the concept of fairness, to, at the very least, question the motives of our government and corporate America where issues germane to the workers of this country are concerned! If what I have presented here has succeeded in creating such doubts in your mind, then maybe it wouldn't be asking too much to implore you to take a closer look at the issue of unionization and do some genuine soul-searching in the process. For if you sit atop that fence and merely play the role of spectator in the upcoming campaign, you will be playing right into the hands of the government officials who crafted this inherently unfair set of rules and the corporate honchos who have so tenaciously clung to it.....!

Back to the nuts and bolts of the meeting....

It's important to note at this time that in response to a question regarding the status of the union representation cards many of us signed during the past year's campaign activities, John affirmed the fact that we all need to sign new cards at this point because the cards are only good for a period of one year. It was suggested that since the union had the cards from last year, the burden of getting cards signed could be lessened for those of us on organizing committees if the union would simply send out new cards to those who already had cards on file. I'll let visitors to the site know if and when the union decides to implement that suggestion. In the meantime, however, we should all begin working to get cards signed from those who we did not get around to during the past year.

John August finished his appraisal of the RLA by telling us that although it is a violation of Federal law to restrain union activities on the part of employees under the terms of the RLA, there are also no such things as unfair labor practices within the framework of the RLA. Instead, grievances are filed in Federal court and must be presented to a Federal judge for review. Before a Federal judge will even consider hearing such a grievance, there must be "profound evidence" against the employer. The fact that the Federal courts are already badly backlogged with cases also means that under the RLA, justice will certainly not be a speedy process.

The next topic of discussion at the conference was FedEx's recent acquisition of Caliber Systems. As the centerpiece of the acquisition, RPS, a direct competitor of UPS, was the focus of the discussion. Mr. August pointed out that RPS drivers are exclusively owner-operator subcontractors which made them an ideal acquisition for the anti-union and pro-subcontracting mentalities which control FedEx. I think it is at least worthy to note that presently FedEx has some sort of sales hold on our Express Saver service because, as I understand it, the service was more successful than it was anticipated to be and was placing too great a burden on our system. Now while that may be the official explanation our managers are giving us, perhaps it might at least be prudent to look at this development, coupled with the Caliber acquisition, and speculate a bit as to whether or not another explanation for the sales freeze on Express Saver might be plausible. Is it mere coincidence that the sales freeze just happened to coincide closely with the Caliber acquisition? Or might it be possible that with the acquisition of a virtual fleet of RPS subcontractors, FedEx has found a convenient way to siphon off work from FedEx workers and channel it to the RPS piece-work jockeys? Just a thought...

In the next conference segment, a long time UPS employee read a letter he had composed for the meeting in which he outlined his views of what UPS workers had accomplished with the strike. He also recited an inventory of many of the horror stories he had heard about conditions at FedEx and expressed both his sympathy for our plight as well as his pledge of support in our organizing efforts. His segment was followed by the presentation of a 15 minute video entitled "Building FedEx, Building Our Union" This is an extremely well-done video that concisely details the reasons why we've come together to organize FedEx and how far we've all come in that struggle. The video is readily available and many copies were distributed at the conference. Anyone in the Chicago area who would like to view this video can e-mail me and I'll see to it that you get to do so. Those of you who could not attend the conference and want a copy of the video to show to your coworkers should contact Terry Meadows and he should either be able to get a copy out to you or direct you to a local union office in your area where you can view and/or borrow it. You can reach Terry by e-mail at LaborUnite@aol.com or by voice mail at 1-888-FEDX-IBT (333-9428) leave a phone number and Terry will respond ASAP.

This video can provide a great centerpiece around which to perhaps organize some informal gatherings at your homes where you could invite your coworkers over to view it and use it as a jumping off point from which to launch discussions of issues that are of immediate concern to your guests. People are far more likely to open up as well as be receptive to your ideas in such an informal environment away from the intimidating and stifling atmosphere of the workplace. If you can organize such gatherings, I'd encourage you to do so, but if you can't, perhaps your local union hall would allow you to use their facilities to meet at and view the video in groups.

At this point in the conference, we broke up into smaller discussion groups and went off into various different rooms in the hotel. Each group had an assigned Teamster facilitator to moderate the discussions. At the risk of sounding conceited, after the small group discussions were over and we again gathered back in the main conference room to compare notes, I came away feeling that the group I had participated in had addressed the key issue on the minds of a whole lot of FedExers at this point in time and in doing so, had validated a sentiment I have expressed both on this site in the past and in my e-mail responses to many of you.

The key issue I am speaking of is the concern many FedExers have over the present state of internal affairs within the Teamsters Union. Immediately after the UPS strike was over and we were all euphoric with the Teamsters' victory, Carey's reelection was invalidated by the government's investigator. Then Carey was blocked from running for reelection again. As of last Tuesday, Carey stepped down from his post as President of the Teamsters Union and went on what is being called an unpaid leave of absence. As these events have unfolded, they've succeeded in causing doubts among some folks involved in our organizing efforts. They've also pleased at least one anti-union visitor to my site who wrote me and said "I told you so!" with smug satisfaction as the union's leadership seemingly self-destructed before our very eyes. No doubt, FedEx management is also rejoicing in the union's leadership squabbles and scandals. Yet, what role, if any, should the problems within the union's hierarchy play in our organizing efforts? With that question in mind, allow me to relate what went on in my particular discussion group...

My discussion group's leader was a firebrand of an organizer who patiently listened as members of the group reiterated their concern about the union's inner turmoil but I could see his patience rapidly ebbing as he paced in front of us like a caged animal anxious to pounce upon the first opportunity to free itself. When he finally had heard enough, he stopped the discussion by asking the exquisitely simple question. "So what?!"

While his method of addressing this issue may seem almost insultingly dismissive and simplistic to many of you when you first read it, it is, at least in my opinion, all such concerns deserve as a response. And while I am loathe to steal any of our group leader's thunder, when he offered that response, I found myself inwardly cheering and patting myself on the back. I've written a lot of words on this site and in my e-mail responses to many of you, so I'm not sure exactly where I've mentioned it before, but some of you know that one of my favorite reactions to charges of union corruption and/or funding issues has been to ask if those problems have ever prevented a union member from getting a pension check or caused them to take a pay cut or cost them their job. In other words, I've been saying "So what?!" to these indictments of the unions for at least as long as I've had this site up...

When we begin to focus on the problems the unions have within their organizational structure, our attention to the problems that genuinely affect us all where our jobs at FedEx are concerned is diverted. This is precisely what Fred and his management team wants us to do! This is why Fred and his propaganda spinmeisters have devoted so much time and energy in trying to bring the internal problems of the Teamsters to the forefront of our thoughts in every anti-union publication and video they've presented! They figure, and correctly I might add, that if they can get our minds on the union's problems, we'll think less about the pitiful state of our wages, benefits and job security when compared to our unionized peers in our industry. To put it simply, Fred and the boyzz are constantly placing obstacles in our path to unionization in the hope that we'll keep stubbing our toes and that pain will take our minds off of the festering boils of indignity and exploitation the company has inflicted upon us...

Tomorrow morning, almost 200,000 UPS workers will punch their time cards, get in their trucks, deliver their packages and punch out at the end of the day just as they have for the past months, days and years. They will be protected by their contract and represented by their union stewards and business agents. They will be paid at the wage specified in their contract and their bosses will be limited in their power over their lives by the terms and conditions of that contract. Likewise, thousands of retired UPS workers will go to their mailboxes and find their pension checks have arrived. All of this will happen regardless of what some government official rules or who stands at the helm of the union. The choice for FedExers is simple. You can wring your hands and vacillate over the issue of unionization while waiting for the unions to resolve their leadership issues to your satisfaction or you can elect to place your priorities on the genuine issues that face you as an employee of FedEx. If you choose the former, you'll make Fred a very happy man. If you choose the latter course, you will be taking a path to your own happiness.

The conference wound up by each discussion group's appointed reporter presenting a brief review of the concerns and ideas that came out of their discussions. John August then addressed some of the more common topics raised. Most notable of those topics was the desire on the part of many FedExers in attendance to see a more visible union presence at FedEx locations. John said that the union would coordinate several nationwide activities in the near future. Beyond that, I don't want to go into any further details here on the site because we don't want to tip our hand to management people who monitor this site. Suffice it to say that some very exciting events will be forthcoming...

One final piece of wisdom that was imparted to us all from a Teamster organizer at the conference in response to a FedExer who said that many of his coworkers had signed cards and assured him that they'd vote for a union whenever such a vote was taken but that they felt that they didn't need to attend union meetings. Probably all of us involved in organizing FedEx can identify with that situation because we've run into coworkers who have said similar things to us. If you encounter such sentiments from your peers in the future, try using the following analogy the Teamster organizer shared with us. I certainly plan to use it!

You finally get up the nerve and propose to the girl of your dreams. To your utter delight she says yes! However, she then proceeds to tell you that she will no longer go out on dates with you, talk to you on the phone, see you in person, write to you, accept gifts you send her or have any other contact with you until your wedding day but she solemnly promises you that she'll meet you in church on that glorious day! Would you accept an engagement based upon such crazy terms....?

In case you didn't realize it, there was a lot going on behind the scenes during the UPS strike that never made the network news. All across America, union people controlling loading docks also slammed their doors shut on the management people and the scant few scabs who were trying their best to undermine the Teamster's struggle! And then there were the FedEx workers who Ron Carey mentioned during his victory speech on CNN who joined UPS strikers on the picket lines in many places despite having worked incredibly long and grueling shifts first! In Indianapolis, for example, Dan Profitt, a FedEx employee already being targeted and harassed by management for his union activities, took up a collection and presented pizzas to grateful UPSers walking the picket lines in Indiana! Out in Modesto, Pilar Barton organized a cookout for UPS and FedEx workers! Here in Chicago and in several other places across the country, FedExers turned up in the picket lines to show our support for our cousins in brown as well. FedExers even took extended breaks to drive by UPS picket lines just to honk their horns as they passed by to let the strikers know their sacrifice was known to us and appreciated. Mr. Carey hit the nail on the head when he said that FedEx people were participating in the UPS picket lines because "they realize that our fight is their fight!"

Indeed, most FedEx workers I speak to did realize that there was a lot at stake for all of us where the strike was concerned. But perhaps the most heartening truth to emerge from the strike was the fact that the American public "got it" in spite of the media! I don't know how many times I saw the media talking heads presenting comparisons between what different occupations made per hour as opposed to what UPS workers get. It was obvious that these talking heads were doing their best to make it appear that UPS workers were already well paid, and in fact, by the not so subtle inferences, overpaid... Never mind that the average part-time wage earner at UPS getting an average of 25 hours of work per week would barely clear enough to avoid poverty-level earnings for the year! And if part-timers at UPS are in that bad of a situation, imagine where our own FedEx part-timers wind up on the earnings scale!

During the strike, I watched in fascination as the media pundits presented all sorts of arguments that part-time work is both a desirable and inevitable result of our present economic reality and that the trend toward corporate America utilizing an ever-growing proportion of part-time workers in their overall employment plan was something we had all better learn to live with! Of course, there can be little doubt that those so-called experts were the darlings of the corporate jet-set and were merely parroting the party line as it was scripted for them! Yet, not once did I hear a single person discussing the strike and its ramifications mention what I firmly feel is the truth behind corporate America's escalating use of part-time workers. I found that truly amazing because I'd be willing to wager that most anyone who has ever earned a paycheck by the sweat of their brow instinctively knows the real reason why our corporate masters only want us around for a few hours a day....

Even though the suits would never officially acknowledge it, human beings become weary after sustained periods of labor. Therefore, as the day wears on, we mortals have a tendency to do something that drives corporate types stark raving mad. We slow down. This is a fact of nature that has held true since the first cave man dragged his knuckles across the land. Yet, as our technology has advanced, industrial engineers have steadily figured out new ways to extract more and more work from us blue collar types. As they've increased the physical demands their schemes place on us, they've also come to realize that the pace they have set for us has narrowed what one might call a sort of "window of opportunity" where peak performance can be reasonably expected from the human beings whose jobs they continually tweak.

I've mentioned before that I worked at UPS's Jefferson Street facility here in Chicago. I've also mentioned something about the huge machine that used to run the length of that building which was called the "carrousel." In order to illustrate what I'm talking about when I mention a "window of opportunity" for peak human performance, it would be useful for me to use UPS's old carrousel system as an example. You see, the carrousel, marvel of engineering that it once was, had some serious limitations from a managerial point of view. For one thing, it had to lumber along at a relatively slow pace because of its sheer massive size. This meant that if you were sorting packages into it, you were often forced to wait a few seconds before the appropriate bin was close enough to you to heave the package in front of you into it. These brief waits compounded so that the slides in front of the sorters were almost always filled to capacity and unloaders were often forced to slow down or stop altogether while the sorters cleared enough space on the slide for more packages. By today's industrial standards, the carrousel system was not very efficient.

