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FedEx Freight | The Union Debate Thread

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yrc-atm said:
Customers dont take sides.
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Oh, they most certainly, absolutely do. Ask any traffic manager that was screwed during the last major Teamster strike. Ask one who was screwed when one of the major LTL union carriers suddenly went under. Ask one whose own company unsuccessfully tried to unionize. They take sides. I hate the Teamsters, I won't ship with them whenever I have the choice. I am not alone. During the last grocery clerks' strike I changed grocery stores to go to the one that was on strike just because I wanted to support the company. Free enterprise and capitalism.
 
EX396 said:
Oh, they most certainly, absolutely do. Ask any traffic manager that was screwed during the last major Teamster strike. Ask one who was screwed when one of the major LTL union carriers suddenly went under. Ask one whose own company unsuccessfully tried to unionize. They take sides. I hate the Teamsters, I won't ship with them whenever I have the choice. I am not alone. During the last grocery clerks' strike I changed grocery stores to go to the one that was on strike just because I wanted to support the company. Free enterprise and capitalism.
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We arent talking about a strike. Racer was using a union busting 101 scare tactic. "Organize and the customers will leave" Its the same fear tactic that fedex salesmen, who I believe racer is, use at contract time. The last major strike was over 20 years ago. Customers dont fall for that bs anymore and they dont care whether or not the driver picking up is a teamster or not. They want price and service.
 
yrc-atm said:
We arent talking about a strike. Racer was using a union busting 101 scare tactic. "Organize and the customers will leave" Its the same fear tactic that fedex salesmen, who I believe racer is, use at contract time. The last major strike was over 20 years ago. Customers dont fall for that bs anymore and they dont care whether or not the driver picking up is a teamster or not. They want price and service.
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Again, you misinterpreted my statement...you've drank so much of the union Kool-aid that you know can't comprehend.
Go back and re-read my post, where did I say or imply "organize and the customer will leave"?
 
yrc-atm said:
We arent talking about a strike. Racer was using a union busting 101 scare tactic. "Organize and the customers will leave" Its the same fear tactic that fedex salesmen, who I believe racer is, use at contract time. The last major strike was over 20 years ago. Customers dont fall for that bs anymore and they dont care whether or not the driver picking up is a teamster or not. They want price and service.
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Ok so if you say no strike then how do you leverage the employer in a tough negotiation? I'm asking because this is exactly what Swamprat and I have been talking about today. You guys claim there will be no strike (I'm not saying you should) but it is your most powerful leveraging tool.
 
Redracer3136 said:
No painted corner, I refuse to let you take me there.
I post common sense theories along with facts.
You post personal attacks because that's all you have.
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Never fails with you office boys, if it isn't what you want to hear it's an attack!! Always used to getting your way, that's what your so afraid of, not being able to bully your work force anymore. That scares the hell out of you! Take that edge away and you aren't crap.
 
Redracer3136 said:
my guess is that the numbers in these areas would dip but not to the point to where the company wouldn't still be profitable...a small price to pay to keep a cancer out of your organization...especially in the eyes of the stockholders AND the customers.....seeing as how stockholders shy away from investing in union companies and 93% of customers are non-union as well and share the same sentiment.
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You even emphasized "AND customers"
 
johndeere4020 said:
Ok so if you say no strike then how do you leverage the employer in a tough negotiation? I'm asking because this is exactly what Swamprat and I have been talking about today. You guys claim there will be no strike (I'm not saying you should) but it is your most powerful leveraging tool.
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It is the most powerful leveraging tool. But in the case of negotiating one terminal at a time it is useless. I dont negotiate contracts and am just as curious as to how this is going to play out.
 
EX396 said:
Oh, they most certainly, absolutely do. Ask any traffic manager that was screwed during the last major Teamster strike. Ask one who was screwed when one of the major LTL union carriers suddenly went under. Ask one whose own company unsuccessfully tried to unionize. They take sides. I hate the Teamsters, I won't ship with them whenever I have the choice. I am not alone. During the last grocery clerks' strike I changed grocery stores to go to the one that was on strike just because I wanted to support the company. Free enterprise and capitalism.
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No one really cares about what grocery store you shop at, and only a handful really cares about anything you have to say!! It's pretty obvious your so into your self that even you believe half that crap you preach.....
 
Redracer3136 said:
My guess is these replacement drivers would come from the stack of applications that are accumulated every time a job posting goes out. I would also guess that the requirements that FedEx uses when evaluating such applicants would probably be eased in order to find such replacements...not that hard to imagine.
Corporate *******, no...my guess is that the numbers in these areas would dip but not to the point to where the company wouldn't still be profitable...a small price to pay to keep a cancer out of your organization...especially in the eyes of the stockholders AND the customers.....seeing as how stockholders shy away from investing in union companies and 93% of customers are non-union as well and share the same sentiment.
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But Red, everyone loves UPS. Investors,and especially CUSTOMERS use their services, quite willingly. They do have that "cancer" you speak of. :cool:
 
johndeere4020 said:
To some extent I agree with you, and I've lost track of who said what. However on several occasions on this board people have said that "union busters" have brought up strikes as a possibility, and many on here said that won't happen thats the only big stick you have. The problem with your current situation is lack of numbers, which I think you realize. With so few on board it would be easy to replace terminals manpower in the event of a strike. And you can read into it what you want , but I say you are not going to get the numbers. I'm not rooting against you I just call it the way I see it.
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At this stage, I think you'd be absolutely right. The strength is not there... Yet.

I think the flaw in the Union busters scenario, involving a solely economic strike (which would allow the Company to "simply" replace striking workers), is in the fact that it would far from "simple" to replace 20,000+ striking CDL workers, and train them quickly. Finding qualified CDL drivers has been a challenge for all Companies, including FedEx, even on a relatively small scale.

I'm one who doesn't think a strike would happen, but I think it would be unwise to show your hand, as many have, stating they couldn't go weeks without a paycheck.
 
SwampRatt said:
But Red, everyone loves UPS. Investors,and especially CUSTOMERS use their services, quite willingly. They do have that "cancer" you speak of. :cool:
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And that's your side's answer for everything....UPS.
UPS has been around for decades, they've spent years and billions buying their way out of contracts in order to get to where they are. FedEx has accomplished the same feat within a fraction of the time and money without the help of the union. Imagine how much bigger UPS would've been without the union...hell, FedEx might not have ever existed, who knows.
IMO, the union will just drag us down to the levels of YRC and ABF, not pump us up to the level of UPS.
FedEx will not join the ranks and have anything close to what UPS has...if that's what you believe, I'll have some of what you're smoking!
 
Redracer3136 said:
Maybe you should explain that to the many union employees whose companies have went out of business since deregulation.
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But Red, what will we say to the non-Union companies that went out of business. I know you'll want examples, so here ya go: Piedmont, Milan, Vitran, Caldwell Frt lines, just to name few that you might be familiar with.

Edit: Oh, NewYork Carolina Express (NYCE) too.
 
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SwampRatt said:
At this stage, I think you'd be absolutely right. The strength is not there... Yet.

I think the flaw in the Union busters scenario, involving a solely economic strike (which would allow the Company to "simply" replace striking workers), is in the fact that it would far from "simple" to replace 20,000+ striking CDL workers, and train them quickly. Finding qualified CDL drivers has been a challenge for all Companies, including FedEx, even on a relatively small scale.

I'm one who doesn't think a strike would happen, but I think it would be unwise to show your hand, as many have, stating they couldn't go weeks without a paycheck.
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Currently, with the 3 centers that have voted yes, they'd have less than a 100 drivers striking total....not to hard to replace.
 
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