For all you newhires who think FedEx is great, look at your starting pay. After you factor in inflation you'll be making about the same 10 years from now in terms of purchasing power. I'd say ok if after 10 or 12 years you went directly to top-out. But that'll be a good deal further down the road. Guess what, there are people in your building who not only make much more than you, but will make considerably more than you in 10 years while you are treading water. OK so you won't make as much in your 30's as they did, but if you hang in there you'll eventually catch up to them after they quit. So what if you're 52? 55? 59?
This has been FedEx unstated policy for its wage and lower salary workforce since at least 2002 - try to keep those hired in after that date barely above the minumums for a new-hire. Look at Ground and the compensation levels there - that is the not too distant future for Express. There is a move within FedEx Corporation to blur the lines between the different opco's for the customers even more than currently exists. However, the opco's will still continue on paper to be separate entities in order that each entity can take advantage of the most profitable labor laws as possible (RLA for Express, IC model for Ground, near minumum wage for Office employees, etc.).
Look around your stations, you'll see a "gap" in employee numbers between about say 350xxx and 600xxx. The reason for this is that these people hired in between 2000 and 2006 - realilzed that they were in a dead end job with no progression in terms of either pay or career advancement, and left. There are still plenty of employees with numbers between 100xxx and about 250xxx (and even a few 5 digit employee #s)- because they managed to make progression fast enough in the 90's to make it worth hanging in.
Now... those very people that hung around but could never reach top out - were served a small piece of pie by Fred, solely to make them think that they'd be better off keeping quiet and not start signing union cards. For everyone else, "Here's your cost of living adjustment, be thankful for the having the honor to work for Express". Thankfully I was in a position to tell FedEx to shove that "honor" in late 2010.
As an earlier poster stated, he's been with the company for a 8 years, driving for most of that, and less than a $1/hr above starting wage. That's not a career - that's wage slavery.
I have been hearing a lot of backlash about this new scheme coming from former coworkers. I think Express fully knew that there would be "discontent", but they also put out a talking points memo to manangement to spin the pay action like it is manna from Heaven. Local management knows it is a piece of crud, but their jobs depend on being a spin artist and passing it off as that chocolate mousse pie I referenced before rather than the badly assembled turd sandwich which it really is. You will know if you manager tries to tell you this is something great - that they have absolutely no respect for you, since they will be lying through their teeth while telling you that a "great deal" has been received by the wage employees. When I was in, thankfully I did have a senior manager that wasn't afraid to call a turd sandwich what it was - I wasn't getting paid what I should've been, but at least I wasn't having my intelligence insulted.
Remember SFA is around the corner. Open up with both barrels on FedEx. Everyone knows the SFA is really intended to measure discontent in workgroups (not as the "communications" tool they tout it as being) so let them know that discontent is at an all time high. After that, if you are - for whatever reason - staying with Express, start grassroots organizing to get a union certified. If you are fine with wage slavery (being too damn afraid to do something to get more because you can't risk losing the job you have), then my only recommendation is to develop a taste for turd sandwich.
I said it last autumn; leave, organize or bend over. Make your choice.