Strike or no strike

[Braveheart]

We have a large building and had a a number of scabs cross. Over 95% stood the picket line. One driver was promised a promotion into management and never got it. HAHA and so in return he went from a runner to a walker and a couple of years later he quit. Nice going UPS. Another scab ended up getting fired for a little drug problem. BOOHOO A couple scabs went into management and then later quit. One told me that UPS management is the most inhumane group of peolpe he ever met! A few got sick of all the empty promises from management and joined the union. A few others eventually quit down the road as well.

 

[tieguy]

We have a large building and had a a number of scabs cross. Over 95% stood the picket line. One driver was promised a promotion into management and never got it. HAHA and so in return he went from a runner to a walker and a couple of years later he quit. Nice going UPS. Another scab ended up getting fired for a little drug problem. BOOHOO A couple scabs went into management and then later quit. One told me that UPS management is the most inhumane group of peolpe he ever met! A few got sick of all the empty promises from management and joined the union. A few others eventually quit down the road as well.

Meanwhile the teamsters that proudly risked their mortgages and livelyhood were rewarded with central states?

at this point it looks like the scabs had a better sense of which way to go on the pension issue.

 

[oper8tor]

I read the cafe alot and don't see much input from non-union labor in the right to work states. Would they honor a picket line?

 

[705red]

Strike means no work, no money, and serious damage to teamsters and UPS.
I really wish we could all realize we are in this together. UPS pays us. Why would anyone who has been through this before choose to do it again.
In a word it was hell and more damage was done than good. Sorry, but I will not vote for a strike. A strike vote is the same as voting yourself out of work.
If you can live on 50 bucks a week go for it...........

When you deal with an arrogant company like ups they push the nevelope as far as they can all the time! They violate this contract that they agreed to consistently! They taunt you with go ahead file a grievance! The only thing ups takes serious is the threat of a strike, its the only way to get their attention, and its our only bargaining power when we need to slap them back a little!

Yes some damage was done by striking in 97, but it was short lived. Since 97 ups has profited over $27 billion, we the drivers have gone up $9 an hour, not bad numbers considering how damaging the strike was! You need to see why the union would be asking for a strike authorization before making your decision to strike or not to. Ups is counting on us to vote NO, to weaken the unions bargaining power, keep this in mind.

 

[705red]

Meanwhile the teamsters that proudly risked their mortgages and livelyhood were rewarded with central states?

at this point it looks like the scabs had a better sense of which way to go on the pension issue.

Tie theres more than one pension plan that ups contributes to on our behalf, not only the cs plan. We have gone up $9 an hour since that strike, our part-timers now have prescription cards, we have thousands more fulltime jobs, and believe it or not you make more money now because of that strike in 97!

 

[satellitedriver]

We have a large building and had a a number of scabs cross. Over 95% stood the picket line. One driver was promised a promotion into management and never got it. HAHA and so in return he went from a runner to a walker and a couple of years later he quit. Nice going UPS. Another scab ended up getting fired for a little drug problem. BOOHOO A couple scabs went into management and then later quit. One told me that UPS management is the most inhumane group of peolpe he ever met! A few got sick of all the empty promises from management and joined the union. A few others eventually quit down the road as well.

And one driver just kept on driving.
Me.

 

[satellitedriver]

I read the cafe alot and don't see much input from non-union labor in the right to work states. Would they honor a picket line?

If the strike was for good cause, yes. If the strike was only protecting the teamsters and not in the best interest of UPSER'S, no.

 

[local804]

Meanwhile the teamsters that proudly risked their mortgages and livelyhood were rewarded with central states?

at this point it looks like the scabs had a better sense of which way to go on the pension issue.

You are aware of federal oversight, correct? And you have heard about Morgan Stanley, Bankers Trust, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan correct? Dont blame anyone else, just blame the teamsters.

 

[trickpony1]

I read the cafe alot and don't see much input from non-union labor in the right to work states. Would they honor a picket line?