Another drawback, again from a managerial point of view, is that workers sorting into the carrousel worked in close proximity to one another so it was easy for workers to carry on casual conversations with one another throughout the work day. While this type of pleasant human interaction made a repetitious and mundane job more palatable to workers and helped to pass the time faster, it was the stuff of which the worst nightmares of corporate bean counters is made. By 1980, UPS management had decided that all that had to change. They shut down the Jefferson street station and gutted it, selling the old carrousel for scrap! In its place was installed a belt sort system that was an industrial engineer's dream come true and a worker's worst nightmare! No longer did many workers find themselves in close proximity to one another. Instead, they were spaced apart by loudly humming and swift moving belts so that most of them had no opportunity to talk with one another. Even those who did work close enough to someone else found that the faster pace of the new system afforded them little opportunity for human interaction. Of course this was exactly the work environment the engineers had designed and that management had longed for.

At the same time, UPS also phased out their full-time sort personnel at the Jefferson Street Hub. They offered the full-time people the choice between assignments to the custodial or maintenance sections or package car positions. Yet what change in work flows had made the phase-out of full-time sort people necessary? After all, if there had been enough work to keep full-time people constantly busy for 8 or more hours at the Jefferson Hub for decade upon decade before, and if the company had been steadily growing throughout that period, why suddenly in 1980 did all that change? The simple answer is that nothing changed in 1980 except UPS's business strategy. The work was still there. It was just that the company decided to phase out full-time sort employees in favor of part-time employees. The company had created a facility which demanded a faster work pace from its employees and it knew that it could not expect human beings to sustain that faster pace for an entire 8 hour shift.

All things being equal (which they certainly aren't in the corporate world) the fair thing for UPS to have done at that time would have been to raise the hourly wage of its sort employees immediately upon opening the new plant. After all, the part-time employees who had formerly worked at the slower pace the old carrousel environment had dictated were now working at a faster pace in the reengineered facility and were therefore more productive. Unfortunately, fairness isn't found much in the lexicons of corporate America, and UPS proved that it was no exception to this rule.

Once upon a time, when I was a tow-headed young boy attending elementary school, my teachers would sometimes reflect upon the latest technological marvel in the news and speak of a not-too-distant future where machines would do most of the mundane labor and we humans would be working fewer hours while enjoying greater luxuries and more free time to explore our possibilities. Most often, their target dates for this worker's nirvana was somewhere around the magical year 2000. Of course, most teachers back then tended to be idealists who truly believed that technological advances would be used for the betterment of all mankind. After all, using technology to exploit human beings was the stuff of Orwellian horror, ...wasn't it? Yet, as the millennium rapidly approaches, technological advances in the workplace have not lessened our burdens and enriched us with those fabled luxuries our teachers once foretold. Instead, they have been used to extract a maximum of human effort in a minimum amount of time and have opened the door for employers to formulate lower pay and benefit levels for those putting forth those maximum efforts in minimal time frames! What our idealistic teachers didn't take into account in foretelling the future was what Ron Carey accurately termed "corporate greed."

The following articles were sent to me by our ever-watchful roving reporter, Capt. Claude "Barney" Barnhardt. You can contact Barney at http://www.gfthelp.com.

from:  The Memphis Commercial Appeal,
       Tuesday, September 30, 1997 

CORPORATE

Questions session gets testy at FedEx stockholder meeting
By Dave Hirschman

The Commercial Appeal

During an unusually rancorous annual meeting Monday, FedEx owners 
rejected stockholder initiatives that would have required the
company to report "soft money" campaign contributions and elect
all board members annually.

Representatives from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
and other unions aimed pointed questions at FedEx founder and
chairman Frederick W. Smith - and Smith fired back with verbal
barbs.

"Your agenda is political . . . and you need to sit down,"
Smith told Bart Naylor, a Teamsters spokesman who rose frequently
from the audience of about 100 people with questions and comments.
"I'm the only one who's going to give a speech today."

Unlike previous FedEx annual meetings, many of which lasted 20
minutes or less, Monday's frequent questions, interruptions and
protracted comments extended the gathering to about an hour.

Union representatives challenged FedEx for paying board members
Howard H. Baker $200,000, and Charles T. Manatt and George J.
Mitchell $100,000 each for legal services in 1997, and planning
to buy $265,000 in software from board member Judith L. Estrin's
computer firm.

Baker and Mitchell are former members of the U.S. Senate; Manatt
is a former national chairman of the Democratic Party.

Smith defended the decisions and praised the "independence and 
integrity" of each board member. "There's no question they have
the best interest of the shareholders at heart," he said.

Leanna Cochran, a FedEx employee from Indianapolis, took issue
with FedEx hiring subcontractors and asked about possible plans
to outsource work in the future.

Tom Price, a truck driver, said he thought the company was
renting unsafe equipment. And Teamsters spokesman Carin Zalenko
questioned Smith about a discrimination lawsuit filed in Memphis
against FedEx.

Smith countered that the discrimination suit was baseless, and
FedEx hiring and promotion policies were a model for the nation.

The Teamsters' pension funds own about 600,000 shares of FedEx
stock, union officials said. FedEx common stock has more than
doubled in value during the last 12 months - with much of the
runup following an August strike by Teamsters at rival United
Parcel Service.

The Teamsters say they will make a major effort to represent
non-union FedEx workers, too.

Unlike UPS, however, FedEx is recognized as an airline, and
the union is required to organize workers around the country
all at once instead of a city-by-city basis.

Teamsters officials said the organizing campaign will go
forward despite the union's leadership disarray.

Teamsters president Ron Carey's narrow 1996 re-election has
been set aside by federal officials, several top aides have
admitted breaking campaign finance laws, and Carey faces a
strong challenge from James Hoffa.

FedEx shares on the New York Stock Exchange closed Monday at
$79.37 1/2, down 75 cents in composite trading.
------------------------------------------------------------
To reach reporter Dave Hirschman, call [901] 529-5874 or E-mail 
DHirsch@ix.netcom.com

Monday August 18 7:12 PM EDT

Teamsters, ex-worker file suit vs FedEx

WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuter) - A former Federal Express Corp
tractor-trailer driver filed a lawsuit, along with the
Teamsters union, charging that the parcel carrier conspired
to fire him due to his union activities, the union said Monday. 

Driver Gerald Haddock, who was employed by FedEx for 12 years,
filed suit in the Federal Court for the Southern District of
Indiana. 

He was discharged in February 1997 after an alleged incident
involving a truck backed into a FedEx station door, the union
said. 

Other drivers accused of a similar infraction have received
far lesser sanctions than Haddock, the Teamsters said. 

FedEx officials were not immediately available for comment. 

The lawsuit is also being brought by two current FedEx
employees, Dan Profitt, a 21-year driver, and Leanna Cochran,
a 14-year FedEx veteran. 

FedEx is also being sued for a disciplinary letter placed
into Profitt's file after he passed out union leaflets to
co-workers on non-work time, the Teamsters said.

The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - As the Teamsters wrapped up a strike
against United Parcel Service, the union prepared to fight
Federal Express Corp. in court over attempts to organize
workers. 

The union, joined by two current FedEx workers and one fired
employee, has sued the nation's No. 2 shipper, alleging FedEx
violated federal law in trying to stifle the Teamsters'
efforts to organize workers nationwide. 

The National Labor Relations Board ruled in June that FedEx
was governed by the Railway Labor Act, which covers airlines
and railroads and means FedEx workers who want to organize
must do so nationally rather than locally. The United Auto
Workers and the Teamsters had tried to unionize FedEx ground
workers on a city-by-city basis. 

The lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Indianapolis
alleges tractor-trailer driver Gerald W. Haddock of South
Bend was fired Feb. 20 after 12 years with FedEx after
allegedly backing a truck into a door at the company's
South Bend shipping station. The suit claims Haddock was
targeted by a sham investigation because of his organizing
efforts. 

Driver Dan Proffitt of Martinsville, a 21-year FedEx
employee, faces internal discipline for not surrendering
his company identification while passing out leaflets to
co-workers, the lawsuit said. 

And Proffitt's sister, dispatcher Leanna Cochran of
Plainfield, has been intimidated from organizing
co-workers because of the company's actions against
Haddock and Proffitt, the lawsuit alleges. 

FedEx said the suit has no merit. 

Steven Hoffman, a Washington-based attorney for the
Teamsters, said he believed the lawsuit was the first
nationwide brought by the union against FedEx over actions
during the current organizing campaign. 

He said the lawsuit was unrelated to the UPS strike
settlement except that the Teamsters want workers on equal
footing with the competing shippers. 

AP-NY-08-19-97 2011ED

Memphis Commercial Appeal,
Wednesday, September 24, 1997

Metro Briefs Section

Fired mechanic sues FedEx

A Federal Express aircraft mechanic says he was fired last
year for reporting problems with a plane that caused it to
be removed from the fleet as being unsafe to fly.

In a Circuit Court suit, Timothy R. Smith contends he was
performing his job to ensure that aircraft are airworthy and
to remove a risk of harm to the public safety or welfare and
implies the company was more concerned with on-time package
deliveries.

FedEx spokesman Jesse Bunn said Tuesday the lawsuit is
without merit and that the company will defend itself
vigorously. We're proud of our safety record, said Bunn.  We
believe the aircraft was completely safe and totally
airworthy.

Smith says he was fired nine days after the inspection on
Sept. 18 last year for noting the problems on an aircraft
maintenance log.  He says his log notations reflected true
statements of the aircraft's condition, but that FedEx call
the findings without merit and a falsification.  He says the
company subsequently remedied some of the problems he found
with the plane, but denied his appeal of the firing.

Smith, who is represented by attorney Dan Norwood, contends
he is protected under the Tennessee common law of
whistleblower retaliation and asks for back pay, reinstatement,
$1 million in compensatory damages and punitive damages.
	- Lawrence Buser

I apologise for the fact that many of these letters are from the period going back to the UPS strike and I'm just now getting them up on the site. Please understand that I received a tremendous amount of e-mail during that period that really put me deep in the hole in reading and trying to respond to as much of my e-mail as I could while at the same time working full-time and dealing with several local union/FedEx related matters that demanded my immediate attention. It also hasn't helped matters that our family dog suffered a stroke that has left her somewhat incontinent and we now have to continually bathe her and clean up after her which takes me a couple of hours each day when I get home from work.

After the huge UPS/TEAMSTER victory in August, and with nearly all the issues at FedEx being a parallel, mirror image of UPS workers issues, it has become more and more obvious every day that Teamster representation of the FedEx workers is a most logical choice.

The American public will view the problems at FedEx as identical to those at UPS and will be comparing apples to apples, and UPS to FedEx. It will be easier for the public to continue to view the problems as the same, and to keep the public on our side, if we keep as many of the variables as possible - the same. We NEED the public on our side!

Teamster representation brought a great victory to the UPS workers. FedEx workers are in great need of a victory and will have the support of the already victorious UPS Teamsters for sure, if the FedExers choose Teamster representation. If the FedExers might choose other representation, UPS support might be questionable. We absolutely, positively need every bit of help we can get from the UPS people, and right now they are ALL the help we have in some places. If we as FedEx consider choosing other than Teamster representation, and then ask for our UPS counterparts to come to our assistance, I strongly believe we will find them far more inclined to go to the lake or to play a round of golf rather than coming to our aid.

I have been involved with organizing at FedEx since September 13, 1974, and have seen several hard fought failures, and one success, only to have the one success overturned. Please, my friends, try to understand from one who has played this game at FedEx for 23 years, that those twenty-three years has taught me what we are up against. I sincerely want YOU to win. I strongly advocate that Teamster representation is the only chance you have, and may I remind you that even with Teamster representation and all the help you may get from the UPS Teamsters that you still have a very hard row to hoe! It will not be easy!

My advice: E-mail Terry Meadows --- LaborUnite@aol.com - express your support & then lets all get in the harness and pull in one direction together - toward a FedEx Teamster victory.

Having cast my lot for TEAMSTER representation, I remain,

Fraternally, in SOLIDARITY, Barney

Under the RLA, in a representational election, "divide & conquer" does not always work for the employer; it may ensure success for those employees who choose to unionize. And we who wish to aid in representation, regardless of our sentiments, are well advised to welcome at least one other major contender. Psychologically, two contenders for the representation of FedEx employees on a ballot take away a great degree of the "union, or no union" *feeling*; and introduces the *feeling* of "which representative would be best for *me*." Ballots are cast for reasons which are: 90% emotional, and 10% or less, objective; 90% for *feelings* reasons of *me* (who casts his ballot).

When there are two contenders on a ballot in an election run by the National Mediation Board, the contender receiving the most ballots will become the representative, if the total of all votes cast equals a simple majority (50% + 1 vote, of those eligible to vote - a ballot not cast is a "no" vote). ex. FedEx pilot election 1992, ALPA was certified as bargaining agent with less than a majority of eligible voters, because votes cast for ALPA plus votes cast for USPA (local independent) revealed that a majority of FedEx pilots desired representation. ALPA got more votes than USPA - ALPA was certified, since total of ballots received equaled more than a simple majority.

Hello Kevin!

