Brownie;
H.m.m.m.m......UPS was "top dog" until 1999? And it didn't lose any "top dog" status due to the '97 strike? REALLY! (Grin....I think you know better)
Actually, as I'm sure all too many here are all too aware, after the '97 strike, a significant amount of the CUSTOMER BASE (not just the company mgmt) decided that the Teamster labor force just wasn't cutting it anymore.
As for your claim of....
" We've be doing the job the same every day. "
....again, WHAT ABOUT THE '97 STRIKE? Were Teamsters "doing the job" then? Hell no they weren't! Fact is , THEY WEREN'T DOING THE JOB AT ALL!!!! Furthermore, the public perceived that the Teamsters couldn't be counted on "doing the job"...and made a significant turn toward entities that did NOT employ Teamsters. Or do you think that FedEx Ground took off like a sky-rocket because Teamsters were "doing the same job every day". Sorry if I'm going off like a sky rocket myself, but utter bs statements - read "outright falsehoods" - like "We've being doing the same job every day" will tend to make me act like that. The fact is, the Teamsters WEREN'T "doing the job"; in either "the job" they had at UPS, or "the job" of organizing FedEx...they utterly failed at both. And, in truth, they're STILL failures.
As for "making the company public"...well, that had to do a lot more with individuals such as myself getting tired of our share value being artificially depressed as a way of subsidizing others (particularly Teamsters) with unearned income. And while we took the company "public" in the sense of opening up the market, the actual determining power was kept in our (previous shareholders) hands...to the tune that each of our shares counts for 10 votes compared to one vote for "the public". Result; this company isn't "publicly run" in the sense of being answerable to the equity markets by any stretch of the imagination.
As for PAS, if you guys had been doing your job AS YOU SAID YOUR WERE, it wouldn't be ANY different than stop-for-stop sequential loading, which has been in place NOT for four or five years, but for THIRTY-FIVE YEARS!! There's a difference, you say? Well, pray tell, just what WAS the difference in terms of the driver, UNLESS he wasn't doing his job to begin with?
As for the door being closed at every stop...well, "yes", if that's what the methods call for, then I WOULD expect the door to be closed at every stop.
Lastly, you might consider "what changed" is the fact that the company had to subsidize the Teamsters to the tune of SIX BILLION DOLLARS (got that....$6,000,000,00!!!!!) because the Teamsters Fd UP! No other way to put it. Remember the codicil the Teamsters signed regarding full-funding of CSPF as part of the first contract signed this century? And did they ( the Teamsters) adhere to their word in that codicil? (every time I read here about the company supposedly not keeping it's word in minor terms of the contract, I just can't help but think back as to how utterly meaningless the Teamsters "word" was in some that was FAR from minor...both in terms of the company and Teamster MEMBERS) And do you think that the $6 billion (which was just really the tip of the iceberg) cost to UPS due to TEAMSTER dishonesty and incompetence was "working the same every day"? And don't you think that $6 billion might have made a difference in the way management views "the job" that Teamsters do?
Sorry, Brownie, "the fabulous days" weren't an aspect of hiring Teamsters at all, but rather in spite of them being hired. Frankly, I'm amazed at every additional day that the company is able to continue operating and providing what amounts to massive welfare to the union...if only because I know there are hundreds, and perhaps thousands, like me who rue the day that the company settled the '97 strike (even if it was a case of the union "blinking"). We're only all too-to-well aware that if was have been MUCH LESS COSTLY to simply shut-down the company for a period of time - years even - and then starting "fresh". Not only could we have saved 5 of the 6 billion, but we could have had a much more cost-effective workforce and much sweetend future prospects....anything was better than continuing dealing with Teamsters and absorbing the massive liability they represented. $6 BILLION, remember...to say nothing of contributions already pissed-away, and pension funds lost to good UPS employees.
Right now, I'll admit it...I can't get rid of that concept of the $6 BILLION in totally wasted expense the Teamsters cost me and my associates. In light of that, please don't try to break my balls about locking your bulkhead, or whatever. Instead, why don't you figure out a way to pay back the money the Teamsters took from me and my associates.
Truthfully, I'm locked on this topic a bit because the TDU's website currently has a blurb up about the money UPS made, and how it's up over such and such a period. Meanwhile, it compares UPS with FedEx, which it said LOST money. Well, "on paper", FedEx DID lose money for a quarter or two....based on the one-time write-down expense of it copy/retail stores. But did the TDU (and other Teamsters, for that matter) consider that, for a year and more, UPS was on the books for LOSING MONEY AS WELL on the basis of a "one time expense". And, of course, that one-time expense was one Hell of a lot bigger than FedEx's....to the tune of $6 BILLION! Expense cause? 100% Teamster. Who benefited from it? Only those who were too lazy to cut it on their own, or help to preserve the companies they worked for; i.e. - the real "worthies" of our society. Makes a responsible person sick.
Anyway, before you sarcastically talk to me or my partners about what's "brilliant" and such, I suggest you return the BILLIONS of dollars you owe us. Until then, we're not likely to be very receptive to the type of discussion you propose.