Dear FedEx

[vantexan]

Huh?

Companies came up with better benefits to compete with unions, to keep unions out by placating their employees.

 

[MrFedEx]

I don't believe that happened, it was killed after the Pension Act, their public announcement at the time was referencing this act as the reason why, they weren't certain they could stay fully vested under the new laws. Now you are correct they did have another option in place as they mentioned in the same release, but the original pension wasn't killed until after the act. Perhaps that was their plan all along? Possible. I can only assume the law was passed to kill pensions. Has anyone ever heard a company that started offering a pension and reference this act as why they are now offering a pension? I have not.

Hello...I actually work here. The people they were hiring prior to 2006 (well before, as in several years) were never on the Traditional Plan, because it had been announced it would be eliminated. There was no option for new hires, however, existing employees had the right to choose to change over to the PPA or stay with the Traditional Plan until 2008. Got it?

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Companies came up with better benefits to compete with unions, to keep unions out by placating their employees.

OK.

 

[TUT]

UPS does not match our 401k's. They do pay the administrative fees.

Our pension took a huge hit in 2008-09 but we have recovered all of those losses and then some.

We have a self managed account option within our 401k. I used $50K of my 401k balance to purchase 526 shares of Apple 4 months ago. That stock is now worth $60K. $10K gain in 4 months is nothing to sneeze at.

There are analysts that predict the Dow will break the 60K mark by 2030.

First yes that is good. Your 401k then also has a nice benefit that most others 401k's don't have, some will match that's good, but if you can move dollars into a single stock or your choice and not a mutual style fund, that is pretty powerful.

As for your huge hit in 2008, I simply predict this will be a somewhat regular occurrence, I hope I am wrong, but you can't trusts crooks in a vault now can you? It's sort of insane that we go along knowing we can be played easily.

Talking stocks and all, one of the main reasons I came here in the day... Sold of most of my Fedex a couple weeks back, it had gone up even more, but not too shabby selling any stock on a day it set a new all time high. Pretty much double after 3 years. Fedex was preforming amazingly for a couple months when they market was taking a mini-beating here recently, it weathered through with no loss, vs many stocks/401k's taking a nice little ding.

This all goes hand in hand with some of my angle to the ongoing conversations here. I'm not a fan of Wallstreet, it is ing up the working class day to day living. But I am powerless to this and it truly is a "if you can't beat them join them" bottom line for me, it is reality. If you can't get money into this and take advantage you are in a double jeopardy situation, low wage and no money working for you. Sometimes you can't just keep the same ole job/position, you have to take action.

 

[TUT]

Hello...I actually work here. The people they were hiring prior to 2006 (well before, as in several years) were never on the Traditional Plan, because it had been announced it would be eliminated. There was no option for new hires, however, existing employees had the right to choose to change over to the PPA or stay with the Traditional Plan until 2008. Got it?

Right, but it wasn't eliminated in full until after the act was passed and Fedex publicly announced that was their reason for eliminating it. Sure you can educate-guess it was going away, but this act was an easy out to use. Unless you were crafting the plan, you cannot be 100% certain either.

 

[vantexan]

Hello...I actually work here. The people they were hiring prior to 2006 (well before, as in several years) were never on the Traditional Plan, because it had been announced it would be eliminated. There was no option for new hires, however, existing employees had the right to choose to change over to the PPA or stay with the Traditional Plan until 2008. Got it?

Actually they had been hiring people under the PPA for awhile, but it wasn't announced until January 2007 that they would terminate the traditional pension at the start of June 2008. They had given those of us still under the traditional pension a choice to either stay on it or switch to the new plan in 2005 I believe. However they didn't inform us of their eventual intentions, and senior couriers who did switch over got screwed, because they, if over 40, didn't get the extra 4% catch up credits like those of us who were forced into the new plan.

 

[It will be fine]

They gave people the choice to switch to a new plan and people actually did? Sounds crazy, no change will ever be good for you. Red flags should have been flying up.

 

[MechLift]

My proposal would at least get couriers to reasonable pay in 10 years, far better than the current system, and certainly within the company's ability to pay.

Their goal now is to keep full-timers below 40 hrs so you really cannot look at FedEx as a career to support a family or even yourself depending where you live. Some other income activity has to be a part of the picture.

That an additional 100,000 part-timers (or whatever) on the payroll is going to save FedEx money in even the medium term is some consultants fantasy. It really has the smell of prepping the company for sale.

 

[vantexan]

They gave people the choice to switch to a new plan and people actually did? Sounds crazy, no change will ever be good for you. Red flags should have been flying up.

One guy told me he was switching so that his kids could inherit something if anything happened to him. I pointed out he could marry his girlfriend and she'd get a survivor benefit. No way, he said.

 

[Operational needs]

They gave people the choice to switch to a new plan and people actually did? Sounds crazy, no change will ever be good for you. Red flags should have been flying up.

Any time FedEx proposes changes, that are supposedly to our benefit, my spidey senses start going into overdrive. They count on the stupid people who fall for it every time.

 

[MrFedEx]

Right, but it wasn't eliminated in full until after the act was passed and Fedex publicly announced that was their reason for eliminating it. Sure you can educate-guess it was going away, but this act was an easy out to use. Unless you were crafting the plan, you cannot be 100% certain either.

Educated guess? If it wasn't being offered to new hires (the traditional plan), what other conclusions could be drawn? After all the other takeaways, everyone was fully expecting that the TP would go away...and it did.

 

[Route 66]

Any time FedEx proposes changes, that are supposedly to our benefit, my spidey senses start going into overdrive. They count on the stupid people who fall for it every time.

Absolutely - anytime the company comes out with something that they tell us is for our benefit, that's the cue to start grabbing hold of the ol' ankles, because ya know it's BOHICA time!