I am with you 100% on the whole FedEx thing. Let me share my story with you. Feel free to post any/all if you choose. I don't much care if you want to use my name or not, as I have "sealed my fate" of ever going back to FedEx (yeah...sure!)

I recently (January) quit my job as a project engineer in avionics engineering of AOD. Many other good aircraft engineers had left before me, and the steady stream out the door has continued since my departure. The place is run by a director who micro-manages at the individual engineer level, not to mention a keen ability to "slide by/around" any "people policy" issues. I had just had all I could take, and actually realized I could do MORE for the FedEx fleet of McDonnell-Douglas aircraft by returning to work for MDC than I could ever hope to accomplish in the political quagmire which is Memphis.!

In AOD the engineers are a pretty important piece of the puzzle to keep aircraft going, and more importantly, to configure aircraft and bring them into the FedEx fleet. Virtually all of the engineers there are "seasoned" aircraft engineers, with gobs of experience working for other airlines or manufacturers (I came from and have returned to McDonnell-Douglas, soon to be Boeing)....With all this experience do you think mgmnt would heed our cautions on various projects? Nope. They would rather fail than stir up any "political" problems. Not to mention the fact that these guys consistently ignored "best practices" of engineering development, some of which are espoused by FedEx policies (i.e. FADE - Focus/Analyze/Develop/Execute...something you would think engineers do in their sleep!)

Without getting too long-winded, let me just say that the problem in AOD is that they are trying to run what has become the WORLD's largest fleet of commercially-operated aircraft with techniques and tactics that you would expect to see at a small company.... too many people too worried about their next step "up the ladder" instead of the bigger picture of "doing the best job you can and always working for your customers." In my opinion, this "big company balance sheet with small company politics" is, and will continue to be, the FedEx downfall.

Go for it! Only the PEOPLE of FedEx can shift the focus BACK to the customer... instead of this foolish feeling that the "shareholder's" needs come before customers and employees!!

I now work at the MSCA station in Arizona, and the morale is pretty crappy. A lot of us couriers are down to 35 hours a week,and were mandatory to work certain nights, because management doesn't know how to staff this state of the art station. We're in this brand new 200 van facility, so if the numbers don't look good,because they went over budget on this place, take it out on the couriers. 35 hour work weeks, 30 stops an hour in a resi area, God help us.........Do you have any idea what their doing with the srmi's? I'm hoping they are realigning them!!!! I cant do my job safely anymore! I'm afraid I'm going to run someone over, that's how fast I have to drive to maintain my 100% mix cycle!!!!!!! Well, anyway I just wanted to touch base with you, and find out if the morale is as piss poor there, as it here. If we had a union rep. walk thru this place right now, everyone would be signing cards.

For most of the past two weeks I have been reading over all the information in your web page. I pretty much think I have finished now. What I need to know is how can I generate some interest from the Teamsters to have them come to my area and give us some info on their services. I would love to see the kind of turnout metro Phoenix would generate if we were to be invited to a hotel conference room some Saturday afternoon for a Teamsters presentation. Speaking for myself... I know of many employees who are "fed up" and don't want to take it anymore! My fellow co-workers and I feel that maybe because Arizona is a "right to work" state, we may be left out of the "loop." Anything you can do or suggest to help us get the ball rolling out here in the wild west would be greatly appreciated. The time has come for employees to stop whispering their feelings of discontent.....the time is now to stand up and be counted and have our voices heard! Mail me back Kevin, talk to you later.

All I want to add is....Oh thank heaven......for a man like Kevin!

You should contact Terry Meadows at LaborUnite@aol.com and let him know about the situation in your area. He can put you in touch with local union people in your area who can help get you started in organizing your station, setting up meetings and providing informative literature to your coworkers.

Just some thoughts on the UPS walkout. I feel if there is a positive result for the UPS workers it can only help us at FedEx but if the repercussions are negative it will hurt us. I support the workers for wanting to maintain and improve the rate of pay and the drive to reduce the number of part time workers, on the pension I can see how it could hurt the union but could the company also benefit from controlling it? In the short time I have been with FedEx I feel let down, disappointed, and unhappy with the company. I have worked my tail off for 2 1/2 years and am still part time and just leaving the ranks of a handler. Sorry the spelling is poor but hope to get the ideas across.

You have to understand that pension funds are not static entities. They are generally invested in secure growth funds. During robust economic times, such pension funds can realize large leaps in value. One of the reasons UPS was so anxious to get its mitts on the pension fund was that during such large growth years, it could avoid having to kick in as much money into the fund since the government only requires that pension funds go up by a fixed amount each year. UPS management stood to gain a great deal monetarily by getting control of the pension fund. As it is, with the union controlling the fund, UPS is required to kick in so much per employee each year regardless of what the fund's investments do.

Kevin,
   Here are the four questions that management refused to include in the employee survey.

1. Do you think your Union should participate in the setting of goals?

2. Do you think your Union makes a difference in whether or not your office or unit meets its goals?

3. Do you think if goals are set by management alone, it might result in an unfair speed-up for you?

If answer is YES:
4. Do you think that Union participation in setting goals would give you greater protection against an unfair speed-up.

   The Post Office management used the last employee survey results with their questions against employees during contract talks. The Postal Union said they would ask for a boycott next time if these questions weren't included.    Management said no and will go ahead with the survey anyway. They also tried a random phone survey of employees to catch people off guard but with little success.

          Like your site
          Bro-in-law Larry

My husband hasn't left the strike line at our little center for more than 2 hrs out of every 24 since the he sat it up at 11:01 on Aug. 4th. The last sentence of another interview with our local paper he said, "WE ARE PREPARED TO STAY ONE DAY LONGER THAN UPS".

That's MY Man!! I must admit it's hard to be intimate carrying a picket sign and cellular phone sex leaves much to be desired...!!! But we're strong like all the other TEAMSTERS out there and this is a fight that must be won. STAY STRONG. United We Stand----divided, we beg...

   There has been many press reports about the UPS/Teamster strike this past week. Many accurate reports and many not. I have friends on the picket line and also, my husband. The employees of the company do make good money, but not close to what the TV has reported. There is no part-timer here that has ever made twenty dollars an hour either!
   The news reports seem to think that only union officials oppose this contract and only because of the pension fund. There are many reasons why it is unacceptable.
Just a couple of examples;
   Expansion of Cardinal Sins. The language here is so vague that an employee could be fired on the spot for spilling coffee or talking too loud. Fired with no chance of grievance procedure or union representation.    No punishment of any sort for the company if they send a driver out with packages over two hundred pounds! Delivery drivers could be sent out every single day with 150 pound parcels and there would be nothing they could do to prevent it.
   Part time employees have not had a raise in 15 years.
   If drivers approach a company that is on strike, even if strikers at a particular company are violent, the drivers have to enter. The proposal is, no right to strike or even honor another's strike. If UPS decides not to pay their employee there is no right to strike.
   No one like's a strike. This is in no means what any of these employees want's. But, if that right is taken away, our right to protest, then we are losing our freedom. If we lose our rights to stand up and say "This is wrong and we wont let it happen," then we lose our hard earned rights as citizens of America.
   These people on picket lines are fighting for the future of themselves and their families. If UPS was a company that produced good's they would just pack up and move to Mexico like Acme Boot and countless other's. Fact is, they don't have that option. Their choice it seems is to cut at the heart of the worker instead by lowering benefits and weakening their ability to provide a secure future for their families. A cut here and a cut there, wait till people get use to it then cut a little more. Pretty soon there is nothing left to cut. Think of UPS as having some really big scissors, and they are getting them razor sharp and ready.
   Please don't be too quick to judge these Teamsters. There is so much at stake for them that the news doesn't report. There is a one hundred and sixty-two page proposed contract that these strikers are walking over. This is not all about Teamster officials wanting to keep control of a pension and it's not all over part-time employees. That's only two things!, not 162 pages worth!
   Please, think twice before you give that person carrying a sign a dirty look, yell something mean, or ignore them. They're just people like you, who at this moment, must fight to protect their families and future.
      Sandra Froelich
      Clarksville TN

This morning on CNN: UPS said they will have a better pension for it's UPSer's that the union. They say," How could we make money on this when the law wont allow money to be removed from a trust?" My opinion is that after a few years of investing, the money made from investments will cancel out the need for UPS to have to add money in each month. That would be another 1.6 Billion a year they could pass around between them at bonus time!

Hello.
Let me first state how much I admire you and respect your writings. I am a Chief Steward at Teamsters Local 480. As I use your site and wisdom to speak to people about FedEx, perhaps if you need, you can use me to relate inside facts about the Teamsters. An example is the Murder in Nashville. Did you know that Mr. Parta had not driven a Feeder Truck in Fifteen years? Mr. Parta was given a one day 'crash' refresher course. In addition, Mr. Parta was involved in an accident at the railyard just minutes before his tragic murder by UPS Management. The accident involved running over a guard rail which would have resulted in discharged or suspension for a Union Member. Mr. Parta was overheard on the C.B. requesting permission to stop and check for damage to the truck and trailer. UPS Management response was no. On a different subject, I am also on the FedEx Organizing Committee for Teamsters Local 480. My name is Jerry L. Froelich and I live in Clarksville, TN. Perhaps you do not need a source in UPS, but at least I wanted you to know how much I admire your work. Hopefully, one day you will be a Union Brother. Teamster Pride!!

I'd like to thank you and your wife for keeping me informed during the strike and for your very kind words about my web site! I share your hope that we FedExers will someday join the union brotherhood. My best to you and your steadfast bride!

Hello,
   I am a striking Teamster Feeder Driver here in Minneapolis. Nice Page !!!

   I get out to the airport every night with outbound cans. I see your facility nightly.

   Is there any efforts of internal organizing that you are aware of here, and do you want some help?

James C. Pegelow
E-Mail: jp@visi.com

Thanks for your offer to help us James! I've taken the liberty of posting your e-mail address on my web site so that FedExers in your area who are interested in organizing can contact you. Thanks again!

Wow!
I just logged on to your site. I'm thoroughly impressed. I'm a 15yr part timer at UPS and it is truly inspirational to see the effort you have put into this site. I'm currently listening to CNN waiting for the secretary of labor to make her announcement on the "tentative settlement" in our fight for a fair contract.
I wish you guys at FedEx all the luck in the world that you eventually become union. So many of your comments are so true - the general public has no idea what the union has brought to UPS employees and where we would be without it. Thanks for your hard work and once again GOOD LUCK
J Link
Local 89

Thank you for your kind words and good wishes!

The statement that the FedEx "propaganda ministers" put out - "the threat of a strike caused UPS to lay off 1000 workers". What a F@#$ing joke. In my center (Lou, Ky local delivery) volume went form about 31,000 pieces to nearly 40,000 in the week prior to the strike. Management actually undermanned our sort thinking volume would drop. They were begging people to come in. What you are doing is for the betterment of your struggle at FedEx
-- keep it up!!

Thanks very much for that inside information. Yet another lie by management exposed!

I am in favor with unionizing (does not have to be the Teamsters). I am frustrated with what I have seen and experienced in just my short 6 years with this company. We need to make up our own contract as you stated. Fed Ex is a "gourmet" delivery company. And we "the couriers" work hard, VERY HARD, to keep our service above the other delivery companies. I think a lot of us want to consider a union, but management has threatened us with our jobs. I for one can't afford to be unemployed. Just like everyone else here. That's why we go to work, take the constant abuse...verbally and physically. Thanks for letting me vent. Don't print my name, I don't want to get fired or harassed. I just want treated like a human not a robot.

Don't feel alone in your fear of our management! Fear is something that all too many FedEx employees have come to know. Each time I read letters like yours, I am further committed to working for the day when FedEx employees won't have to slink around on their jobs with their tails tucked between their legs like dogs who have been beaten into submission. It infuriates me that any worker in America, the country that I gladly volunteered to lay my life on the line for, has to work in an environment where they have to speak in whispers as though they were under the scrutiny of the KGB or Gestapo! If Washington, Jefferson and Franklin were alive today, one can but wonder what they'd find most despicable,... the monarchists of their day who wanted to keep the common folk under their thumbs or today's corporate executives who want to do the same thing!

Kevin, first of all, I just heard about your website and I like it! Since I can't trust my fellow workers to talk about work related problems...they will always report to the manager what ever is said. I wonder if they get paid more for reporting. Or perhaps just a point higher on their review. Obviously, you aren't to worried about getting fired. Since you haven't kept your identity a secret. Have you been reprimanded by management for your website? Does your manager practice the "Peer Pressure" style of management? It doesn't sound like you would be bothered by it anyway. What is the "Railway Act"? I have been told that because of this "act" Fed Ex does not have to let a union in. Please answer if you have time. I have a lot of bitches that I would like to talk about or bring to the attention of some kind of legal system that could listen and maybe stop these things from continuing. They have to be illegal. The Railway Act can't protect Fed Ex from inhumane treatment of its employees.