.....PROBABLY NOT. They would be too busy buying favor with their bosses as they move the dwindling number of packages as the system was purged.

 

[tieguy]

Tie theres more than one pension plan that ups contributes to on our behalf, not only the cs plan. We have gone up $9 an hour since that strike, our part-timers now have prescription cards, we have thousands more fulltime jobs, and believe it or not you make more money now because of that strike in 97!

red you're right there are 21 multi employer plans. I don't have recent numbers but 11 of the 21 or over half were less then 70 percent funded in 2003. hardly a success story there. Meanwhile the evil company that tried to take your plans and fix them continues to provide a decent retirement for its non-union employees. You tell me.

 

[tieguy]

You are aware of federal oversight, correct? And you have heard about Morgan Stanley, Bankers Trust, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan correct? Dont blame anyone else, just blame the teamsters.

who else would I blame. They told those hard working teamster to walk the picket line to save their pension. They then try to blame someone else for their mismanagement? I have a 401k provided to me in addition to my pension by that evil company your brothers fought. I'm no financial guru but I had enough sense to slide my money into more secure less risky type investments when the market turned sour. Meanwhile the professionals your union hired to manage the pension money pissed it away and blamed the market and anyone else they could find. Unfortunately the company was right in 97 and unfortunately many hard working upsers learned that lesson the hard way.

 

[tieguy]

.....PROBABLY NOT. They would be too busy buying favor with their bosses as they move the dwindling number of packages as the system was purged.

the non union upsers were side by side with me in 97 working hard and fighting to save the union members pensions. Unfortunately we were not successful. My sincerest apologies to the many hard working upsers out there who also lost out on this fight because they were mislead by Ron Carey. When you look at how much money UPS pays into these pension plans then its easy to see that every UPSer should be retiring with a top of the line pension. Unfortunately the union keeps using the smoke and mirrors evil company rhetoric to deny you your well deserved retirement.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh but its clear 10 years later that Carey was wrong to walk out on our efforts to fix the many mismanaged pension plans.

 

[oper8tor]

Tie theres more than one pension plan that ups contributes to on our behalf, not only the cs plan. We have gone up $9 an hour since that strike, our part-timers now have prescription cards, we have thousands more fulltime jobs, and believe it or not you make more money now because of that strike in 97!

Don't be fooled by the unions desire for "full-time jobs" the biggest winner with part-time employees is the teamsters. From the moment a new part-timer begins work the company starts paying health & wealfare. Where is the highest turnover, part-timers. All monies paid in on that part-timers behalf is just free money for the teamsters, never to be collected by the former employee.

 

[BCFan]

We have a large building and had a a number of scabs cross. Over 95% stood the picket line. One driver was promised a promotion into management and never got it. HAHA and so in return he went from a runner to a walker and a couple of years later he quit. Nice going UPS. Another scab ended up getting fired for a little drug problem. BOOHOO A couple scabs went into management and then later quit. One told me that UPS management is the most inhumane group of peolpe he ever met! A few got sick of all the empty promises from management and joined the union. A few others eventually quit down the road as well.

1 So these scabs joined the union? what local is that? who was the principal officer that allowed the KNOWN scabs to join? i really am interested in this info!!!! BC (not Boston College)

 

[Gman24]

WOW, I have been off the forum for several months now and I return to see there is still a LOT of BS on this forum.

For ALL of you guys who are drueling to strike and have absolutely NOTHING to strike for at this point, why don't you guys just go ahead and call a wild cat whenever we DON'T strike and as I see it UPS will be getting rid of the BIGGEST problem with all of the CRAP that goes on anyways.

You guys are so Blinded by the REAL problem that it isn't even funny.

The TEAMSTERS took us to an unnecessary STRIKE in '97 over the pension fund. AND NOW they are trying to negotiate EARLY for the very thing we struck against in '97. OPEN YOUR EYES guys!

 

[upsgrunt]

WOW, I have been off the forum for several months now and I return to see there is still a LOT of BS on this forum.

