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XPO | Xpo Union Thread.

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Hollywoodz said:
Without the Teamsters, they would have gotten nothing. Any union can only get what the company has to give and maybe a little bit more. Years of mismanagement brought YRC to where it is today and hopefully, 5 years from now, their drivers will get better results. Even though it's not a great comfort on payday you have to remember that their total compensation package is still better than ours.
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Assuming that's true regarding compensation, I think it comes at a heavy price. Now I'm not going to candy coat the problems we have with the culture at some of our terminals because it's not all roses everywhere at XPO, but the YRC guys, I believe are generally unhappy. I talk to some of them out on the street and it seems that most of them have been brought to a point to where they just don't give a crap. Speaking only for myself, I like where I work. I don't think the same can be said for most of the YRC drivers.
 
joes bar and grill said:
A quick glance here shows that you have been continually taking in the backside. Go XPO!
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It's been my experience throughout my work life that some employees have a lower threshold for what they consider to be company BS than do others. I hear complaints at my place that I don't think are valid because some people just like to complain about anything under the sun. Others put their heads down and power through. Myself, I pick and choose carefully what hill I think is worth dying for and have found that when I have something to say, it carries weight because I complain so rarely that when I do, mngmt knows I'm not just complaining for the sake of complaining.
 
Hollywoodz said:
I believe that the tyrannical government to which you refer is in place right now in this country. Maybe tyrannical is too strong a word, but the Trump administration is certainly out of control. So, yes, I have to say I agree with you on this. It will be difficult for the majority to regain control, but I think it's a distinct possibility.

There is a book by Milton Friedman, "They Thought They Were Free" based on the events that created ಠ▄ಠ's (⊙▃⊙) Germany. The author interviewed 10 German citizens who experienced first hand the methods used to create the situation you described in your post.
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Have you read this book or anything else by Friedman? Honestly, judging from some of your past posts, I find it hard to believe you have and if you did, I find it hard that you still hold the positions you do relative to the role of federal government and society.
 
ScotchNeat said:
It's been my experience throughout my work life that some employees have a lower threshold for what they consider to be company BS than do others. I hear complaints at my place that I don't think are valid because some people just like to complain about anything under the sun. Others put their heads down and power through. Myself, I pick and choose carefully what hill I think is worth dying for and have found that when I have something to say, it carries weight because I complain so rarely that when I do, mngmt knows I'm not just complaining for the sake of complaining.
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Scotch , I have taken the path you describe of having thick skin , doing my job , and trying to complain when it counts ( instead of everytime my toe hurts ) and by the way , I like ( sometimes ) love my job. I generally have decent people around me.

All that to say , what do you do if none of the above works? You obviously have to do something different if the same thing isn't working? Right? ( I'm talking about getting problems addressed at work ) How much can you ignore? How many times can you keep your head down and just keep working?

For the record , I'm not pro or anti union. I'm pro drivers.
 
The changes to XPO LTL are being done on a massive scale. To do these changes upper management requires a certain type of person - a lemming. A gelding. A eunuch. People that will follow blindly an execute faithfully.

Courage is not what you do when everything is alright , courage is what you do when you are afraid and things are going wrong.

Personally , I wonder about the overall direction XPO has taken but I don't have an answer. One idea though is to groom and hire people that know what they are doing for management an once you hire them , give them the ability to not follow blindly chasing numbers or some corporate plan.
 
icuicp said:
Scotch , I have taken the path you describe of having thick skin , doing my job , and trying to complain when it counts ( instead of everytime my toe hurts ) and by the way , I like ( sometimes ) love my job. I generally have decent people around me.

All that to say , what do you do if none of the above works? You obviously have to do something different if the same thing isn't working? Right? ( I'm talking about getting problems addressed at work ) How much can you ignore? How many times can you keep your head down and just keep working?

For the record , I'm not pro or anti union. I'm pro drivers.
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Well said. I liken it to salmon swimming upstream. Is it worth fighting every rock you run up against, or do you swim smarter and conserve your energy? You try and fight the daily bullshit, you will either drive yourself crazy or out the door.
 
ScotchNeat said:
Assuming that's true regarding compensation, I think it comes at a heavy price. Now I'm not going to candy coat the problems we have with the culture at some of our terminals because it's not all roses everywhere at XPO, but the YRC guys, I believe are generally unhappy. I talk to some of them out on the street and it seems that most of them have been brought to a point to where they just don't give a crap. Speaking only for myself, I like where I work. I don't think the same can be said for most of the YRC drivers.
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I agree.
 
ScotchNeat said:
Have you read this book or anything else by Friedman? Honestly, judging from some of your past posts, I find it hard to believe you have and if you did, I find it hard that you still hold the positions you do relative to the role of federal government and society.
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I have only read passages of the book and not in it's entirety. I heard it discussed recently on a radio talk show. It's on my list.
 
