Discuss: Using Unions As Weapons

[cheryl]

Using Unions As Weapons - Reason Online
Imagine two competing pizza delivery companies that are identical in every way except their delivery methods. Pizza Company A delivers its pizza by car and Pizza Company B delivers its pizza by bike.

Now imagine that the government has completely different labor laws for pizza parlors with cars and pizza parlors with bicycles. The result is much larger labor costs for Company B than Company A. Is that fair? Should the government care?

A similar situation underlies a vicious fight between United Parcel Service (UPS) and its main private competitor in the delivery business, FedEx, over archaic labor rules that classify the companies based on their favored forms of transportation. Because 85 percent of FedEx deliveries go by air and 85 percent of UPS deliveries go by truck, the two companies are obliged to obey different labor laws.

[mule/donkey]

i swear i have never seen a fedex plane drop pkg off at a house or even a buisness. usually it has 4 wheels, sort of like that brown 4 wheeler

[bluehdmc]

Interesting UPS Revenue $51.5 billion Fedex Revenue $38 billion Fedex revenue is a 70% of UPS's.
UPS's net income is about 7% of revenue
Fedex net income is about 3% of revenue
Yet there work force is about 2/3 the size
There compensation and benefits are about 1/4 of UPS's
They spent almost twice as much lobbying.

Which one do you think is the more efficient run company?

[bbsam]

Originally Posted by bluehdmc

Interesting UPS Revenue $51.5 billion Fedex Revenue $38 billion Fedex revenue is a 70% of UPS's.
UPS's net income is about 7% of revenue
Fedex net income is about 3% of revenue
Yet there work force is about 2/3 the size
There compensation and benefits are about 1/4 of UPS's
They spent almost twice as much lobbying.

Which one do you think is the more efficient run company?

The more relevant question would be what are they spending the rest of the money on? New hubs, expanding technology, updating aircraft, strengthening competitive stance. Efficiency may only be code for complacency. Now ask why isn't ups spending some of that 7%?