Who is the worst CEO UPS has ever had ?

[SteveOUPS]

Thats an easy one. For me, it is James Kelly.... He brought on the '97 strike, and lost with poor negotiating tactics. His administration was the brainchild of "remote delivery" and most importantly, most historically, and most sadly....."LETS GO PUBLIC!!!"

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Remote delivery made sense, especially in my center, which has many rural communities; however, it became a dispatching tool and quickly lost its effectiveness. Supervisors would take packages for an entire town off of the pkg car and combine them with deliveries for that town for the following day. The problem with that was, had the pkgs stayed on the car, the driver was often able to "get rid of" them through alternate delivery, either at their place of employment or a central point (convenience store) in a neighboring town. I much prefer remote delivery to the new basic service, where I often drive by the delivery stop to deliver a UPS pkg to the Post Office so that they can deliver it the following day to the stop that I just drove by. As far as going public, we had several drivers in my center who became millionaires overnight when they converted the money in their thrift plans into UPS stock when the bought shares at $20 on the day of the IPO and watched them explode to $50 the next day. The infusion of capital has helped the company grow, especially in technology. The strike was indeed unfortunate but, to be fair, I think that the Union, especially the President at the time, did not have the best interests of the membership in mind. I think that both the Union and UPS have learned a great deal since that time and I applaud the work done to ensure we have a contract long before the expiration of the current pact. While it may not be the best contract, it is a strong agreement which provides security and stability, which are vital in light of our current economic turndown.

[JustTired]

I agree with SteveO. But Mikey's running a very close second. Never put an IE guy in charge of a company. Especially one that has gone public.

Sorry Upstate. But CEO is not an elected post. You can stop campaigning.

[Big Babooba]

I believe the worst CEO is yet to come. And he's coming soon!

[wkmac]

Originally Posted by Big Babooba

I believe the worst CEO is yet to come. And he's coming soon!

Steve O's pick of Kelly is a very good one based on his points and Eskew catches a lot of flack (even from me) but how much to be honest are cause and effect of Kelly's going public? Publically traded companies are a whole other different animal and we're still a to much "in house" minded company with the thought process of we're always smarter than the next guy. No so true in today's world.

However Big's point above I think will in the end be the correct one and I'm very afraid that the "he's coming soon" part is a matter of weeks away. I don't know Big but got a gut feeling that was his point as well. Scott Davis has botched to many investor calls for me to have confidence unless it was the UPS way of promoting an idiot to put a better guy in. You know, make a worthless driver a supervisor to get him/her off the clock so they don't cost the company as much money!

[hangin455]

Kelly hands down. IPO fever was at it's height but no one realised that the wave had crested years before. UPS stock fails to increase in value and people are leaving in droves.

[705red]

Lets combine our stock and vote tieguy for ceo!

[finaddict]

Jim Kelly combined with the incompetent teamsterleadership of Carey lead to the worst irresponsible strike in UPS history. Had Kelly met the reasonable teamster contract requests ( I hate the word " DEMANDS") a strike would have been obverted and in the long run a strike lost much more than we would ever have gained, for both the Teamsters and UPS . I struck at a loss. Shame on Kelly and Carey.

[satellitedriver]

Originally Posted by 705red

Lets combine our stock and vote tieguy for ceo!

OK, I'm in. As long as the teamsters vote you in as president,
that would be fun to watch.

[satellitedriver]

[quote=SteveOUPS;268115] James Kelly.... He brought on the '97 strike, and lost with poor negotiating tactics. QUOTE]
Wrong,
Carey had the strike planned many months before the negotiations, he thought it would keep him in office.
The CEO of UPS has far less influence in negotiations, than the president of the teamsters.

[superbee]

speaking of Kelly,I see where he cashed in like 30 or 40 million dollars of stock!!!

[705red]

Originally Posted by finaddict

Jim Kelly combined with the incompetent teamsterleadership of Carey lead to the worst irresponsible strike in UPS history. Had Kelly met the reasonable teamster contract requests ( I hate the word " DEMANDS") a strike would have been obverted and in the long run a strike lost much more than we would ever have gained, for both the Teamsters and UPS . I struck at a loss. Shame on Kelly and Carey.

It seems like you have a bitter taste left in your mouth from 97 which your entitled to, but this company has had steady growth since 97 and we the fulltimers have been payed good due to this. In 97 there were 185,000 ups teamsters, today 240,000 10 years later with the average ftimer earning $60,000 plus per year. I guess you see the glass as half empty as i see it as half full. Not to mention 28 billion in profit that ups has made since, 1.7 billion last quarter alone.

[705red]

Originally Posted by satellitedriver

OK, I'm in. As long as the teamsters vote you in as president,
that would be fun to watch.

Becareful what you wish for, maybe one day i will run, crap i know i cant do any worse than what we have now!

[Channahon]

When the company was privately held and solely owned by UPS management and their heirs, there were no reports regarding UPS stock.

