I was speaking to a friend at another station last week, and the SM there told them top of range would get 3%, middle 5% and bottom 6%. I told him his SM was wrong, it's reversed. Haven't heard back from him about the s--t storm coming from that station when all the lower quarter's realize they're getting screwed. He asked how could that be, and I told him one reason and one reason only, keep the sr. people from signing cards!!
You nailed it on the head!
Late last year when there were leaks coming out that there would be a 5 or 6 percent raise coming for the Express employees, most were thinking that the bottom of progression would get the 6%, the "middle" would get 5% and the top end would get 3% while the top of range would only be raised by a couple of percentage points. This may be part of the "confusion" in the manager's head that you're writing of.
Boy was everyone wrong when they thought FedEx would try to narrow the gap. FedEx pulled a real strategic move in what they did. THEY INCREASED THE GAP between employees in the top of progression and those in the bottom.
Anecdotal accounts coming out of stations indicate a "we've got ours" mindset has occurred among those in the top half of progression. The top end KNOWS that they only got either 5 or 6 percent, BUT they know that there is someone else doing the exact same job as they are doing - AND GOT SCREWED with a 3% pay raise.
Under the old broken "performance" system, no matter where you were in progression, you would get a percentage based on whatever the metric of the system indicated - it was "blind" as to how many years in, or how far in progression an employee was. Not that anyone made decent progression towards being topped out, but the percentage they got was dependent on what the performance review indicated NOT how far along in progression they were. A 5 year or a 15 year employee getting the same score received the same pay raise.
Everyone was in the same boat when it came to getting next to nothing under the old system.
What this "new system" is doing (what I believe was INTENDED by Express) is to eliminate solidarity among wage employees. Express has very cheaply, bought off the top end, screwed the bottom end - and sent a very implicit message to those in the top end that you could've ended up with a 3% raise yourself - so you'd better behave.
So in the process of creating a de facto two tiered compensation system (all the rage currently among business execs), they've also placed a very real wedge between the employees. There are winners and losers among the wage employees of Express now.
What does that do to the employees regarding establishing any solidarity among themselves?
I and those I privately speak with regarding Express believes that Express is deliberately attempting to establish a two tiered compensation system (bottom half and upper half). The upper half is nearing the door towards retirement or eventually getting booted out (or quitting if Express makes up its mind and pulls the trigger on outsourcing delivery of non-overnight volume) - so they will be gone in a matter of a few years.
The bottom half will turnover after 5 or so years and fresh (that is, non-informed) new hires will replace them, only to learn that Express isn't a career like UPS is (or the Federal Express of old), and then continue the cycle of 5 year Couriers.
Unfortunately, organizing Express now is a completely hopeless cause. It just isn't going to happen, even if the IBT were to camp outside of every station providing free steak and lobster once a week for Express employees.
If you are stuck, continue to be one of Fred's package monkeys till you are tossed away. If you are in your 20's or 30's, start looking for something you can call a career. If you are in your 40's, you are stuck unless you make a monumental effort to get out (I ended up going to Graduate School after swearing that I'd never return to a university campus after getting my Bachelor's when I was "young").
The Federal Express of the 80's and early 90's (the Federal Express my friends started in and convinced me to get into as a second career) no longer exists. It has been slowly morphed into a different beast, that still moves packages, but where employees are seen not as assets, but as hard liabilities.