For ALL of you guys who are drueling to strike and have absolutely NOTHING to strike for at this point, why don't you guys just go ahead and call a wild cat whenever we DON'T strike and as I see it UPS will be getting rid of the BIGGEST problem with all of the CRAP that goes on anyways.

You guys are so Blinded by the REAL problem that it isn't even funny.

The TEAMSTERS took us to an unnecessary STRIKE in '97 over the pension fund. AND NOW they are trying to negotiate EARLY for the very thing we struck against in '97. OPEN YOUR EYES guys!

I have to agree! Let's not be so eager to strike just to "stick it to the man". A strike should be a last ditch effort if all else fails because NO one wins in a strike. In 97 when we struck we ended up with the same raises and pretty much the same issues addressed as previous contracts-We always get pretty much the same promises, concessions, and raises every contract-why strike? If the negotiations are not complete by the deadline just keep working and then get back pay for the raise. I'm not anti-union, but every contract we get the same results and every contract the union pumps their chest and boasts that they got us a "good" contract, when we get what we always get-an average of 50 to 75 cents an hour raise. What I want this year in addition to our raise is a decent cost of living allowance to offset the excessive cost of inflation this year. Of course this is just my opinion and I could be very wrong.

 

[trickpony1]

the non union upsers were side by side with me in 97 working hard and fighting to save the union members pensions. Unfortunately we were not successful. My sincerest apologies to the many hard working upsers out there who also lost out on this fight because they were mislead by Ron Carey. When you look at how much money UPS pays into these pension plans then its easy to see that every UPSer should be retiring with a top of the line pension. Unfortunately the union keeps using the smoke and mirrors evil company rhetoric to deny you your well deserved retirement.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh but its clear 10 years later that Carey was wrong to walk out on our efforts to fix the many mismanaged pension plans.

You've heard this concern before so I will abbreviate it.......why should we trust the company?
The thrift plan was our little nest egg that would be around forever......the company, one day, just up and decided to close it. If you go into a long dissertation about how well everyone who bought stock has done since then you've completely missed my point. Thanks.

 

[tieguy]

You've heard this concern before so I will abbreviate it.......why should we trust the company?
The thrift plan was our little nest egg that would be around forever......the company, one day, just up and decided to close it. If you go into a long dissertation about how well everyone who bought stock has done since then you've completely missed my point. Thanks.

Thrift plan is not a retirement plan its an investment plan in the company. You have that option still with your option to buy ups stock at a discounted price. One was traded for the other which our people told us they really wanted. I know union members that then rolled their entire thrift plan into ups stock and made a killing when we went public. Meanwhile the union reps had told their people not to buy ups stock because the reps considered it a conflict of interests to be a good union man and own ups stock. Those members that listened were pissed when the stock went public.

You hardcore labor types continue saying don't trust the company. My company provides a decent retirement plan and 401K match not only to the management folks but every non-union clerical person in the company. the 401K match is a terrific option to self manage your retirement. I don't know if you will ever get it because negotiating a match would be against the unions and mult employer plans best interest. The union has always fought to control the pension money. Just like they did in 97. Carey didn't call a strike to save anything except the right to control the pension money.

 

[antimatter]

Waaaay to early to be rattling that "strike" saber. Let cooler heads prevail and hope for the best.

In the meantime, Tie made a good point earlier Re: 401k investments. My wife & I made some shrewd decisions in both of our accounts that will protect and provide for us for years to come. Best moves I ever made.

As far as our pension, I'd like to see the Teamsters continue to oversee it.

A.

 

[trickpony1]

Tieguy-
Great job of completely missing my point!
"our" company just up and closed the thrift plan,
"our" company just up and changed the MIP as well as some management pension issues,
It seems "our" company can just up and change what they want, when they want.
I'm sorry if I confused you but, once again, my point was:
How/why should we trust the company to assume control of the pension and then not up and change something to their (the company) benefit?

Please try to address my question this time.