Believe it or not I love my job, truly! Most of the customers are great and I enjoy being outside no matter what the weather. I have a personal goal with myself to try and do the routes faster than the day before. I have never called in sick, even when I was very sick. Never been tardy. Never been on disability. I will always try to do better although this company is making that goal less and less important. bye

No, I haven't been reprimanded in any way about my web site. Believe me when I say that I would gladly lose my job at FedEx if any manager ever dared to tell me I could not exercise my right to free speech on my own time with my own resources! All I've ever heard from local management about the site is good-natured kidding and, in private, actual expressions of praise and agreement from more than one manager.

I'm glad you brought up the topic of "peer pressure" management! Yes, some of our managers make lame attempts to pit us against each other. For instance, each day, GYY managers pass out a kind of daily newsletter where they appraise us of inbound freight status and report on the prior day's performance levels. Some managers, my present one included, actually attach employee names to the late counts from the previous day. Most managers also openly post stops-per-hour reports on the walls outside their offices for all to see. Of course, this is all euphemistically done in the name of keeping us informed, but anyone with any common sense knows that the real intent is to attempt to embarrass workers in front of their peers. Of course, there's always at least one resident management butt-kisser in every work group who will indeed chide some of his or her more vulnerable coworkers about these publicized performance statistics. Management promotes that kind of harassment and will generally turn a blind eye to it even if the person being harassed complains. It's a lazy management tactic whereby managers get their butt-kissing employees to do their dirty work for them.

As for treatment which you suspect might be illegal, you'd have to be more specific in order for me to speculate on whether they are or not. The only protections for workers covered by the RLA are strictly limited to rights of employees to engage in union organizing activities.

WOW!!!! go get 'em !

Kevin,

Having been a UPS package car driver for the last 19 years, I can really appreciate your page. I did not realize how far behind us you guys have fallen in regards to wages and benefits. We are doing the same job, regardless of who we are working for. We at Big Brown have just won a victory that should be shared with others. I have printed your August update, I will make copies of it and I will distribute it to drivers in both UPS and Federal Express to try to show people that we are both fighting the same fight.

Ted

Thanks Ted! It would be especially helpful if you passed the web site articles out to FedExers as we are in dire need of communication with one another. If you could include the web site's URL somewhere on the copies you distribute, all the better. Again, thanks for helping to spread the word!

Found you web site. Wow. FedEx is the best job that I have ever had (I'm still young). Went to work in December of 95 as a casual, became a courier in March of 96. Still a part timer, but have made 19 grand already this year. Luck of the draw put me in a small station, kinda out of the loop of mainstream FedEx. We have extended drivers that drive 300 plus miles a day. Due to growing volume, and a steady stream of leap candidates leaving, we have been very understaffed, I'm 3rd in line for full time now, they say any day now. Sounds good doesn't it? I think my managers are great, no problems there. Now for the good part, I work nights also. Why do I work nights, when I working so much at FedEx. Several reasons.

No 1. My Family

I have a wife and two kids. My kids are 1 and 3. My wife doesn't work because she can't find a job that would cover the extra strain on our budget, including the cost of day care. As the sole provider, I need to have the security of another job. It is almost impossible to find a job that will let you work as much or as little as you want, like the on I found when I was a casual. especially one that will constantly work around FedEx's schedule. The short of it, how can I quit when I could be one week away from getting 17 hours a week from here on out. I'm afraid to quit the other job.

No. 2 Full time Jobs!

Part timers have no security. I've been scheduled for splits everyday this year. Only 4 weeks so far this year I worked 5 day weeks. Every other week I worked 6 days. But at any time I could be cut back to 17. We can't make long term plans, we can't enjoy the extras in life, because we must prepare for that week when we will only get part time hours. Can you imagine how hard it has been on my family and myself keeping two jobs. Its been tough, but because of the lack of security in being guaranteed a livable weekly wage, we live in fear of the what if.. My station will not be short staffed for long, What if I don't make full time before that happens! So I work and live in fear, and save every dime that we can, just in case. That is not a life.

No 3. Management

As I said, my mangers are great, Even the Senior manager is cool. But I know I'm lucky. They have all liked me. What if the next one doesn't. They say everyone is treated the same, but I don't think that there is a Courier out there that believes that. I'm treated better than others, because I do what I'm told. I don't feel that I could ever speak my mind about some things. Managers have a lot of power. There are so many things that they can hold over your head. Its scary.

I really like my job, you know, the Courier part. I'm blowing my stop counts out of the water. When I first started, as soon as I would get home, I would go over and over my routes. What could I have done better, where could I have saved time. I want to be the best Courier possible. I get a rush when I'm pushed to the max, I enjoy the pressure. But I know this is not a long-term thing for me, there is no future in it. When you reach top of range, what's the point is staying, because I will never be able to provide for my family or have a since of job security with this company. I'm striving to use FedEx to better myself, to use it as a stepping stone to something better. I like the work, but I need more. Management isn't for me, I couldn't do something to other part timers that is being done to me now. Hard workers should be able to see some light at the end of the tunnel, FedEx is trying to shut that door as soon as possible. Anyone noticed how some full time routes seem to be being replaced by two part time routes. What happens if they take away benefits for part timers. I just don't know where the company is heading. I'm afraid, but after finding this web site, I know that I'm no longer alone. I know that if I stayed around, the moment my stop count starts falling, I will no longer be the golden boy with management. I'm a piece of equipment, that can be taken out of the lineup and replaced with a newer more efficient model at any time. Hopefully I will have somewhere to go. This is the first time I've written, but it will not be the last. There will be more updates. It make me feel better to talk about my concerns, because I know most of the people who visit this site will understand. PSP. Ever heard that before? Know what it stands for? PUSH SHOVE PULL

From : Mr.. Pushed, shoved and pulled on

Thanks for a wonderful letter! You have accurately captured the essence of what it is like for most every new hire at FedEx. Consider that if you feel the way you do, how those of us who have been around long enough to remember a Federal Express where you bled purple not because you were too frightened to do otherwise, but because you believed so strongly in the company that to do anything less than your very best was just unthinkable! I too remember evenings when I'd actually drive through a new route I had been assigned to in my car on my own time just to memorize it and study possible alternatives that would help me run it better!

It's perhaps one of the greatest sociological tragedies of our country that we've all become mere replaceable parts in the industrial machines of Wall St. I've mentioned in other articles on this site that corporate America, in treating workers as disposable assets, has insulated itself from the damage to family life that their cavalier employment strategies inflict. Unfortunately, corporate America is either willingly or ignorantly blind of this paradox of their own creation. As the demands they make on employees tear families apart, those same familial casualties increasingly look to government for help in repairing that damage in the myriad forms in which it manifests itself. Government, in turn, then siphons more of corporate profits away in the form of higher taxes it must collect in order to meet these greater sociological demands. Somewhere along the way, the whiz kids that run this nation's businesses lost sight of the common sense that should tell them that by taking better care of their employees themselves, they'll eliminate much of the need for government intervention and the attendant costly bureaucracies that ultimately wind up making greater taxation demands necessary. Anytime a government middleman is involved everyone loses! Those that pay the taxes wind up paying more than is necessary because they have to also pay the middleman. Those that receive the benefits lose because that same middleman absorbs a part of the benefit they receive.

One way or another, we are going to take care of those in trouble in this country. We have not yet arrived at a stage of Darwinian heartlessness where we are prepared to step over corpses of our fellow humans lying in the streets. Corporate America, better than anyone else, should understand that cutting out the middleman is the most efficient way to get the most bang for the buck. Yet, by treating its workers like chattel, exposing them to needless stresses, shoving them into unemployment lines, hamstringing their attempts to be decent parents, paying them minimal survival wages and forcing them to spread themselves unbearably thin only serves to ultimately foment the kinds of personal problems and tragedies that make people become dependent on government agencies and programs.

Look at the rising demands for institutional child care in this country! Corporate America, by making it nearly impossible for a one person to be the breadwinner for a family has forced American children to become latchkey and/or institutionally cared for en masse. Hillary Clinton and her band of "It Takes A Village" idiots are now pushing for massive government subsidized child care programs to meet that demand. If she's successful, corporate America will wind up footing much of the bill for this new government bureaucracy. Yet, we all know that institutional child care is vastly inferior to direct parental care and is also a breeding ground for future sociological dysfunctions in kids shoved into such babysitting warehouses! Guess who will also wind up footing at least a large part of the bill that results from those future sociological dysfunctions....? Yup, corporate America will again shell out money to clean up the mess they've made of workers' families.

Hi Kevin!

My name is Larry Totton and I work at Airborne's MDW station in Alsip. I was going thru the Teamster website and found a link to your Fed Up site. I gotta tell ya I really got a kick out of Fred-X Of Borg!! I see that you work at the GYY station and if I remember correctly that's on Madison just west of the loop. I worked for Purolator in the mid 80s at 16 S. Morgan and I remember when they built it.

You have the right idea! My life really changed when I got hired by Airborne, My first union job. After two and a half years at part-time I got promoted to full-time. This was the first time in 15 years that I didn't have to work two and sometimes three jobs to support my family!

Two months ago I joined the volunteer organizing committee at local 705 and I look forward to helping my brothers and sisters at Fed Ex and other air freight and overnight express companies in their campaigns to become Teamsters!

Just say no to corporate greed! SAY UNION YES!!!!!!

Later!!
Larry Totton

Thanks for the mail Larry and also for giving of your own time to help bring dignity and stability to other workers' lives!

Kevin , I appreciate the fine article on the UPS strike . I didn't`t get a chance to read it until 8-27 . I too was frustrated by the many people on talk radio who didn't`t have a clue . As I have told you before I have 18 years with the "Big Brown" and can tell you that there were so many issues on this contract that the public was in the dark about . I am not stupid enough to think that the union can do no wrong but smart enough to look into the 160 page proposal and think for myself . What amazed me the most is how many people said that they had looked at the 5 page contract (a "brief" summary provided by UPS management) given to them by their supervisor and it looked like a "good deal" . I liken this to the Pit Bull that has attacked you repeatedly but trusting the owner when he says its ok to go in his yard . Yes it was work to go through 160 pages of legal mumbo jumbo . Yes it was work to question others on issues I was not sure on. Hello , I thought it was our future we were voting on . Kevin , I again thank you for maybe making people think a little . As far as the uninformed on the radio and in the ranks , ignorance is being bitten by the dog the first time , stupidity is all the times after that . In 18 years I have made it a habit of never being bitten for the same thing more then once. If there is any way that I can try and inform you or others on the strike, contract proposal language , etc please mail me . Once again keep up the good work !! Kevin..

I was heartened by the fact that despite the ludicrous and erroneous reporting on the UPS strike that the media widely engaged in, the American public saw through the smoke and rose up to support you guys and gals by a margin of 2 to 1! The overwhelming support the public voiced for the strikers clearly seems to validate my oft-stated belief that corporate America has become so foolhardy in their shortsighted exploitation of workers that a climate again exists in this country for an historic resurgence of union movements.

I was reading your "FedUp" page. Great stuff! I've got to admire a person who takes the amount of time you do in putting out all of this eloquent material.

A little about myself before I continue on...I work at CBS in the Transmission Dept. (almost everything that goes in and out of CBS in terms of pictures and sound comes out of "TX"--the bull**** comes from corporate.), IBEW Local 1212. I've been at CBS for 15 years, TX for a little more than a year.

So, why am I accessing the FedEx page? Well, while UPS was on strike I checked both the Teamsters' and UPS' home page to compare notes on how they perceived the strike and what spin they would put on what was going on. UPS didn't really do much--they did try to explain how magnanimous their proposals were. Not magnanimous enough, I guess, as they got their ***** handed to them by the union. Thanks to the stubbornness of management, they probably gave a large jump-start to this country's labor movement, hopefully reversing what PATCO did to the movement a decade and a half ago. (A note here: unfortunately what Reagan did to PATCO was right. They weren't allowed to strike, yet they did while Reagan was painted as the heavy. Now I'm not a fan of Reagan, but, at least on CBS, his sound bite ordering PATCO back to work was edited in such a way that it sounded like a threat. The actual quote went something like this..."You are in violation of Federal Labor Law and if you don't go back to work, you'll all be fired." Not exact, but that's the gist of it. CBS edited the part about "You are in violation..." and started the bite with "If you don't... it changes the insinuation from factual statement to threat. Wonder what else the evening news edits out.) So, continuing, the reason I went to the FedEx page was to see what slant, if any, they were putting on the strike. Lo and behold, under the seeming innocuous category of "Employer/Employee Relations" I found your page.

What I'd like to know is (1) how did you get your material on the FedEx home page? Pure genius. And (2), while as a union man and a non-corporate type (most suits are, IMHO, totally full of ****. Either they make policy or they enforce it. And since corporate policy benefits only corporate, then, while some managers may be nice guys, they are, at least in the 9-5 world of suits, full of **** and not to be trusted.), is FedEx attempting to make your life miserable because you tell the truth? Corporate truth, like military intelligence, is an oxymoron.

