FedEx Freight | The Union Debate Thread

[Crazy Trucker]

That is completely untrue, out of the 50+, the only ones that had "union activity" and got a bump were LOU, CIN, (lost votes) NAS, POS, (petitions pulled) and CGT (pending). No "thank you bump" for the company wins in SNW, NEW, PKB, CRW, CKB, NHS. Less then 10% of the centers that had their scale adjusted had any onion dealings the rest were crickets

But interesting to see that neither STK, EPH, SBR nor CLT got a bump. I guess that will be part of any future negotiations, good luck with that one ;-)

You must not be in the loop I can name 4 more terminals that had union activity but im not going to let the cat out of the bag they are probably still trying. We didn't get a list of the ones that got the bump so im sure there is more thsn 4. You live in a dream world they bumped the 56 up for a reason. This company is not going to just give gdp raises out of the goodness of their hearts.

 

[hohumm]

You must not be in the loop I can name 4 more terminals that had union activity but im not going to let the cat out of the bag they are probably still trying. We didn't get a list of the ones that got the bump so im sure there is more thsn 4. You live in a dream world they bumped the 56 up for a reason. This company is not going to just give gdp raises out of the goodness of their hearts.

Ahm yes, the Company did bump the 56 for a reason - Because the data showed that the cost of living in those areas (not just the center ZIP but where people actually live) justified to get them to a higher scale. In my humble opinion this is a great thing and although I personally did not benefit, about 10,000 of my coworkers did and that makes me happy. And this was not a one time thing, this will be ongoing and maybe next time around you or me get lucky ...

Care to comment on the Teamster barns that will have to hope and pray they'll eventually get something in negotiations? Like I said, good luck with that ...

 

[Crazy Trucker]

Ahm yes, the Company did bump the 56 for a reason - Because the data showed that the cost of living in those areas (not just the center ZIP but where people actually live) justified to get them to a higher scale. In my humble opinion this is a great thing and although I personally did not benefit, about 10,000 of my coworkers did and that makes me happy. And this was not a one time thing, this will be ongoing and maybe next time around you or me get lucky ...

Care to comment on the Teamster barns that will have to hope and pray they'll eventually get something in negotiations? Like I said, good luck with that ...

And you conveniently left out the fact about the company blatantly lying to the terminals who voted no and got nothing. Don't worry about the one's who voted it in there will be plenty more after this. Even the no voters at my terminal lost all trust in company because they lied guess who didn't lie the teamsters.

 

[slavenomore]

You surely know that the market is totally meddled with in every possible way.........and meddling is the only way to capitalize....the top 1% control the whole damned thing in one way or another....Its their think tanks who have you dreaming of a freemarket utopia...and telll the workers not to meddle......while they ffix the whole thing for themselves.

Time will tell and you may be right. I agree with you to a large extent. It's a matter of not believing that collective bargaining agreements are the "market" at work. It's meddling to me. Not much different than price fixing or government regulations manipulating the market.

 

[slavenomore]

The market wants the dollar store Ex. Are you ready to sacrifice to give it what it wants.....China's doing pretty good with the market......Communism wins.
Is that what we should do to please the market?
The more we follow your teachers, the closer we get to communism or socialism.

 

[slavenomore]

Did ya ever think that the decline in union numbers had everything to do with why employees no longer had insurance as a benefit? Obamacare is the result of employers meddling in the market snd preaching everything the unionbusting employers have for far too many years........the market decided that uniins must go and along with it employer paid health insurance.....the market prefers socialism?

Your teachers wanted Obamacare. As long as they can get out of the taxes theyd probably prefer totally tax funded govt healthcare imo. They'd really love it if they owned huge shares of the healthcare company that the tax dollars went too.

1. Medicare.

2. I never said that UPS insurance wasn't better. I said the UPS Teamcare sucks due to its' $200K maximum annual benefit.

3. My insurance plan pretty much sucks worse. Thanks to government meddling and Obama. It currently cost me about $700/mo., my plans' current deductible is $10K/year, my max annual out of pocket is $12,500. No maximum benefit amount. In other words, I am guaranteed to pay about $8400/year if we never step foot in a doctors' office. If we do, we are paying up to $18,400 before my insurance plan pays a single penny. The most I will ever pay for covered services is $20,900/year. If the :::: hits the fan we will be fine, financially.