ScotchNeat said:
It's been my experience throughout my work life that some employees have a lower threshold for what they consider to be company BS than do others. I hear complaints at my place that I don't think are valid because some people just like to complain about anything under the sun. Others put their heads down and power through. Myself, I pick and choose carefully what hill I think is worth dying for and have found that when I have something to say, it carries weight because I complain so rarely that when I do, mngmt knows I'm not just complaining for the sake of complaining.
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My personal experience with this company is similar to yours, however, based on what I have read, even on pro company websites, there is a lot "worth dying for" for many XPO employees.
 
ScotchNeat said:
Have you read this book or anything else by Friedman? Honestly, judging from some of your past posts, I find it hard to believe you have and if you did, I find it hard that you still hold the positions you do relative to the role of federal government and society.
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What a brain fart! I was debating a friend of mine yesterday on Friedman vs. Keynes economic theories, and when I wrote the post, Milton Friedman came immediately to mind. Now, I understand your reply. Of course, I completely disagree with Friedmans's theories. The actual author of the book was Milton Mayer. My bad!
 
icuicp said:
Scotch , I have taken the path you describe of having thick skin , doing my job , and trying to complain when it counts ( instead of everytime my toe hurts ) and by the way , I like ( sometimes ) love my job. I generally have decent people around me.

All that to say , what do you do if none of the above works? You obviously have to do something different if the same thing isn't working? Right? ( I'm talking about getting problems addressed at work ) How much can you ignore? How many times can you keep your head down and just keep working?

For the record , I'm not pro or anti union. I'm pro drivers.
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I couldn’t agree more
 
upnorth said:
Well said. I liken it to salmon swimming upstream. Is it worth fighting every rock you run up against, or do you swim smarter and conserve your energy? You try and fight the daily :horseshit:, you will either drive yourself crazy or out the door.
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Very true
 
icuicp said:
The changes to XPO LTL are being done on a massive scale. To do these changes upper management requires a certain type of person - a lemming. A gelding. A eunuch. People that will follow blindly an execute faithfully.

Courage is not what you do when everything is alright , courage is what you do when you are afraid and things are going wrong.

Personally , I wonder about the overall direction XPO has taken but I don't have an answer. One idea though is to groom and hire people that know what they are doing for management an once you hire them , give them the ability to not follow blindly chasing numbers or some corporate plan.
Click to expand...
I'm with you your last. I find myself wondering about XPO's direction as well. The loss of Caterpillar was devastating and cost a lot tonnage and yet the higher ups want to complain about a lack of tonnage. The loss of Amazon was another big hit, but from what I understand, Amazon took business away from competitors as well. We have also lost several other local accounts where we did switch outs that yielded good tonnage, I don't know why.
Yet on the other side, they gave us another raise and reduced the waiting period to receive disability checks in the event we're put out of service for an injury. They also continue to add more things to the training period for new hires. For example, they've added an entire section to XPO University that takes a new hire through the Employee Handbook, adding nearly another 2 hours to an already lengthy training process. It appears that XPO on one side is doing things that are harmful to the business but yet on the other side is doing things that successful businesses do. I gotta admit, they have left me scratching my head to figure it out.
 
ScotchNeat said:
I'm with you your last. I find myself wondering about XPO's direction as well. The loss of Caterpillar was devastating and cost a lot tonnage and yet the higher ups want to complain about a lack of tonnage. The loss of Amazon was another big hit, but from what I understand, Amazon took business away from competitors as well. We have also lost several other local accounts where we did switch outs that yielded good tonnage, I don't know why.
Yet on the other side, they gave us another raise and reduced the waiting period to receive disability checks in the event we're put out of service for an injury. They also continue to add more things to the training period for new hires. For example, they've added an entire section to XPO University that takes a new hire through the Employee Handbook, adding nearly another 2 hours to an already lengthy training process. It appears that XPO on one side is doing things that are harmful to the business but yet on the other side is doing things that successful businesses do. I gotta admit, they have left me scratching my head to figure it out.
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My concern is that there seems to be no plan; no direction. "We're eliminating sub service...we're NOT eliminating sub service." You can't have negative PTO; Wait, yes you can." Depending on where you are in the system, you could have a completely different experience from any other terminal concerning OT, hours worked etc. It's the main reason why I advocate for a union contract. We will not get everything we want, but at least we'll know where we stand. And no driver will sit home while subs run the freight.
 
Hollywoodz said:
My concern is that there seems to be no plan; no direction. "We're eliminating sub service...we're NOT eliminating sub service." You can't have negative PTO; Wait, yes you can." Depending on where you are in the system, you could have a completely different experience from any other terminal concerning OT, hours worked etc. It's the main reason why I advocate for a union contract. We will not get everything we want, but at least we'll know where we stand. And no driver will sit home while subs run the freight.
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Yrc uses outside carriers I believe? Is that accurate?
 
upnorth said:
Yrc uses outside carriers I believe? Is that accurate?
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I am fairly certain that most companies use outside carriers for overflow, even UPS. But they are forbidden to use outside carriers unless every man in the bargaining unit is working or has been offered work. Some have an exception for one way routes.
 
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