Just heard the news that the UPS bid to buy TNT did not happen..It was knocked down ...Funny that UPS is willing to spend more BILLIONS for more and more Global reach BUILT on the backs of those who are currently employed and those that have retired after many years of service BUT they were nice enough to send out letters to us about raising our HEALTH CARE MONTHLY PREMIUMS....Just shows you where their hearts are...As ususal the bottom line is $$$$...More in the pockets of those in Atlanta, less in our pockets due to GREED plain and simple..Nuff said
When is expansion and spending lots of money on it a bad thing and when is it a good thing?
Was it good when Jim Casey expanded from Seattle to CA?
Was it good when we got into common carrier svc?
Was it good when we expanded into all contiguous 48 states?
Was it good when we added NDA svc?
Was it good when we developed tracking services, including DIAD, UPS Tracking, API tracking etc?
Was it good when we ventured into Canada and W. Germany?
Was it good when we spent hundreds of millions on CCHIL?
Was it good when we spent billions on Worldport and it's expansion?
If Jim Casey didn't expand from a messenger service he probably would have done OK and still possibly had a small company that would have earned him a decent income to support himself and the people working for him. Most likely that business, like many others would have eventually closed since there aren't many messengers out there anymore.
The same could be true if UPS didn't go to common carrier service. Every time we expanded, it took capital and often it had short term negatives but we grew and prospered as a result.
I think it's funny there are other threads saying how UPS should build warehouses and compete against amazon. We would be a direct competitor to one of our largest customers. Yet many people also think it's a bad idea to spend and invest money in our core competancy which is picking up and deliverying packages. Others have said DHL failed when they came to the US. I think we are foolish if we don't think they will try it again. Also, if the USPS is smart, they should be very competitive with us in the small pkg business. I can't think of many businesses that did well in the very long term if they never tried to grow beyond what they initially were.
Also, Like I mentioned before, I get being upset about prices going up for healthcare. But as another teamster poster indicated, the contract specifically lists out what UPS will pay out, and when rates go beyond the preestablished costs, then the costs will be shared by the retiree and UPS. I pay out over 350/month for health care and antoher almost 300/month for HCSA for out of pocket health care costs which is 650/month for my family as an active mgmt employee. You've been paying for quite a few years $50/month for family + whatever out of pocket costs you have had. Why is it that when the teamsters and UPS agreed to the terms of the contract which included language about max for retiree HW you were fine with it at the time. Now that it impacts you, you think UPS isn't being fair?
Everything in the contract has a cost associated with it. Most people think the costs are only the direct pay rate they get. The cost includes this as well. UPS can't afford to cover HW no matter how high the costs go up forever and only charge a copay of $50. That's ridiculous. Trust me, I'd much rather pay only $50 too (or nothing when I first started 25 years ago and everything was covered). But that's not realistic for any company to pay that out.
