There have been times during my 33 years at UPS where a union was not needed. All they could say to keep you interested in paying union dues was the "you could never be making what you make here on your own".
Basically, without the union, you are worthless. Personally, I never found much intelligence in insulting those people who pay your paycheck.
And of course, trying to strong arm part timers into paying union dues when they have not seen a raise in the starting wage since the 70's?
There have also been times when the Union was very much needed. It all depended on management style. They had none. All went through people school, but none of it stuck.
I have also seen BA's and stewards that were nothing more than a rubber stamp to what ever the management team wanted to do, regardless of right or wrong.
There have been times where I would have gladly taken a 1/3 cut in pay to start earlier, get home sooner, be with family more........
Being in the union is a two edged sword. While there are benefits, there are also drawbacks.
But I also agree, in the over all scope of working for UPS, the union is a must have with the number of rouge managers that move around. Or maybe its just that it has been around so long, there is no way UPS's work force can work any other way...
One thing I can say. There have been more times that I have been proud to be a UPSer than there have been times I have been proud to be a Teamster.
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