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<blockquote data-quote="PobreCarlos" data-source="post: 1019873" data-attributes="member: 16651"><p>brown-trousers;</p><p></p><p>I don't neccessarily disagree with your assessment, at least in terms of how things stand currently. However, although UPS has remained "competitive" in a sense, it HAS lost a large percentage of its core business to the competition over the past few years, and is likely to lose more if costs squeeze things in that direction. Secondly, the ability of the company to remain profitable has, to a degree that's increased virtually every year over the past 30, become dependent on non-Teamster, non-domestic operations. Again, I believe that with the absorption of TNT, a full 38% of the company's revenue will be coming from non-domestic sources. That might leave the company profitable...but with less and less of that profit coming from the Teamsters. As has been seen with Caterpillar of late, companies don't tend to reward non-profitable segments of the business, even if the company as a whole is profitable.</p><p></p><p>Beyond that, I'm afraid that once the point of "equilibrium" you mention is reached, it'll be too late. Corporations tend to be a bit more foresighted (quite a bit, actually!) than unions, and if it reaches a point where the company sees that profits are beginning to slide, they dispose of that segment while it still has value in terms of a sale; they don't wait until it's actually losing money. And in that scenario - while UPS could very well win - I don't see how the Teamsters would. Note that the scenario is VERY similar to what has happened to Teamsters employed in the bulk of the once-organized transportation firms they considered under their mantle...and, in the process, the majority of existing Teamster jobs were lost over just a couple of short decades. While I hope it's unlikely, it's not impossible that the same couldn't happen to UPS. After all, thirty or thirty-five years ago, I could never have conceived of UPS having the competition it has today from FedEx.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="PobreCarlos, post: 1019873, member: 16651"] brown-trousers; I don't neccessarily disagree with your assessment, at least in terms of how things stand currently. However, although UPS has remained "competitive" in a sense, it HAS lost a large percentage of its core business to the competition over the past few years, and is likely to lose more if costs squeeze things in that direction. Secondly, the ability of the company to remain profitable has, to a degree that's increased virtually every year over the past 30, become dependent on non-Teamster, non-domestic operations. Again, I believe that with the absorption of TNT, a full 38% of the company's revenue will be coming from non-domestic sources. That might leave the company profitable...but with less and less of that profit coming from the Teamsters. As has been seen with Caterpillar of late, companies don't tend to reward non-profitable segments of the business, even if the company as a whole is profitable. Beyond that, I'm afraid that once the point of "equilibrium" you mention is reached, it'll be too late. Corporations tend to be a bit more foresighted (quite a bit, actually!) than unions, and if it reaches a point where the company sees that profits are beginning to slide, they dispose of that segment while it still has value in terms of a sale; they don't wait until it's actually losing money. And in that scenario - while UPS could very well win - I don't see how the Teamsters would. Note that the scenario is VERY similar to what has happened to Teamsters employed in the bulk of the once-organized transportation firms they considered under their mantle...and, in the process, the majority of existing Teamster jobs were lost over just a couple of short decades. While I hope it's unlikely, it's not impossible that the same couldn't happen to UPS. After all, thirty or thirty-five years ago, I could never have conceived of UPS having the competition it has today from FedEx. [/QUOTE]
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