4. This isn't about my insurance plan, it is giving some perspective as to how good (relatively speaking) the FedEx plan is. If you think the UPS Teamcare for retirees is going to protect everyone from BK no matter what happens you are mistaken.

5. Before you decide what you think I said, perhaps you should go find somebody with a 3rd grade reading comprehension level to read my posts. They can then explain it to you using words that you can understand.

 

[Hoot Owl]

Ahm yes, the Company did bump the 56 for a reason - Because the data showed that the cost of living in those areas (not just the center ZIP but where people actually live) justified to get them to a higher scale. In my humble opinion this is a great thing and although I personally did not benefit, about 10,000 of my coworkers did and that makes me happy. And this was not a one time thing, this will be ongoing and maybe next time around you or me get lucky ...

Care to comment on the Teamster barns that will have to hope and pray they'll eventually get something in negotiations? Like I said, good luck with that ...

Do you honestly believe the company would have bumped those terminals up if there had been NO union activity and this campaign had never started in the first place? I say there is no way in hell they would have given ANYONE a raise. But rest assured, come this fall they will get that money back when they jack our medical costs up another notch just like D Brown said they would!

 

[slavenomore]

Police and Firefighters, yes.
Police and Firefighters Unions. No.

Public servants.
Servants to narrow down to what they really like.

One of the rights biggest stageshows right now is their favorite servants of the Koch Brothers, Governors Walker and Haley's attacks on unions.
Governor Walker is not exactlly for Police and Firefighters Unions as he shreds collective bargaining for government workers.

Police keep the rich safe.
Firefighters protect their investments and keep their moneymakers making money.
I think they don't really care about their unions.

 

[slavenomore]

Police and Firefighters, yes.
Police and Firefighters Unions. No.

Public servants.
Servants to narrow down to what they really like.

One of the rights biggest stageshows right now is their favorite servants of the Koch Brothers, Governors Walker and Haley's attacks on unions.
Governor Walker is not exactlly for Police and Firefighters Unions as he shreds collective bargaining for government workers.

Police keep the rich safe.
Firefighters protect their investments and keep their moneymakers making money.
I think they don't really care about their unions.

Really....who's foolish enough to go on record as not supporting those in public service?

Really....who's foolish enough to go on record as not supporting those in public service?

They don't care.
It's all about money.
See they get protection and safety for the wealthy from firefighters and police. But we all foot the bill with taxes.
Before free trade was prominent we were king. Teachers were valuable.
Now, not so much.
They got returns on our joint tax bill.
Labor and countries they flee too is much more profitable to them. The teachers aren't gonna profit them anymore and they know it. As long as they keep free trade going with countries who don't charge taxes for free education for them to profit or don't require humane treatment or paying livable wages....education is a losing investment. So therefore collective bargaining must go for public servants.

 

[SwampRatt]

Ahm yes, the Company did bump the 56 for a reason - Because the data showed that the cost of living in those areas (not just the center ZIP but where people actually live) justified to get them to a higher scale. In my humble opinion this is a great thing and although I personally did not benefit, about 10,000 of my coworkers did and that makes me happy. And this was not a one time thing, this will be ongoing and maybe next time around you or me get lucky ...

Care to comment on the Teamster barns that will have to hope and pray they'll eventually get something in negotiations? Like I said, good luck with that ...

Hohum, we love ya brother... and agree that the bump for the 56 IS A WIN. Certainly those locations that are being adjusted, deserve to be. But... I am going to have to prove you (and our company) wrong from every possible metric, as far as who they say is not a candidate for an adjustment.

While I don't have the time right now to finish digging into the facts, we can touch lightly on a couple things. Some locations are already at a competitive level, so no adjustment was needed. That is true. Also true is the fact that many overlooked locations have higher costs of living AND higher mean average wages than those who were adjusted. I'll prove this shortly...

Here's a little teaser for now:Greensboro, Hickory, (got the adjustment) BOTH have SIGNIFICANTLY lower mean hourly wages for truck drivers (competitors) than CUB & GSP (who did not qualify). In fact the whole state of S.Carolina has higher. Also, every center in SouthCarolina has higher mean hourly wages for drivers than Charlotte, who is/has been at a higher scale (differential) for quite some time.

