Upstate;
No real disagreement there. Of course, in terms of compensation, SEVERAL things have changed. When I first hired-in, for example, you had to certify that you were in school, and - at the demand of the union - had to come up with yearly school-provided documentation to back it up if you wanted to be hired AND REMAIN a p/t'er. Wages were relatively high, but there were absolutely NO benefits, other than a few holidays. Nor was there any commitment by the company to hire any particular percentage of P/T'ers as full-timers, although if they were good workers and seemed suited to the job, they were obviously given priority.
Then came the EEOC (or some other regulatory body), which determined that it was discriminatory to hire only students....at which point P/T became more a "full-time part-time" job than anything else. Before, it was rare that a p/ter hung around more than 3 or 4 years...and the jobs were literally "passed down" from one student to the next. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I can remember one extended center where the p/t jobs were virtually monopolized by the students of the optometry department of the local university. All of that went by the wayside. After the student requirement was done away with, p/t'er weren't as often waiting out their degree; they were just as likely situating themselves for the long-haul at UPS.
Then, as p/t'er became to represent a significant LONG TERM aspect of the work force (a situation which the Teamsters didn't like either), there came the push for greater benefits and "security". I was in management by the time the first (rather lean) p/t pension was authorized in the '70s, and I honestly don't remember when health benefits came online. Granted, the wages went up for a while, but with the onslaught of all the benefits - and particularly with THE VIRTUAL GUARANTEE OF A FULL TIME JOB if one hung around long enough - the job changed, it's potential changed, and the wages reflected that change. People no longer hire in at UPS as p/t'er primarily as a means of making some change before they graduate and move on to their lifetime career; nope...now they're coming aboard in reaction to the carrot dangled in front of them of an eventual full-time job. Of course, this also came at a time in which the company was splitting hub shifts in order to do away with friend/t hub jobs.
Overall, I think the change has been for the worst. I fully realize that others - particularly those who've benefited by the change - think it's the greatest thing going since fish sticks. To each his own. My point, however, is that compensation has changed in reaction to what the p/t'ers THEMSELVES set as their priorities.
) and team LEADERS will get traditional PPOs or High Deductible Health Plans. That sounds soooo much better than sticking it out at UPS for a while. Oh, and that is only for full time employees! Great deal, sign me up! I'll tell my husband how stupid he was to do his time as a part timer at UPS so he could become a driver when he would be so much happier working at Whataburger. I'm sure my 17 year old wouldn't mind forgoing engineering school so daddy doesn't have to work hard to get somewhere in life. 