We at CBS/IBEW are in contract negotiations. Hopefully what happened at UPS will spill over into our bargaining. Realistically, it probably won't, as we don't have the ability to bring corporate to its knees the way the Teamsters did. If we struck, the ensuing product put on the air for all to see may look like the Amateur Hour, but most folks at home don't know the difference between quality and garbage, at least as far as TV is concerned. They have no idea what it takes to get stuff on the air and what sort of quality checks (technical, as opposed to programming--there's very little quality there) we go through before you see it. Most folks don't have a filter in their brains to determine which programming is worthwhile and which is garbage, so it stands to reason that they don't care if the picture is a little green or if the right tape goes with the right lead-in on the evening news.

At CBS I write the union's version of the CBS in-house propaganda rag "Update." The Goebbels (corporate) version paints CBS as this place where the sun is always shining and the sky is always blue type of world where everyone is happy and programming is always successful (I told you they were full of **** ). My version lets you know that there is a dark side, and while executives are cashing their bonus checks, the union is being told that corporate wants their jurisdiction, seniority and lunch hour. Mine is like the "local yokel" paper compared to your web page. I'm putting out the weekly whatever, you're publishing the Sunday NY Times. I've got to admire someone who can singlehandedly do that.

I've seen some of the non-union mail you've gotten. Are these people that ****ing stupid? I can understand the corporate mentality of being non-union. Unions take some of the leverage and power away from the suits. They don't like that. (I had a friendly discussion with one of my brothers-in-law, a VP at GE about my age, 39. He is anti-union. Actually, come to think of it, I can't really understand why anyone could be anti-union. Besides the fact that many work rules wouldn't exist if unions weren't on the front lines, rules that have permeated the non-union labor force as well, you have to have respect for an adversary. Unions want the company to do well, too. When that happens, everybody SHOULD benefit.) Anyway, I can't understand why anyone that young would sound like a grumpy old fart. Maybe he's just jealous. He'd better be making a quarter of a mil a year. Otherwise, he's underpaid, because they own his ass and he knows it. When they tell him to transfer or to travel and leave his family for a week or more he can't say "no." He takes his work home with him most every night. Too bad. When my day is done, it's done. Adios, amigo. See ya tomorrow. He can keep his money. I get my dignity. He sold his for the cash and the title. But why would some blue-collar type making next to nothing with no work rules and safety regulations in a non-union shop be anti-union? A union can only help him. I don't get it.

So, if you haven't fallen asleep yet, keep up the good work. Your page should be required reading for union, corporate and anti-union folks. We all might learn something. I know I have.

Write back when you get a chance.

--Mark Ruckhaus

Wow Mark! I'm already enough of an egotist without someone not even in the same industry heaping the kind of praise on me that you have! Thanks for those very kind remarks! I had a hard time getting my head through doorways for some time after reading them!

Regarding the hate mail I get, first off, believe me when I say that it is infinitesimal in quantity compared to the positive messages I get regarding the site. Secondly, as I've said before, I think a small number of people in our society have such utterly barren private lives that their job becomes a surrogate family for them. Their personal identity becomes so deeply psychologically intertwined with a corporate logo that they view any attack on that icon as a personal insult. They react to an attack on their company as we would react if someone attacked a member of our family. The meaner ones I sometimes can't resist making sport of, but in truth, they are all to be pitied.

As far as getting my site listed on the FedEx home page, I think you are confusing the an internet search engine result page with the actual FedEx home page at www.fedex.com. For example, if you do a Yahoo search for FedEx, the employer/employee relations subcategory comes up and my site is indeed listed under that heading. That's just how the search engines have elected to list me. Were it up to FedEx, I wouldn't be listed anywhere!

Kevin,

It's been awhile since I had time to visit your site. Had to fulfill the duties of strike coordinator in Austin, which went well. As I expected your page is still outstanding and I only wish I had the time to do something that was half as well done.

I am the Fedex organizer in this area and haven't gotten a bite one on the info that I have passed out. They have run a very good company campaign here, as they won't take the info from me unless I am in my UPS uniform on the route. I don't see but maybe one or two couriers out in my extended area. I desperately need to find an inside contact that will relay the info to others in Fedex. In Austin, there are two locations and I haven't found the drinking spot for them yet to meet and greet them after work. If you can do anything to help me out I will do my best to help them out, until then I am still looking and still trying. Hard to get real active when you're the outsider looking in and can't even give them the facts and all. How will they ever know the " Rest of the story " if they only here the company's rhetoric and lies.

I struck this company because they weren't doing me or my coworkers right. I am fortunate that I have a union that represents me that stood up for me upon my demands. You see, I have the union as my employee and they must do what I tell them to as employees. I pay dues which pays their check, if all members vote 95% strike authorization, like we did. Then they had no choice but to pull us out on strike because that what we told them we wanted. As good employees they did everything to the best of their ability and when they felt the company was unreasonable, we struck. As it turns out we got everything that we wanted as per our last offer (we did concede on some new language that was considered unimportant). Although everything that was important we did not concede any and now have it.

I pose this question to every Fedex employee: When Fred Smith decides he will work someone from a "Temporary Agency" that can do the work more prompt, efficient, or economical and not have to honor any seniority, What will be your defense to stop it ? Being in the Teamsters Union, WE struck and won protection. All that you can do is hope you're not the first to go or it stops before it happens to you. You see being part of the Teamsters Union gave us the power to have our voices hear and listened to by a multi-billion dollar corporation.

Final score........Union Members plus 1.....UPS minus 650 million. It will go down as the day the Teamsters Union saved the American Dream for ALL workers. Virtual companies won't work and America said so with their support for us strikers. Public opinion was 55% in favor of and rising with each poll. I will be making over $23.00 in 5 years.......what will you be making as unorganized Fedex Employees' ? I know what I'm getting because it's in writing, you can only get promises,promises, promises. Wake up and get organized, it's your future that you'll decide on while you still can do it.
Rick@AOL.Com

Sorry this turned out to be a post but it just started rolling out and I kept it going. Nothing like preaching to the choir to hear yourself speak :)

You're always welcome to preach on my site Reverend Rick! As for where to contact FedExers in your area to help them, might I suggest that you print some of the material from my site and distribute it along with the site's URL. It would also be great if you'd include the Teamster's national FedEx organizing coordinator's name, e-mail address and phone number. His name is Terry Meadows, his e-mail address is LaborUnite@aol.com and his phone number is 1-888-FEDX-IBT (333-9428).

Station LRUA has been hit hard with the push of the new FEDEX. Morale is at an all time low. I and other employees feel terrible at work and off work. It is becoming harder and harder to go to work. Some of us are trapped at FEDEX to support wives and children.

Please keep us informed. We are willing to help.

Please keep me informed with anything we can do!

I noticed you mentioned UPS weight limit to be 70 pounds. It did change a couple years ago to 150 pounds. When they changed this limit they failed to tell their employees and we had to learn it by the customers who started shipping out the 100+ lb. boxes. Talk about getting us prepared for the change.

Pat

Hi Kevin,

In reference to your "To The CEO" article, the part about 27 trucking companies going out of business. I guess Fred never heard of deregulation, hostile take-overs or leveraged buy-outs! Two examples of how deregulation drove companies out of business are Stepena Motor Freight and Signal Delivery Service.

Stepena (a union company) had one customer: Emery Air Freight. For decades Stepena handled all of Emery's deliveries in the Chicago Area. After deregulation an upstart company from Miami called D.P.D. Resources gave Emery an incredible offer: All new trucks for a half a million less a year. Emery jumped at it thus putting Stepena out of business! And you might ask how D.P.D. could do this? Simple, D.P.D. is owned and operated by Ryder Truck Rental. And since they were a new company they had no union, they hired all newly trained drivers making an average of $4.00 an hour less than the Stepena drivers did!

Signal Delivery is another example, Signal like Stepena had only one customer: Sears. For 100 years Signal did all the home deliveries of major appliances for Sears. Then deregulation comes along. Another company owned by Ryder, Ryder Distribution Resources does it again! Signal goes under! But that was short lived Sears got rid of them and got another scumbag outfit called Merchants delivery. They get you to lease a truck and be an independent contractor thus getting them of paying overtime, benefits, social security, workman's comp. and the expenses of operating the truck! Do the initials RPS come to mind?

McLean trucking had a different demise, during the hostile take-over/leverage buy-out craze of the 80s McLean was bought not as an investment but a way to make several million fast by selling off all the assets it owned. Most of the older companies owned their own terminals and if you know anything about real estate it almost always appreciates in value. So basically all those people were put out of work so a couple of scumbags on wall street could make a couple million!

Hope you find this informative. Keep on educating your bothers and sisters and you'll be victorious!!!

Talk to you later! Larry Totton

Thanks again Larry for contributing this information and offering yet another example of a facet of the realities of our industry that the suits would rather we not have an opportunity to digest! Hope you'll continue to contribute to our knowledge base!

Well I'll get right to my story.

I started with Fed Ex as a casual employee in Dec. '97. Starting from the fist two weeks of my employment I was told I would be a courier in a matter of weeks. During these promises to be a courier I held a full time job at the local school dist. My daily routine was to go to the full time job and then when I punched the clock there I would immediately head to Fed Ex to punch in for the casual position. So I was putting 12 to 13 hours daily and would sometimes work a Saturday. As my responsibilities grew as a casual so did my frustration. I threatened to quit a couple of times but was talked in to having more patience. Finally I get a break. I am accepted as a courier and was sent to courier school in San Antonio, TX. But, while I was away getting the training, UPS workers go on strike. I calm down after hearing the news and changing the mess in my shorts. I was and still am, terrified. I have been driving now for a few weeks and I feel so lost and alone. It seems like I cannot go one day without a mistake. Plus the pressure to make the delivery commitment is making my hair fall out. I was taught in courier school that when I finish my day that when.... well... this should explain it:

17 return to building
30 package handling (unload vehicle)
40 vir
56 courier clerical

Well I was in the code 30 for about five minutes and was spoken to about it. I told my manager that the exercises in school, we went into a 30 to unload the vehicle. All she told me was, "It should not take you more than 30 seconds to unload your vehicle." How realistic is that. A van that has more that 4 packages will surely take more than thirty seconds to unload. I said it was impossible. She responded with a smile and a blank stare. So I have been avoiding the 30 to unload my vehicle. And I really don't understand the reasoning behind her answer.

As a new employee, is there any warnings or advise you could give?

About all I can offer you in the way of advice is to grin and bear it as best you can. Management at FedEx holds all the aces so long as we have no real representation in our corner. Try to document everything that seems contradictory or alludes to falsification which your managers tell you to do. You might also use the time clock to stamp each piece of documentation you produce so that you can prove that you have been keeping records as events unfold and in the process, create chronological evidence that might help you in a legal venue at some future time.

The very best advice I can offer though is that you contact the local union office in your area and volunteer to organize workers within your station. The best defense, after all, is a good offense...

Wow!!! I didn't realize their was so much dissatisfaction within the company.

I'm from Memphis, TN and have always been really impressed with the things I had heard about FedEx.

We moved to the St. Louis area last October and I met a friend who worked for the company and got me an interview for an opening as a courier. Since we lived 60 miles west of St. Louis job opportunities were few for me. I thought I would give it a try and it would be a really great company to work for.

Wrong!!!! I have never seen such a place.

I've only been employed since Apr '97 and I'm already writing letters to my personnel rep and senior manager. What is a personnel rep anyway? Is he really on my side?

Well I could go into more details but quite frankly I have for days been pounding away here about FedEx and I'm sick of thinking about it.

I just happened to stumble across your web page and felt relieved that I was not alone.

A FedEx personnel rep is about as useful to a FedEx worker as a screen door would be to a submariner! They are, in no sense of the word, employee advocates. All they offer is the company's interpretation of policy and are mainly used by managers to consult with on matters of policy and discipline implementation. In other words, the personnel rep is merely management's rubber stamp.

hey, webmaster--
my husband works (or should I say used to work) for FedEx and would you believe that one of his buddies that works for UPS gave us the info about this website because he heard that R had gotten terminated. This could probably add another chapter to your book of unreasonable terminations. The incident happened on July 25 - one of FedEx's business customers called dispatch to see if my husband could take extra time to do a photo shoot with the FedEx van and packages in front of his art gallery, so Dispatch who at some point had to get management approval sent my husband a message to see if he would do the photo shoot. My husband consented even though he was extremely busy. The van had to backed up on to the sidewalk for the customer to get the shot he wanted and the customer was the one who was ground guiding my husband on to the sidewalk and unfortunately into a pole holding up the customer's awning - no damage was done to the FedEx van and a minimal dent in the awning. The customer did his photo shoot and then my husband still had to process over 50 packages that the customer had going out. By the time he got back to the station it was very late, he was tired and stressed out and still had to finish up paperwork and after all of that the dent in the awning had totally slipped his mind and he did not fill out a vehicle accident report. That was on Friday and by Monday it had really slipped his mind and still no report, the next week he went on vacation and it had been totally forgotten. One month later this same customer gets mad at FedEx for changing the way they charge him for his packages and in the course of yelling at the Sr manager he mentions that "one of your couriers hit my awning". When the Sr Manager asked my husband about the incident he realized he had forgotten to do the report but told the Sr manager the whole story, didn't try to deny it or cover it up. Sr manager, district manager & personnel rep talk it over and decide he must be terminated and the rest is history. He appealed it and the GFT step one review was no surprise that district manager upheld the termination decision. He now is going on to Step Two but how do we get anybody to look past the rule infraction so far no one cares that he is an excellent courier and had a spotless career. Most of his co-workers are very upset at the treatment my husband has received so far and we have since learned of another incident of the same type of rule infraction that happened at the HUB 2 days after the incident my husband was involved in, and the only disciplinary action the other employee received was a letter of warning in his file! Do you have any other good suggestions other than the ones on your GFT page?? which was very helpful and enlightening. I just really don't understand why a company that must thrive on good customer service turns around and punishes the very employees who have been willing to go above and beyond to provide good customer service.
well i guess enough is enough. Thanks for letting me vent!! J

Unfortunately, I didn't get around to reading your message until quite some time after you sent it and it was too late to offer any advice. I hope your husband's GFT was successful because his termination seems completely unfair and outrageous given the circumstances of the accident and the time frame involved, as well as what precipitated the customer's reporting of the accident. I hope you'll write again and let me know how things turned out.