Yeah, I know, you'll want proof. Stay tuned...

Questions: Where did you get this 10,000 co-workers figure? Who told you this was not a one time thing? They only do these things every 5 years or so. And they use a 3rd party, who has been failing them in the area of accuracy for years.

 

[Crazy Trucker]

Should have a vote date soon for CGT Fed Ex lost their appeal to include dock. http://links.govdelivery.com/track?....nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d4581bc1e58

 

[hohumm]

Hohum, we love ya brother... and agree that the bump for the 56 IS A WIN. Certainly those locations that are being adjusted, deserve to be. But... I am going to have to prove you (and our company) wrong from every possible metric, as far as who they say is not a candidate for an adjustment.

While I don't have the time right now to finish digging into the facts, we can touch lightly on a couple things. Some locations are already at a competitive level, so no adjustment was needed. That is true. Also true is the fact that many overlooked locations have higher costs of living AND higher mean average wages than those who were adjusted. I'll prove this shortly...

Here's a little teaser for now:Greensboro, Hickory, (got the adjustment) BOTH have SIGNIFICANTLY lower mean hourly wages for truck drivers (competitors) than CUB & GSP (who did not qualify). In fact the whole state of S.Carolina has higher. Also, every center in SouthCarolina has higher mean hourly wages for drivers than Charlotte, who is/has been at a higher scale (differential) for quite some time.

Yeah, I know, you'll want proof. Stay tuned...

Questions: Where did you get this 10,000 co-workers figure? Who told you this was not a one time thing? They only do these things every 5 years or so. And they use a 3rd party, who has been failing them in the area of accuracy for years.

Swamp - Love ya too, even if we completely disagree on the onion issue. You seem to be the one lone voice of reason left on the pro side, and I always respect people who don't just blindly bash but try to gather the facts, are able to admit (even incremental) improvements, and generally ask questions instead of pretending to have all the answers. That said, to your comments / questions:

The 10,000 co-worker figure comes straight from HR. I asked (people need to try that more, it really works). While it was "only" 56 centers that got the bump, there were some very big barns / markets included: All of Chicagoland (and not just CGT because they filed), Indy, St Louis, KC, Memphis, Pocono Summit, Dayton, Columbus, Cleveland, etc.

The "not a one time thing" comes directly from the FAQ that is posted at my center and the pre-shift that we had. Something along the lines of "due to our new process we changed from a once a year GPD review to monitoring and adjusting on a continuous basis". We also changed the way we look at wages and cost of living. In the past it was just based on the ZIP where the center is located, going forward we will look at the entire market and take into account where people actually live. That should fix some of the most ridiculous mistakes of the past where centers that were 15 miles apart were on different scales.

Are things now completely fair and equitable after the changes from last week? Far from it, and I have my doubts that we will ever have a perfect system but I think it was a huge step into the right direction and the changes in the process make me optimistic that we are on a better track now.

One last thing, I think many people don't realize that this GPD adjustment is not some type of bonus or annual increase. Everyone will still get the annual bonus in the summer and the pay raise in October. Well, I am not totally sure about the 4 centers that voted for Teamster representation, it could be that those things would be part of some type of future negotiations when and if it comes to those ...

 

[The Point]

I also am a voice of reason on the pro side and would like to gather some facts on this issue. Since we all don't get the same pre-shift information did that FAQ list how the company gets this new geographical information? Is it a outside company or internal? We were not privy to the GPD bump but live in a major market area.

 

[hohumm]

I also am a voice of reason on the pro side and would like to gather some facts on this issue. Since we all don't get the same pre-shift information did that FAQ list how the company gets this new geographical information? Is it a outside company or internal? We were not privy to the GPD bump but live in a major market area.

Sorry man, didn't mean to leave you out of the hug fest ... 3rd party pulls cost of living and cost of wages data and hands it over to FXF. FXF reviews, compares and interprets the data, throws in their own numbers(turnover, ease of recruitment, etc.) and makes the call what the GPD should be. Not an exact science but close ...

On the pre-shift / FAQ issue, why don't you ask your SCM tomorrow about it? I personally think we have a lot of opportunities in the area of communication, some centers do it very well, others not so much. And lastly, what is your market and your current GPD?

