UnionStrong
Sorry, but I don’t care anymore.
No one crossed the line where I was, no one. Having said that, I hope there’s no strike, it’s nothing to look forward to.I went through the 97 strike. Here is how it went from my perspective at our center… About 2 weeks before the strike the public got nervous. The volume went down a bit. The week before the strike customers quit shipping and the volume dropped drastically and the last few days it went down to a trickle. Low seniority people didn’t have any work and routes were cut as management combined routes together. The first days of the strike the employees were having a great time and talking a lot of smack. Going into the 2nd week the fun was pretty much over and a few guys crossed the line. As it started to look like this was going to go into the 3rd week a few more guys crossed the line and all the party had come to an end. After the strike was over the first day back was really strange walking back into the building. Management was pissed and they was going to make it hell for the employees. There was almost no work so there was no pre loaders at all. The Drivers that worked had to unload the trailers and load package cars (No you didn’t load your own car) before going out on a route . The volume took some time to get back up so the ones without much seniority was hit hard. Quite a few people never came back. The tension between management, those that crossed the line and all other employees was thick and this went on for a long time. This was the end of UPS having a somewhat good relationship between management and employees. It was never the same after the strike. Many customers left completely and those that stayed opened up accounts with FedX and split their shipments so they wouldn’t have just 1 option in the future. Many Businesses treated the drivers differently. Even the ones that acted like they was on the drivers side before the strike had a different attitude after they lived through it. It was 23 more years after that strike before I retired yet I still had a customer tell me just before I retired that UPS was never the same company it was before the strike.
A strike might be necessary but I pray for you guys working now that it doesn’t have to get to that. If it does go to a strike I will be right there on the line with the guys at my old center. Good Luck!