I guess what I don't understand is how you and others can be so upset when you have healthcare that's better than 95% of this country??? Help me to understand please.
Again, you're missing the point. You've heard the quote, "Nature abhors a vacuum"? Every empty space gets filled.
Look, I get it. We have better health coverage than most people outside of government workers. So, are we ready to go point by point, in everything we earn against the rest of Americans? Should we compare ourselves with Americans who work 9 to 5? Should our jobs, and the work we do, be compared to Americans who work behind a fast-food counter? Hell, let's go all of the way with your argument and put all Americans in one pile, and say why should Americans have better health care than third world people? The point is, we begin losing, and give up every single right we've ever earned when we compare ourselves to people outside our walls.
When you say, "We've got it better than everyone else," UPS fills the vacuum with job cuts, contract blood letting and subcontracting. That's not my opinion, that's fact, brother. The more you, and more importantly, Jr. Hoffa compares us to people outside UPS, we automatically get undercut, and lose our balance. And that will ultimately kill this union.
It's not about the money. IT IS NOT ABOUT THE MONEY!
If UPS would've offered to freeze our wages in exchange for eliminating subcontracting and guaranteeing a future for the people who have built this company, we would've been ignorant to refuse that offer. Unfortunately, unlike our union, UPS has the advantage of the long view. They seem to understand that pecking away at the base of our wall, will, in time, topple us. That wouldn't be that big of a deal if we had an intelligent defense against it. But we don't. Our union leadership, instead, brags about how high they are building the wall, completely oblivious to the base that is starting to crumble.
So, 407, to answer your question, when the incoming members of Teamcare take cuts to merge in, and the existing members get less than the newbies, all to merge together, no one is happy. It's not about what we have or get. It's that we forgo the long view. It's that we all get rolled into one, under one roof, with different rules for everyone. When Al Nelson of Teamcare came to our union hall to attempt to sell us on this, he tried to say that for this contract, they just wanted everyone under one contract. And in the next contract, he said we could work on leveling out the benefits for everyone.
No offense to Al Nelson, but if he thinks we are so naive to believe UPS will 'level everything out' upwards, he is horribly mistaken. Then again, this contract is on the verge of being finalized, so maybe I'm the idiot.
Either way, our union is racing down the highway, and we're only looking a few feet in front of our bumper. We're going to crash eventually. And when we do, UPS will be there to fill the vacuum.