I just returned form vacation and the co-worker who co-authored our essay received a conduct letter for saying, "Fuck BPP." Our Sr. told him that his comments left 2 employees "in tears."

In tears?! Yeah,... right! And if you click your heels three times and say "There's no place like home." you'll wind up in Kansas too. What other fairy tales do managers out your way tell? Probably stuff like "We don't persecute pro-union employees!" eh?

Dear Fellow Disgruntled Fedexer,

I have not been with the company so very long, but long enough for the illusion of fairness, and PEOPLE first to show not to be the case. Let me briefly say what is currently happening, and ask for advise.

When I began, my manager said he was sending 3 of us to CTV school, and we would take turns doing a Saturday run. Naive, and wishing to do the "right thing", I said I would go. Well, I was the ONLY one sent!!! Time passes, manager X leaves, and suddenly I am thrown in to a night position vacated by a transferring employee. I go along with it with promises of being off in "a couple of weeks...four at the most". I have been on it for 8 weeks, and the replacement is to begin at no known date. Frankly, I feel extremely taken advantage of. I was hired as an a.m. courier! What are my options? Refuse the duty, and get screwed at every upcoming turn, or what???

You can't refuse the duty as that would constitute "failure to work as directed" and/or insubordination and could get you summarily terminated. About all you can do is tough it out and try to bid into another position eventually. In the meantime, don't get mad, ... get even! Do anything you can to organize your coworkers and use your CTV position to spread the word to other station CTV drivers at the ramp.

Just found your page and found it to be very insightful.

In your letter regarding Mary Alice Taylor, you mentioned how most of us feel uneasy about blaming Fred for the degradation of this corporation. I blame him completely! As a long term employee I have seen many changes, very few for the good of the employee. PSP has become a thing of the past, unless you break it down as PROFIT! SERVICE! ?PEOPLE? While I'm at it, I feel that greatest loss for the employee's of this company was Netscapes CEO, Mr. Jim Barksdale.

You're not the first person who has expressed their admiration for Mr. Barksdale to me. In fact. I had one person speculate that Jim left FedEx because he wanted no part of the company once he saw the direction it was heading in. We'll probably never know if that's true unless Jim decides to someday write an expose about his FedEx years.

Wow, I found out what my first IPP payout was going to be, my review this time was a 6.1, last time it was a 6.5, ready??? 110.00(for six months) after taxes, wow, that works out to about 4.23 per week, I'm really excited about this since I have now worked for Fedex for 5 years, and am only 12 months away from being at top of scale, I told the center manager today that I thought that IPP sucks, he didn't say much, just looked at me kind of surprised, then I told my manager that IPP is no incentive to me, my incentive is to keep my job since I help support my family and my own personal work ethic, then she said well it's really not an incentive but a recognition??? Then why in the last six months have we heard practically nothing but IPP, IPP, IPP, when it comes to all measurements of performance, it sure seemed to me and others they're trying to make it an incentive thing.

Anyway I have signed the online authorization card (and feel great about it) and signed also a co-worker. I was given the Fedup site address about 3 months ago, and word of it, with my help, has spread like wildfire, people are starting to see things in a different way. I do not consider myself a Republican but have voted for them since Reagan in 1980 because they more represent my somewhat conservative leanings, go figure that out, a conservative signing a Teamster's authorization card. It shows you the state of one person who has and is seeing the true heart and colors of Fedex corporate management, frankly, I don't like this company or the job that I do, until I leave the company, which I am working on, I hope the momentum of the union continues. It is enlightening to read your's and other's viewpoints, keep it up, and in my little way and other's we are spreading the word, thanks for tolerating my rambling, take care.

Ramble here anytime you get the notion to do so! It's people like you who sign the cards and encourage your peers to do likewise who will one day be responsible for restoring our dignity as FedEx workers. Keep up the good work!

I love you man...      tony west employee 43024

Message text written by INTERNET:wenway@cyberportal.net
Asshole fellow employee, The last time I checked there was no slavery in this country so why don't you do us all a favor and quit so you can become another scumbag union member.

Last time I checked, nobody was forcing you to accept my views nor those of the unions. I'm sorry that you feel so threatened by others engaged in nothing more than free speech that you are reduced to calling people you've never even met profane names from behind the safety of your keyboard and the anonymity of your e-mail address. At least I have the strength of my convictions and the character to openly use my name in everything I do on the internet. You lacked even the courage to sign your real name, let alone mention your station identifier, job classification and years of service to FedEx as I have. It takes no guts to do what you did, nor any real intelligence to say what you said... Take a long hard look in the mirror. Are you proud of what you see?

Tell me honestly Wayne, just how much of my web site did you examine before firing off your first angry message to me? I ask this because I find it totally unacceptable that anyone who has seriously read the articles on my site can rationalize in their mind that I've fallen for union propaganda. In fact Wayne, the union has made extensive use of materials from my site in their organizing efforts. I get no "propaganda" fed to me from the unions. Furthermore, the unions didn't seek me out, I sought them out. I didn't need anyone to tell me that we need a union at FedEx. That realization came over a period of some 11 years, and quite frankly, it's only been within the past two years that I finally reached a point where I felt the scales had tipped far enough that I could, in good conscience, support a union.

Nobody is capable of brainwashing me Wayne. I've been on this planet for 46 years, literally been around this planet twice and have seen mankind at his very best and utter worst. I've got 9 years of UPS experience, including three years in management on my resume, and as even you admitted, I am a reasonably intelligent person. Nobody pulls my strings and nobody pulls the wool over my eyes either. Trust me when I say I'm beyond that.

Your wants and need are not even close to the top of their list. I once belonged to a union in New Jersey and after that experience I can tell you that the only way a person can excell in this world is through hard work. I certainly dont want someone else speaking for me I am quite capable. All the union wants is your money.

Your bad experience with a union does not merit your complete condemnation of any and all unions Wayne. If we used that criteria upon with which to base our views on everything, we'd never eat steak again after getting a tough one, never ride a bike again once we fell off one and skinned our knees and never love another once our heart was broken for the first time! As with everything else in life, we are faced with disappointments where unions are concerned, but that does not negate the value of unions. All your experience proves is that perfection is elusive in every human endeavor, including unions.

As for the unions just wanting your money, why don't you conduct a little experiment and see if you feel the same afterwards. Go to your nearest Teamster or UAW union hall and be honest. Tell them you are skeptical as to the value of unionizing. Ask them if you can attend their next union meeting and ask them to simply ask for a show of hands from the members in attendance as to how many of them ever had a union representative successfully intervene in a disciplinary action their employer was attempting to take against them. I think you'll be shocked to see the number of hands that go up! As a former member of management at UPS, I can attest to the fact that the presence of union stewards in the workplace kept the militaristic inclinations of UPS managers in check and I shudder to think of what working there as an hourly employee would have been like without them.

But getting back to the issue of money, you make it sound like a union's need for funds is somehow dishonorable while at the same time, not mentioning a word about the fact that a corporation's major focus is inherently the constant search for ways to extract higher profits. We live in a society which, like it or not, money is a key to survival. This applies to unions and corporations alike. Unions need money to provide pension plans, strike funds, political muscle and legal resources, not to mention the fact that they also have payrolls of their own to meet. Without money, unions would have no teeth.

I've said this before on my web site Wayne, and I'll repeat it for you. Union workers enjoy better benefits, higher wages, better working conditions and greater longevity on their jobs than any other employees in the same class or craft across the board in this country! That's a fact that is beyond dispute. If unions were only good for taking money from their members, the aforementioned certainly would not be true...

Try talking to some UPS workers that are out of the city cesspool areas where unionism is rampant, those UPS workers especially those up in this area wanted nothing to do with the strike and if UPS would have stood firm they could have broken the teamsters what a joy that would have been.

Wayne, have you really seriously talked to UPS workers in your area? I live in Chicago and you won't find a stronger union presence anywhere in the country than you will find here! If you followed the strike news, you know that Chicago's UPS workers were still on strike for several days after the strike was settled nationally because the Teamster's here in Chicago are so powerful that they have a separate contract with UPS! After they settled their strike, I made it my business to talk to every UPS driver I saw on my route and each and every one of them was elated at the outcome of the strike!

If you are any good at math run the numbers and figure out what they actually gained then take that number and match it to the pay that they lost, if you use all the information you will see that the money they lost will never be made up even over the length of a lifetime of service.

I don't know where you get your numbers from, but they're not only wrong, they are mathematically impossible! Even our own beloved leader, Fred Smith, stated in his own propaganda sheet called "From The CEO" dated 8/25/97 that "for the full-time package car driver, receiving the reported 3% annual raises, it will take approximately 15 months to catch up financially from the impact of the strike." That's a direct quote from your boss Wayne. Are you saying he lied....? Furthermore, as I've also mentioned on my web site, there was far more at stake in the recent UPS contract negotiations than money. I won't rehash all that now, but if you really care to know what else the strikers won besides raises, check my site and the Teamster's site for the details. Sure the strikers made a monetary sacrifice, but sometimes you have to give a little of yourself for the greater good. That's life Wayne.

The union was even so low that they took their union dues out of the first strike check that they received leaving the workers with less than ten dollars in their pockets, talk about slavery.

Yes, a *few* local unions did that, and it was indeed a despicable thing to do! However, once the international union office in Washington got wind of it, they immediately told those locals to reimburse the strikers and it is my understanding that the union fired several union officials who were responsible for making the idiotic decision to collect dues during the strike. Like I said before, nobody's perfect, including the unions.

You should remember that it is always easier to talk the talk when you are sitting pretty with a nice job at FEDEX, the UPS workers that I talk to regularly hate their jobs and would love to get their hands on a job at FEDEX

Then why don't they apply for a job at FedEx? They could continue to work at UPS and just wait until FedEx calls them in for an interview. Any UPS worker who tells you they'd like to work at FedEx is blowing pure smoke! There's nothing at all keeping them from joining our ranks. Nothing except perhaps their unwillingness to take a pay cut, wait a couple of years just to move from casual to permanent status, wait another half a decade to get full time status and/or reach top-of-scale pay and then work without any real job security whatsoever...

and we have several former UPS workers in this district who tell a completely different story than what you do

If you have run across ex-UPS employees at FedEx, I'd bet my last dollar that 99% of them were fired from UPS. They may lie through their teeth out of shame, but the fact is that in the 9 years I was at UPS, I never knew a single hourly employee who quit! Furthermore, since you really had to screw up badly to get fired from UPS due to the union protection you had, the hourly people who did get fired were major screw-ups who got themselves fired, mostly for excessive absenteeism. I wouldn't expect any ex-UPS hourly employee to have anything nice to say about UPS so take what you hear from such folks with the proverbial grain of salt...

As for hiding behind my annonymous e-mail address nothing could be further from the truth,

It was true where your first message was concerned Wayne...