 

[Crazy Trucker]

Sorry man, didn't mean to leave you out of the hug fest ... 3rd party pulls cost of living and cost of wages data and hands it over to FXF. FXF reviews, compares and interprets the data, throws in their own numbers(turnover, ease of recruitment, etc.) and makes the call what the GPD should be. Not an exact science but close ...

On the pre-shift / FAQ issue, why don't you ask your SCM tomorrow about it? I personally think we have a lot of opportunities in the area of communication, some centers do it very well, others not so much. And lastly, what is your market and your current GPD?

Yep you sure know alot to be a driver we got none of the info you have presented. I am not a voice of reason I see things for what they are and you can't tell me there wasn't a strategic plan on who got theses gdp raises. As swamp stated some of the places who got It were not in an area where the cost of living had increased although im happy for my fellow co workers this deal was a big mistake on the company's part. In our meetings they said this was going to be addressed across the board again they flat out lied to every terminal in this state.

 

[Redracer3136]

Also, every center in SouthCarolina has higher mean hourly wages for drivers than Charlotte, who is/has been at a higher scale (differential) for quite some time.

CLT got the GPD bump the last go round, for years we were at the same lower wage scale as those around us...I wouldn't necessarily define it as "quite some time", it's only been a couple of years.

 

[hohumm]

Yep you sure know alot to be a driver we got none of the info you have presented. I am not a voice of reason I see things for what they are and you can't tell me there wasn't a strategic plan on who got theses gdp raises. As swamp stated some of the places who got It were not in an area where the cost of living had increased although im happy for my fellow co workers this deal was a big mistake on the company's part. In our meetings they said this was going to be addressed across the board again they flat out lied to every terminal in this state.

OK dude, hang in there for a second. Are you telling us that someone came to your center and said that everybody's GPD gets bumped? Free lunches and back massages for everyone too? Or was the message that we realized there were some inequities in the current system and we'll address those? And I think FedEx started to do exactly that with this week's announcement. 26% of employees going to a higher scale is nothing to sneeze at in my book.

If I am not totally mistaken you are at a WV center, right? You do realize that you live in the 5th cheapest state in the country according to the little CNBC blurb below, do you? So please do explain to me why you should not be in the lowest tier of the pay differentials. Who should be below you? Jersey? California? Massachusetts?

You are either completely delusional and misinformed or (more likely) just in it for your own pocketbook ...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101716172/page/7

 

[Redracer3136]

Yep you sure know alot to be a driver we got none of the info you have presented. I am not a voice of reason I see things for what they are and you can't tell me there wasn't a strategic plan on who got theses gdp raises. As swamp stated some of the places who got It were not in an area where the cost of living had increased although im happy for my fellow co workers this deal was a big mistake on the company's part. In our meetings they said this was going to be addressed across the board again they flat out lied to every terminal in this state.

Please explain how you were lied to?
The issue WAS addressed across the board and the company decided to adjust 56 centers.
Are you claiming that the company told you that you were going to get the bump or are you just assuming that you were because your center voted no?

 

[johndeere4020]

OK dude, hang in there for a second. Are you telling us that someone came to your center and said that everybody's GPD gets bumped? Free lunches and back massages for everyone too? Or was the message that we realized there were some inequities in the current system and we'll address those? And I think FedEx started to do exactly that with this week's announcement. 26% of employees going to a higher scale is nothing to sneeze at in my book.

If I am not totally mistaken you are at a WV center, right? You do realize that you live in the 5th cheapest state in the country according to the little CNBC blurb below, do you? So please do explain to me why you should not be in the lowest tier of the pay differentials. Who should be below you? Jersey? California? Massachusetts?

You are either completely delusional and misinformed or (more likely) just in it for your own pocketbook ...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101716172/page/7

Dude you seem like a reasonable guy, take it from me you are wasting your time talking to him. He only hears what he wants to hear, he is incapable of having a rational argument, and he is partly delusional. At some point he will get mad at you, throw a little fit then put you on ignore (and make a big deal about ignoring you) it isn't worth it!!

 

[johndeere4020]

CLT got the GPD bump the last go round, for years we were at the same lower wage scale as those around us...I wouldn't necessarily define it as "quite some time", it's only been a couple of years.

Whoa whoa whoa, you mean to say at some point Fedex adjusted the pay scale without the threat of the union I'm not buying it!!!