Interesting tidbit is that is does affect your status at work and ultimately whether you work at all.
One big issue is that almost all state, city, federal entities and most large companies take a variety of issues into account when they do things like sign shipping contracts. Cost and timely performance are NOT the be-all/end-all. They also take into account community development and employment opportunities, charitable contributions, fuel (etc. - water, electricity) conservation efforts - many things.
You go ahead and decide not to participate. You're just putting UPS at a competitive disadvantage - even more so - than you already have. UPS loses contracts but it's not the end of the world. UPS operates in excess of its designed capacity already. Losing volume isn't necessarily a bad thing. UPS is scalable. They lose volume, you lose jobs.
How have we (the working class employees) put ups at a disadvantage? By reading your post I will take a wild guess that you are or have been in i.e. My response is that we the service providers have gone above and beyond to service our customers despite routes getting busted out, the over dispatching of routes the low moral and the constant micro managing. While our proloaders start later and have to do more work in less time causing us drivers to leave later resulting in a later start time for the unload which sets them back which in turn causes a back up through out the country. But its us that put the company at a disadvantage, yeah right!
The interesting thing is that any manager that *wants* to stay around - UPS can find something for him/her to do. But they won't lift a finger to "find" something for YOU to do. Funny, huh?
We the employees know that you dont care about us already, we are only numbers to you and years of dedicated service mean nothing to todays ups management! Thats why we dont care about you, respect is earned and not given, we are here for our customers and not the numbers.
My (second hand) understanding is that the Pacific Region intends to lose 800 - 1,000 drivers and there's no plan on them returning - EVER.
See we have language to help with these kind of scenarios, every driver in this effected area needs to file 9.5 grievances and utilize your 8 hour days every month to help any layed off members.
Anyway, it's funny to me that those people making the least give the most - both in terms of total dollar amounts and percentage of income. Seriously. Part-timers lead off the donations every year. If you're a driver or one of the portly feeder/donut eaters, you can thank your part-timers for your having a job today. Drivers bring up a distant second. Feeders are a greedy bunch that are only out-greedied by pilots - who you'd think are living on food stamps based on their donations to UW.
Lets see how good your math is? How many ptimers do we have? Compare that to how many drivers? By your last paragragh alone i can see that you are in i.e. Its not brain surgery or even rocket science, its basic math 2 plus 2 equals 4, take baby steps.
My preference would be for UPS to opt out entirely. Let the chips fall where they fall. Put 10,000+ drivers out of work. Let pilots fly their couch while they browse Monster for a new job, etc.
You sound like an educated person(sarcasm) were would someone with your people skills wind up if ups wasnt around?
Another funny observation is that California is a dopey state with democrats such as Dianne Feinstein and Babs Boxer serving as senators and such loons as Fourtney Stark that have never met a labor union they wouldn't milk and pander to. Meanwhile take a stab at guessing who the state of California uses as their primary express delivery company. (Hint: It isn't the company YOU work for.)
That still cracks me up. So does reading of driver layoffs, so maybe it's just me.