I am a courier at LCIA station Laconia New Hampshire. I am a DG specialist, spill cleanup certified, Safety coordinator, and Environmental coordinater for the station, I have been with FEDEX for five years and am still as impressed with the company as I was when I started,

I'll give you five more years, if that long, before you end your honeymoon phase with FedEx. Like I said Wayne, it took me almost 10 years before I'd even talk to a union representative. I suppose it's a matter of historical reference, but I've been around long enough to see FedEx evolve into a company that treats its people far differently than it did when I first came to work for the company. The erosion of the quality of treatment FedEx workers receive from management has been a very slow and stealthy process that's hard to notice until you've been around long enough to build up a sufficient frame of reference to realize the vast difference between where you started from to where you currently are. You haven't been around long enough to notice how the ranks of people you knew when you started with the company have been thinned out. You haven't seen folks lose their jobs for absolutely trivial reasons. Even if you have known people who've been fired, you probably simply shrugged your shoulders and thought to yourself that they must have deserved their fate. However, when you've been around as long or longer as I have, you begin to take a bit more interest in your coworkers and when one of them loses their job, it starts to effect you on a personal level. In short, you begin to care instead of swaddling yourself in a cocoon of self-involved ambition and the foolish youthful sense of invulnerability. When you begin caring, you begin to ask questions and when the answers you invariably get point to consistently unfair judgments based upon trivial infractions that have little, if anything to do with serving our customers, you start to see FedEx management through a less than rosy tint of perspective. Nothing I say will likely cause you to pause and reflect on your beliefs because to you, I'm just an old rabble-rouser who is hell bent on harming FedEx.

your job is what you make it try approaching things with a positive attitude and trash all that union BS you will be much happier,

I do my job very well Wayne. I've never received less than a 6.4 on a performance review in over 11 years with the company. Each time I have a check ride, my customers literally gush about me to my manager. Just last week, the shipping manager at Playboy Magazine told my manager that they "wouldn't trade me for any five previous FedEx couriers they had before" I took over the route. I do nothing that is in the least bit detrimental to FedEx's relationship with my customers. I realize the stupidity of biting the hand that feeds you. My issues with FedEx are strictly internal. I have made a conscientious effort to limit my site's exposure on the internet so that it will only be visited by FedEx employees because I have no desire to taint FedEx's reputation of service to our customers. Not one of my customers even knew of my union activities until I was photographed and quoted in a newspaper article.

oh also my name is Wayne S****** I live at ** ****** Dr. Laconia New Hampshire, just in case you and your teamster buddies want to pay a visit but I doubt it as this area of the country still believes in self determination.

This kind of rhetoric is totally uncalled for Wayne. I don't deny that there was a time in the past where unions used goons to intimidate people, but those days are long gone just as corporate sweat shops are also a part of history. If you still believe that unions are doing that sort of thing, its little wonder that you hate them as much as you do. This is 1997 Wayne, not 1927...

Another thing I had just wished that I could have been on vacation at the time of the strike as I would have gladly gone to work temporarily at some UPS station just to get the satisfaction of crossing their picket line and challenging any of the cowardly picketers to try to stop me, I guarantee you they couldn't and wouldn't,

You're a very hate-filled person Wayne, and frankly, you talk as though confrontation, baiting and spoiling for a fight are things you're proud of and anxious to do! Those Teamsters walking the picket lines were simply doing what they believed in. They weren't causing you or your family any harm so why would you want to stick your nose into their business and antagonize them? If anything, their being on strike was a blessing for you, because even if you don't think you benefitted indirectly by the outcome of the strike, the fact that FedEx enjoyed a huge increase in volume put more money in your pocket because you likely worked more hours and you wound up with a bonus check to boot! If anything, you should feel grateful to the strikers, but since you take the issues of unionization so intensely personal, all you are capable of is feeling rage...

The teamsters are trash and unionization is the cowardly way to handle your affairs.

If working with a contract is a great idea for celebrities, sports figures and top-level executives, why is having a contract such a bad idea for the working stiffs of this country? I thoroughly enjoy listening to Rush Limbaugh and I happen to agree with probably 90% or better of what the man says. However, I'd laugh in his face if he ever mentioned some of the asinine things he says about unions in my presence because he wouldn't blow his nose on the air if he didn't have a contract! Back when he was just a struggling disc jockey, he didn't have the clout to demand a contract and, as a result, he was fired from at least one job I know about simply because he tried to do some of the things he now gets megabucks to do on the air. In other words, his potential was squashed by a corporate entity and he was kicked out on his butt because he had no power. Now, he has a contract that guarantees he will have a job for at least the next four years at an income he's going to be happy with. I find it amazing that he, of all people, could rail against the little guy having the same opportunity to negotiate a contract to protect their job security and earning potential as he has! How much intelligence does it take to realize that if something is good for the rich it certainly would be good for the folks that have to punch time clocks? There's nothing any more cowardly about workers joining a union to give them some power over their destinies than there is when a top executive or celebrity hires an agent to negotiate a good contract for them.

You should take a look inside yourself and realize that your own best friend is yourself you will do what is right for you but from the sound of your letter you seem pretty inteligent although very misled heres hoping that somehow you can come to see the light and give thanks to a great company that will never be union......Wayne

Look Wayne, even a corporation like FedEx realizes the value of teamwork! If teamwork is good for a business why is it suddenly an evil that gets you crazy with rage when employees decide that they should practice teamwork in looking out for their own interests? Unions are the epitome of the teamwork principle. They are people joining together to do something better than a single individual could accomplish alone. You can celebrate being your own best friend to your heart's content, but when the chips are down and you are standing alone against a corporation with billions of dollars in assets, your best friend will be of little help to you....

Kevin

About the only erroneous assumption I made was your age which I based upon your length of service at FedEx and the level of vitriol in your first message, but that really has no bearing upon my assertion that you've simply not been around long enough to notice the changes the company has progressively made over time that continually erode the security and dignity of its employees. However, upon reflecting on your latest letter to me, I may have made another erroneous assumption about you. You seem totally devoid of any compassion for your coworkers. You also seem unwilling to see even the possibility that FedEx management can do wrong by its employees. Therefore, maybe watching the ranks of your old coworkers thinning out as the years pass will still leave you unaffected....

Companies and even corporations need to make a profit to stay viable even more so where stockholders are concerned,

Making a profit and treating your employees with dignity are not the antithesis of one another. Nobody I know who is involved in the organizing movement wants to place the company in a financially untenable situation.

as for Fred and others taking huge bonuses, I say more power to them, that's why they are where they are.

The only time I take exception to corporate leaders taking bonuses and salary increases is when they do so while at the same time telling their employees that times are too tough to pass even cost of living raises on to them. Leadership by example is laudatory but "do as I say, not as I do" leadership is despicable!

I feel that we get paid very well even if UPS makes 4 or 5 dollars more an hour, I wouldn't want the stress those guys have to put up with, most of them don't either. Yes I am serious that I talked to the drivers for UPS in our area and they would rather be at FEDEX

There's a whole lot of things patently wrong with what you are asserting here. The foremost is the implication of stress at UPS. UPS management is prohibited by the union contract from imposing any sort of stops per hour requirement whatsoever upon their employees. In fact, they are further prohibited from even documenting productivity in any manner. Instead, their industrial engineers periodically time them on their routes and then base their work loads on the times charted for the route in question. That's *all* UPS management is permitted to do. An employee at UPS *cannot* be terminated for productivity issues. Again, I invite you to examine a copy of their current contract and see the truth for yourself. If the UPS employees out your way are stressed and intimidated, it's self-imposed. I served close to three years as a package car driver, and not once during that time was the topic of my productivity ever broached by either the industrial engineers or members of management who rode with me. I repeat that in my 9 years at UPS, the only terminations I ever saw were due to excessive absenteeism. The year and a half I spent as a personnel clerk at UPS placed me in a unique position to monitor terminations as well, because one of my responsibilities was to document any such termination. Regardless of what you hear from UPS workers, my years and extremely wide range of experience within Big Brown affords me a unique insight into that company that whatever gossip and innuendo you've picked up along the way in your contacts cannot possibly be equated to. Believe what you want, but I've literally been there and done that...

but when you make the money they do you seem to find a way of needing that much every week to survive so no they couldn't just apply and wait for a job to open because starting at the bottom some where else now is not economically feasible for them.

Which is precisely why the classic old argument so many anti-union people use, namely "If you don't like it, quit!" is such an asinine piece of rhetoric, even when I use it. I knew full well when I wrote that to you why UPS people wouldn't jump ship. Funny that you should be so understanding of their position yet you showed me no such compassion when you sent me your first message and said; "The last time I checked there was no slavery in this country so why don't you do us all a favor and quit" You should be careful what you commit to writing Wayne. Words have a way of coming back to haunt you later...

Are you suggesting that we should bring them aboard as full timers and displace the people that are already in positions, I hope not.

Of course not, and I think you knew that. As I've already demonstrated, I was simply engaging in a bit of entrapment by turning the tables on you to illustrate the hollow ring to your initial suggestion that I quit FedEx

Its there misfortune that they work where they do.

I'm certain you've heard of the "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" saying. Therefore, does it come as any surprise to you that a disgruntled UPS driver might see working at FedEx as a better alternative to where they are? Again, I've had extensive experience with both UPS and FedEx and I can attest to the fact that the grass is indeed greener at UPS. Of course, you're probably pounding your keyboard as you read this because you can't wait to tell me again to go back to UPS. However, had you thoroughly examined my web site, you'd understand why that is quite impossible. Since you didn't bother to research the site before passing judgment upon it and me though, if you read on, you'll soon understand whereof I speak.

As far as firing people for trivial reasons, there are usually more factors involved, no company is going to let some one go if they are a productive employee that makes money for the company, without having some underlying reason, if FEDEX exists to make money they are not going to go around firing their best producers.

First of all, with a *very* few exceptions, most every employee, regardless of how productive they are, is making a profit for FedEx. Do you realize how slow you'd have to move in order not to make a profit for the company? Unless you have one of those remote routes way out in the boonies where you drive hundreds of miles while only delivering a handful of packages, you're making money for the company. In fact, I doubt if there very many of those unproductive remote routes even left anymore because FedEx has gotten so heavily into subcontracting work that they undoubtedly use cartage agents in most remote areas.

Secondly, given the views you've expressed, I seriously doubt that you've ever so much as questioned the reasons for a coworker's termination, let alone gotten involved enough to help prepare a GFT, research the "People" manual or read the kind of nonsense found in the many termination letters I've examined. Yet, lacking that kind of experience, you glibly expound with utter self-assurance that you're certain all such people had whatever happened to them coming! I don't base my views on gut feelings Wayne. I base them on actual experience.

I have never believed that seniority should be a factor in anything as this line of thinking indeed breeds mediocrity.

This is the kind of thinking on your part that makes it easy for someone to mistake you for a young kid with moisture still dripping from behind your ears. To you, length of service counts for nothing. Yet such shallow thinking denies the very mortality of the human beings you are talking about. This may come as a shock to you, but the kind of physical work we do does manage to take a toll upon the human body. Furthermore, so does something called the aging process. You see no value whatsoever in the human investment we all make each day we toil for our corporate masters. To you, we should all be worked until our joints are wracked, our carpal tunnels are collapsed and our backs are permanently bent and then we should simply be relegated to the trash heap and replaced by new models. In short, you see human beings as little more than a disposable commodity to be as fully exploited by corporate America as possible before the big kiss-off. I'll bet you hate the fact that it's written into the UPS contract that age and physical condition must be considered in assigning work loads! How dare unions make such humane demands of employers....! That sort of thinking will endear you to those in the corporate board rooms, but something tells me that St. Peter won't be rolling the red carpet out for you when the time comes.

Merit is where its at it keeps everyone on their toes and working hard.

I have no objection to hard work. What I do have a problem with is using intimidation to push people beyond mere hard work into the realm of stress! FedEx uses the term "merit" as a bludgeon with which they force near Herculean efforts from their employees. You will find few other corporations outside of Japan where anything less that 100% is unacceptable where performance levels are concerned, yet FedEx routinely places such demands upon its employees while constantly compressing the time frame within which an employee has to attain such perfection-quality levels of performance.

You also mentioned that the UPS workers could apply at FEDEX if they didn't like where they were, I think the same applies to you, why not apply at UPS and take advantage of the higher wages and union representation you crave,

My explanation of why I am unable to rejoin the ranks of Big Brown will serve to demonstrate further how little you actually know about UPS despite your furtive contacts with their employees which you place such great stock in. You see, UPS does have some shortcomings that FedEx doesn't. At UPS, once one goes into management, there's no turning back. You cannot bid back down to a package car driver's position if you find that management is either not to your liking or that you simply are not equal to the job for whatever reason. I found that I absolutely hated being in management at UPS and as time progressed, I reached the stage where I was desperate enough to grasp at the first opportunity that afforded itself to leave. Had it been possible to go back to being a package car driver, I would still be a UPS employee to this day. I never had a problem as a package car driver, and believe me when I say that I never experienced anything near the kind of pressure as a package car driver at UPS as is the present norm at FedEx. About the only thing I didn't like about UPS package car driving was that the work days were longer. I seldom ever put in less than a 10 hour day. The money was fantastic, but the longer work days pretty much killed any decent free time activities during the week.

a lot of us work at FEDEX expressly for the reason that there is no union.

That's absolutely ludicrous! There's no possible way that you could convince me that anyone else used that kind of criteria in a job search! What possible justification other than purely ideological could you have for taking such a stand? While you might have used that as *your* criteria given your seemingly blind hatred for unions, I seriously doubt that anyone else you work with has the same rabid ideological bent.

