I'm pretty sure the vast majority of employees don't even know about this forum. Look at the forum index and see how many are viewing. Very possible there are more company monitors, even UPS employees, than FedEx employees viewing this forum.
I'm curious, do you consider the list I posted B.S.? Anything untrue? Let's be honest. People who've been around 20+ years remember a very different company. Eventually we'll all be gone and while some employees might not be thrilled with the company, what they know about the company will be what it has morphed into, not the company we old-timers knew. And in today's world it will be one of the better companies to work for, sad as that is. The days of great benefits and a great future for average workers appears to be over, and large corporations made that so. I'm just glad I managed to grab a little pension from them, and am now fervently praying for some serious deflation so that my little pension might be worth something.
I'm sure there are many that don't know, but don't you think that at least the people from MrFedEx's station, who are mostly apparently pro-union and think along the same lines as him, would at least be on here with him? All one has to do is Google FedEx/UPS and it is easily found, that's how I found it.
I don't think your list is b.s, the pension and mid-range/top-out pay issues are legitimate gripes. I think what you say about the "old-timers" might be true. I started in 2000, hence the name, so I cannot compare it to FedEx in 1990 etc. All I can pull from is the experience that I have had here, which is almost entirely positive. I would have topped out as a courier in 10-11 years, had I stayed in that position that long, I can live with that. 15-20 yrs though, that's definitely pushing it, unless the midrange bumps keep pace, which they haven't.
I consider myself lucky that I have a pension at all, not to mention a 401k match, so that's not a huge issue for me personally.....probably one of the big differences from a generation that relied on a pension to retire vs. a 401k/personal savings, but that is the new norm. A good friend of mine's dad lost his entire pension, he was/is a pilot for United...flies 777's. Luckily he is also in the AF Reserve as a Colonel and will get a nice Gov. pension. I would rather rely on myself to ensure my retirement vs. and company/union run pension plan that could be taken away like that. I understand though that age is the major issue limiting the options here, I have time on my side that some others don't.
As far as the health insurance goes, I don't think it's fair to blame FedEx for that, health care costs are just out of control all around. Our insurance is still very cheap comparatively, and I think that will be a major point of contention in the next round of UPS contract negotiations. I would be very surprised if UPS doesn't try to put some of that cost on the employees.
So, while I may have missed out on the glory days here, I came in about 18 months before 9/11 and have been here through the worst times this company and the US economy have seen since the 1930's. Considering the environment we have been operating in, I consider myself fortunate to have a good job that will be here tomorrow. We've cut a lot of fat all around, and I think we will be much better for it in the long run. If we can get our operating margin up over 10% like we have been trying to, I think we will all see some nice raises. In order to do that though, we have to run lean and really focus on areas that we can improve on. Are we asking a lot of the couriers? Absolutely. The pressure is on everywhere to improve SPH/PFTE's. To be honest though, I wouldn't want to work at a place that decides they are doing everything right and have no reason to try to improve b/c they won't be around much longer. Who would have thought 10 years ago that Blockbuster would be filing for bankruptcy? They fell behind b/c they got complacent and were only competing against local/regional competitors.....Netflix & RedBox came out of nowhere and basically wiped them out in what, 5 years?
Is FedEx perfect? No. Are all managers great? No. Am I paid fairly for this kind of work? Somedays I'm overpaid....other's way under paid. It averages out. I've never had a manager here treat me in a way that I felt was unfair or screw me over. I've had a few that had no idea what they were doing, but they never intentionally or maliciously did anything wrong to me. you'll find that same crap everywhere. I really feel that people who have been here 20+ years don't realize how good they have it, regardless of what they may have lost......try looking for another job or talk to kids coming out of college.....kids with Master's degrees serving coffee at Starbucks. Obviously there are exceptions, but it's not pretty out there.
Wow...way too long of a post....sorry.