I knew Jim Kelly when he was the North Central Region Manager and he was a down to earth operator and knew the business. From there he went on to Corporate Labor for awhile. From my management perspective, there was going to be a strike, no matter what UPS would have agreed upon with the union. The sticking point in the 97 strike was creating a pension plan for UPS employees only (sound familiar) from the company side.

Carey was on the bandwagon for "Part time America" doesn't work. So the company agreed to 22.3 jobs, which some employees are happy with and others hate.

Jim Kelly took this company public and made a lot of money for ALL UPS investors. The stock was afforded to all UPS employees, prior to going public, which to some management people was a concern. However, UPS management are awarded their stock based on recommendations of the Division Manager, as part of their compensation. Whereas, non UPS management employees were able to purchase stock. So all UPS shareholders enjoyed the stock split and doubling their stock portfolio within the year.

So, do I think Kelly was the worst CEO - absolutely not.
I know Mike Eskew was not the most popular in his tenure as CEO, however, he did expand UPS's portforlio for our customers.

Since going public, UPS has acquired so many other companies, and the ones that are working for us are internationally. Now that took some vision, to know the domestic competition was not going away, as a matter of fact, other carriers really stepped up to the plate to get our business. It's been quite a few quarters, where the International side of the business brought in the earnings, rather than our domestic core business.

Now Scott Davis does worry me, as he's already made the statement that he's not in love with a Triple AAA rating for the company, which UPS has always been regarded as one of the most financially sound companies in the business world.

And I know the stock has not done well, however, based on the economy over the last few years, I will be weathering the storm.

[satellitedriver]

Originally Posted by 705red

Becareful what you wish for, maybe one day i will run, crap i know i cant do any worse than what we have now!

If I see your name on the ballot, I will rejoin the union and vote for you.
The BS political artists in the teamsters upper management need to be replaced.
At least you are straight forward with your beliefs and I can respect you for that.
I may not agree with many of your stances, but you seem to walk your talk.
I am sure you wouldn't do worse.

[UpstateNYUPSer]

JustTired, as I understand it, this forum encourages thoughtful, intelligent conversation and debate on subjects concerning our company. If my posts are too difficult for you to comprehend, let me know--I will simplify them just for you. I will make sure to use small words.

[DorkHead]

Originally Posted by UpstateNYUPSer

Remote delivery made sense, especially in my center, which has many rural communities; however, it became a dispatching tool and quickly lost its effectiveness. Supervisors would take packages for an entire town off of the pkg car and combine them with deliveries for that town for the following day. The problem with that was, had the pkgs stayed on the car, the driver was often able to "get rid of" them through alternate delivery, either at their place of employment or a central point (convenience store) in a neighboring town. I much prefer remote delivery to the new basic service, where I often drive by the delivery stop to deliver a UPS pkg to the Post Office so that they can deliver it the following day to the stop that I just drove by. As far as going public, we had several drivers in my center who became millionaires overnight when they converted the money in their thrift plans into UPS stock when the bought shares at $20 on the day of the IPO and watched them explode to $50 the next day. The infusion of capital has helped the company grow, especially in technology. The strike was indeed unfortunate but, to be fair, I think that the Union, especially the President at the time, did not have the best interests of the membership in mind. I think that both the Union and UPS have learned a great deal since that time and I applaud the work done to ensure we have a contract long before the expiration of the current pact. While it may not be the best contract, it is a strong agreement which provides security and stability, which are vital in light of our current economic turndown.

Jim Kelly so far. As for remote delivery, when this was implemented after the strike, there is no doubt this was used to show that our volume was not returning, therefore UPS can`t create the 10,000 new jobs as promised. We had drivers going out with 150 stops on a country route, delivering 95 and bringing back the rest. This went on for months. I believe the Teamsters brought this point up when UPS said delivery volume is down.

[Ibt804Hammer]

Originally Posted by satellitedriver

If I see your name on the ballot, I will rejoin the union and vote for you.
The BS political artists in the teamsters upper management need to be replaced.
At least you are straight forward with your beliefs and I can respect you for that.
I may not agree with many of your stances, but you seem to walk your talk.
I am sure you wouldn't do worse.

Sorry Satellite,
We as a union dont need picket crossers to join our ranks. You made your bed, now sleep in it.

[Sammie]

None of us will every agree on what CEO's and Presidents have or haven't done.

Just be thankful you're not at GM right now, another century old company. UPS has a contract soon to be in place versus the folks at GM will most likely be going on strike. They're fighting to keep their retirement benefits in place, their health care affordable, their wages from decreasing, and they want to keep their jobs. Raises, yeah, right.

I feel for the United Auto Workers right now. GM just laid off a thousand workers in Michigan last month and plan to eliminate 30,000 more.

These folks are the ones who have something to complain about...

[rushfan]

How about a guy who ran an aircraft avionics company?!? and never has thrown a package in his life.