Also none of the former UPS workers at our station were fired from their positions,

Wayne, this is a statement you cannot possibly know to be true. You are simply repeating what others have told you, and people have a tendency to tell only that which they want others to hear, especially where reasons for leaving jobs are concerned. On the other hand, as I stated earlier, in all my years actually working at UPS, I never heard of any hourly employee resigning nor did I ever process such a resignation during my 18 month stint in personnel.

it was more a want to escape the life led by most people south and west of here, a want to relocate to someplace where they felt like they controlled their destiny rather than the led by the nose mentality that permeates life in the big cities,

What big cities have you lived in where you polled the populace as to the demographics of rugged individualism versus outside intervention? Perhaps you ought to tune into Chicago's talk radio shows. You'd be surprised to learn that there are an awful lot of people who want as little control over their lives as possible here too. Survival in the placid countryside of New Hampshire would likely be a walk in the park for those of us who must use our wits to survive in the concrete jungles of major urban centers. It might interest you to know that I vacation each year in Erving, Massachusetts and have ventured up into your fair state many times. You'll forgive me if I say that the pace of life in rural New England is downright comatose compared to Chicago. Who knows, maybe I could be happy at FedEx where you are. After all, how competitive can it be at a station where 7s on reviews are routinely handed out. I doubt that anyone at GYY has received a 7 on a review in the past half a decade....

you see up here we do for ourselves and ask nothing of local or state or federal government except to stay out of our lives.

Yeah, yeah... Live free or die and all that bravado. That might look nice on the tourism brochures, but the fact is that the entire New England area with the exception of New York state has either near zero population growth or are actually steadily losing population according to census statistics. I know, because I actually once looked up such statistics reasoning that I'd someday like to retire to the least congested part of the country. If I'm not mistaken in my memory, New Hampshire was one of the few states that had a negative growth rate.

This kind of thinking is what enables unions to still barely hang on ( that mentality of always having some do for you ) to their membership.

What does a union "do" for an employee aside from acting as a bargaining agent and acting as an advocate for you in matters of discipline? Like I said in my last letter, if having a bargaining agent is okay for the very rich, why is it so evil for the working stiff? And if an executive can afford high-powered attorneys to represent their best interests, why begrudge the working stiff of a lousy union steward acting as his or her advocate. I simply don't understand your blanket condemnation of any protection for the little guy and your blind dedication to placing all power in the hands of the corporations.

It is a fact Kevin that union membership nationwide is in a steep decline, more and more people are waking up to the fact that hard work not unions are what enables people to get ahead and prosper.

That's not at all the dynamic behind the decline in unions. Simple common sense would tell you that unions have declined because many of the roles they once played in the workplace were replaced by governmental agencies such as the FEPC, OSHA etc. Also, in an ironic sort of way, unions contributed to their own decline because they were so immensely successful in virtually eliminating things like mandatory overtime, child labor, sweat shops and other corporate practices that were once commonplace, from the American corporate experience. The need for unions diminished for several decades but that's changing. Competition with third world nations paying coolie wages coupled with an ever increasing use of technology to control human beings rather than simply enhance customer service are gradually bringing the need for unions back into the consciences of American workers. Witness the nearly 2 to 1 support in favor of the union in virtually every public opinion poll conducted during the UPS strike.

It's more than a little curious that a fellow like you, who professes so great a love of individualism can see no wrong in being reduced to a mere statistic sheet by corporate management. You also express disdain for people allowing themselves to be "led around by the nose" yet you have no objection to management using technology to graph and plot our every move. Control is fine where you are concerned so long as all the control lies in the hands of the almighty corporation and the gods of profit are fed to the point of gluttony.

Lastly I know that I will not convince you to change your opinions any more than you will change mine but I haven't had the luxury of a guaranteed paycheck every week as it seems you have enjoyed for at least the ten years at FEDEX so my drive to excel will remain regardless of how many years I put in.

I've never had a guaranteed paycheck in my entire life. FedEx has given me nothing I haven't earned by the sweat of my brow and it is painfully evident to the thousands of workers who are routinely terminated by FedEx each year that there's absolutely no guarantees at FedEx, including "fair treatment!"

As for what you will be feeling after another 5 years at FedEx, unless you have a working crystal ball, I wouldn't be too quick to speak so glibly about what will be. It's easy to exhort those who have been thrown from the saddle to get back on and ride again but when you, yourself acquire some bruises on your backside, you might find that dusting yourself off and remounting that steed was indeed easier said than done.

Its funny you further helped prove my assumption early on that the longer a person has been with FEDEX the more out of touch will the real world a person becomes.

It's even funnier that you'd view the acquisition of more experience as becoming "more out of touch with the real world." The only reason you view my greater experience as being a cause for being "out of touch" is simply because my real experience runs counter to your ethereal ideology. Can't you see that?

We have two couriers at out station with over twenty years in the company, they are the worst employees in the station and I have tangled with them on several occasions cause you see right is right and wrong is wrong and I wont be intimidated or overpowered by some one that lacks the basic work ethic to get by on their own ability.

For someone who is 42 years old Wayne, you come off sounding like a twenty-something kid with waaay too much testosterone for your own good. You want to bait UPS strikers and throw out your chest at FedEx veterans who you undoubtedly spoiled for a confrontation with. You're a real tough guy Wayne, but the question that begs asking is what are you trying to prove and to whom are you trying to prove it to? Too bad you were too young for Nam. Maybe the experience would have mellowed you out a bit....

Good for you that your customers gush about your abilities, what do they say about the UPS drivers? Most companies up here would switch in a heartbeat to FEDEX exclusively if not for the cost, they don't like the brusk treatment that is a necessity for the UPS drivers to maintain numbers.

Again, you speak of "numbers" applied to UPS drivers that simply do not exist. There's absolutely no such thing as stops-per-hour, POD compliance, VAN compliance or any other numbers which are used by UPS management to measure their employees by or discipline them over! That's fact! As for brusk treatment of customers, I don't know how UPS drivers out your way could get away with that because when I worked for UPS, we were always told to cater to our customers as much as possible. Maybe you just have a jerk delivering for UPS in your area but I've got to believe that if he or she is treating customers rudely, they could complain and get the situation corrected. Of course, there is some truth that you get what you pay for. Sounds as though maybe the UPS customers you talked to want Cadillac service at Chevy prices...

you have given me a great idea for another web page dedicated to exposing the myths that you promote from your site, this may be great fun,

Go for it! It's a big web out there...

I wonder if FRED might help, hmmmm

Gee Wayne, that doesn't sound like rugged individualism to me! I get no help from the unions on my site...

"Speaking of BPP, I've heard many people remark that Fred will owe us something once this strike is over. Talk of bonuses, maybe another raise and most certainly, fat profit sharing checks is becoming commonplace. Well, in my humble opinion, I wouldn't advise getting your hopes up for anything beyond perhaps a little larger profit sharing check. Squeezing money out of Fred takes union pressure."

hmmmmm.....Today is payday. I sure do love my check. And the four checks before this one. How about yours?

A little Union pressure sure did the job...Thanks But let me guess...you are gonna come up with some catchy phrase that Fred did this just to show up all those pro-union people at FedEx. Well, if he did... Way to go Fred. Show me the money

heheheheh

Bryan Cruse
Equipment Operator
EWR Outbound team at Memphis

Believe it or not Bryan, I'm happier than even you are that I was wrong in my assessment of the results the Teamster's victory would have on the lives of us FedExers. I am also pleased that you acknowledge the role that "a little Union pressure" played in those slightly bigger paychecks and that bonus you've expressed your love for. Now just imagine what actually having a union representing us would do for those paychecks.... Still laughing?

The union makes a lot of empty promises. Trust me, I know, I was a member of the Teamsters for 3 years until I realized they were stealing money from my check. Union dues are now 19.00 a month, they only truly represent the problem employees.

Really? So I guess that only the problem employees received raises and union-level wages wherever it was that you worked as a Teamster? Wake up partner! Compare the union dues you had to pay to the pay scales of your non-union direct competitor's and even you should be able to figure out that an investment in union dues pays a worker back with a thousandfold dividend! Teamster union dues are two times your hourly wage per month. Let's say that you only get a buck more an hour (I'm being really facetious here...) than your non-union competitors get. That means that you get 40 bucks more a week or at least 160 bucks more a month than your non-union peers. You'd have to be a blithering idiot not to believe that trading a lousy $19 a month for a $160 return on that investment isn't a GREAT deal! UPS package car drivers make well over $3 an hour more than top-of-scale FedEx couriers. That means that they pay about $40 a month in dues. In return, they make at least $480 more a month than we do! UPS package car drivers should gift wrap their dues for that kind of return on their dues investments.....

If you are a hard working employee who doesn't stir up trouble or set out to cause problems, they could care less whether or not you receive representation. Don't believe me? I was a hard working union employee, when it came time for the last strike, did they call or inform me of what was going on? NOT ON YOUR LIFE.

That's pure nonsense! Long before any union engages in a work action, members are appraised of the situation months, and in some cases, more than a year in advance via union newsletters sent to the membership and union meetings. I'd wager every nickel I have that you never once got up off your butt to attend a single union meeting in your three years as a Teamster and that you filed any union mailing you got in the trash without even glancing at it! I'd also venture to make the same wager about every UPS scab and whiner heard from during the UPS strike. They were caught off guard because they buried their heads in the sand and were forced to scab and/or whine because they hadn't prepared financially for the strike despite the union having told them of the possibility over the year preceding the strike.

Where do the union dues go? Not into the strike fund! Even if it did go there, they use it for their own purposes... to line their pockets! If they didn't, then why are they considering a loan to supposedly pay strikers at ups? (that info is per CNN, www.cnn.com) I NEVER WAS PAID A DIME FOR THE LAST STRIKE! They seriously believe $55.00 a week is going to put food on a table if you have a family, a house payment or rent and a car payment? give me a break.

Just how far do you expect union dues to go? A union worker pays a tiny fraction of his or her wages in dues and you expect the union to be able to support them with normal paychecks during a strike?? Where did you learn math? In one paragraph you whine about paying $228 annually in union dues and in the next paragraph you whine that the union isn't paying strike pay checks that can support your family! Where do you suggest the union get that kind of money? Unions don't manufacture a product and they don't make a profit. What little that is left from your dues after administrative costs is hardly sufficient to create a strike fund capable of paying members their normal paychecks in the event of a strike. If you were paying $19 a month in dues, then that means that you were making $9.50 an hour wherever you claim it was that you worked as a Teamster. That means that for a 40 hour work week you grossed $380. If the total amount you paid annually in dues was $228, what you are in essence saying is that you expect the union to pay you weekly strike pay checks equal to $152 more per week than you paid them in an entire year in dues!!!! You ask me to give you a break? Seems you've already taken a considerable break... from reality!

Don't give in and unionize. It honestly is NOT worth it. There are legal recourses which are a lot more effective than any union. No, you don't have to tolerate harassment in any form, but there are laws to protect you that weren't around when the unions started. Unions may have been a good idea many years ago, but not now. Trust me. I know!

With all due respect sir, you have clearly demonstrated that you know little, if anything, about unions, basic mathematics and now, labor law! True, there are some laws which "at will" employees are protected by, but they mainly deal with issues such as injuries, disabilities, worker safety, racial or sexual discrimination and sexual harassment. And while there are laws on the books that protect workers in their organizing activities, the brutal fact is that if you aren't in a position to secure the services of competent legal representation and aren't prepared to wait years and years for your case to finally be heard by our backlogged court system, you are essentially at the total mercy of your employer's whims. In the real world, the only genuine protection any worker in America has today is that provided by a union!

#1
SON YOU NEED TO WAKE UP AND SEE THAT THESE STUPID UNION ASSHOLES ARE TRYING TO BRAINWASH YOU INTO TAKING YOUR UNION DUES THEY DONT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOU THEY WANT YOUR MONEY,I,M SYMPATHETIC THAT YOU ARE SO STUPID TO TRY AND RUIN A GOOD COMPANY LIKE FEDEX,YES I,VE WORKED HERE OVER 13 YRS IT,S NOT PERFECT BUT IT,S A HELL OF A LOT BETTER THAN ANY UNION PLACE WOULD BE,I,VE GOT MY FACTS ABOUT THE CO. SO DONT THINK YOU CAN SNOWBALL PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHATS GOING ON,OH UPS DELS UP TO 150 LBS IN CASE YOU DIDNT KNOW AND I,M SURE YOU WASTED YOUR TIME ON AUGUST UPDATE BEFORE FRED THE MAN ANNOUNCED THE $20,000,000 BONUS,YOU ARE ONE OF THE FEW,THE PROUD AND THE STUPID!!!!

#2
your friend sucks, if you cant pass jkt you should not be on the road or in any customer contact job anyway! the test is no that hard.
can you inform me of your past test scores.

i think that maybe your station has a major problem and that your station needs to get with the mgr. sr. mgr. and the dd. and look at the problems at hand!

some insite:

our station has won bpp 7 times since jan.
our mgr just won five star
no accidents in 8 months
no injuries in 5 months
nobody fired for 8 months (cause *dumb ass*)

take a look at your station and how dumb your friends are!

#3
how long have you been with fedex? if it is so bad why are you still there? can you find a job for the same or better pay? how much do you friends pay for insurance for thier familys? do they get flight dicounts?

i agree that ups is making alot more money than we do but we make more than airborne-dhl-emery. so thats how the ball bounces. so get your head out of your ass and join the crew that has some purple blood left! psp, go with it! or get out! pls get out!