104Feeder
Phoenix Feeder
Food for thought:
When I started the wage at UPS was $8/hr, more than twice the minimum wage of $3.35
This wage, along with the benefits that began in 30 days attracted mostly college students leading to a better quality hire. Many stayed on after completing school.
Today's wage seems to attract more hires out of DES.
In today's dollars, with inflation at 2.51% that would be $16.03 today.
The Teamsters have strongly suggested at every Contract negotiation that the Company's issues regarding retention and quality-of-hire would be eased if the starting wage were raised. The Company has been adamant about keeping this wage repressed.
The problem is compounded because while people want to talk about raising the starting wage, no one is willing to forego their own wage raise to pay for it or walk out for someone who may never be hired. This falls into the right of the Company to run the business into the ground if they wish.
If you calculate the inflation rate on the top pay when you started vs. the buying power today, you will find that we are a few dollars higher. So while starting pay has eroded drastically, Top Rate has not, roughly 10-11% better after accounting for inflation.
The Company has spent millions on Integrad to attempt to increase the success rate of drivers, which has been a complete failure. This is further highlighted by the millions spent on ORION etc to "dumb down" the Package Driver job. When I started you were lucky to receive 2-3 days of OJT and then 30 days later you had a half-day ride with the Manager and you either made it or you were back in the Hub. This job isn't rocket science but there is a definite skill to being a successful Package Driver, and I will put an educated, skilled driver against ORION any day (just peruse this forum for ORION "success" stories).
UPS used to value their Service Providers, now you are seen as a liability. I would love to have 50 of the "Least Best" drivers in any building and pit them against another Company in any industry. I know they would run circles around them.
Progression was only 2 years when I started, now it is 5. The payoff is much higher, as not many jobs guarantee you will make six figures if you put in as little as 50-60 hours a week in 5 years. I doubt progression will be rolled back but I feel that it's maxed out at this point.
Do you remember a UPS without the "Red shirts" in the hub? The ratio of supervisors to hub employees is a definite problem. These are the supervisors I most often see working- setting up an area, picking off, or flat out loading without even attempting to make it look like "training". UPS reduces it's costs by exploiting these working supervisors- paying them less in benefits and now eliminating their pension (participation rates in 401k's are dismal among young people, so matching funds will reduce their costs even more).
With the push to increase the Minimum Wage nationwide it has started to outpace UPS's contractual minimums negating the Company's push to repress starting wages.
Regardless of how you feel about mandated Minimum Wages, you should support it if only that it highlights the Company's misguided plan to erode our starting wage and attract a less desirable workforce. It won't be long before the minimum wage is more than double than the contract wage in several States, making the PT progression meaningless and also eroding the FT progression. I seriously doubt we will see double-digit wage increases anytime soon but at some point the Company will have to address their failure to keep starting wages competitive while at the same time not creating the perception that workers at Top Rate are a lot closer to minimum wage than is comfortable.
When I started the wage at UPS was $8/hr, more than twice the minimum wage of $3.35
This wage, along with the benefits that began in 30 days attracted mostly college students leading to a better quality hire. Many stayed on after completing school.
Today's wage seems to attract more hires out of DES.
In today's dollars, with inflation at 2.51% that would be $16.03 today.
The Teamsters have strongly suggested at every Contract negotiation that the Company's issues regarding retention and quality-of-hire would be eased if the starting wage were raised. The Company has been adamant about keeping this wage repressed.
The problem is compounded because while people want to talk about raising the starting wage, no one is willing to forego their own wage raise to pay for it or walk out for someone who may never be hired. This falls into the right of the Company to run the business into the ground if they wish.
If you calculate the inflation rate on the top pay when you started vs. the buying power today, you will find that we are a few dollars higher. So while starting pay has eroded drastically, Top Rate has not, roughly 10-11% better after accounting for inflation.
The Company has spent millions on Integrad to attempt to increase the success rate of drivers, which has been a complete failure. This is further highlighted by the millions spent on ORION etc to "dumb down" the Package Driver job. When I started you were lucky to receive 2-3 days of OJT and then 30 days later you had a half-day ride with the Manager and you either made it or you were back in the Hub. This job isn't rocket science but there is a definite skill to being a successful Package Driver, and I will put an educated, skilled driver against ORION any day (just peruse this forum for ORION "success" stories).
UPS used to value their Service Providers, now you are seen as a liability. I would love to have 50 of the "Least Best" drivers in any building and pit them against another Company in any industry. I know they would run circles around them.
Progression was only 2 years when I started, now it is 5. The payoff is much higher, as not many jobs guarantee you will make six figures if you put in as little as 50-60 hours a week in 5 years. I doubt progression will be rolled back but I feel that it's maxed out at this point.
Do you remember a UPS without the "Red shirts" in the hub? The ratio of supervisors to hub employees is a definite problem. These are the supervisors I most often see working- setting up an area, picking off, or flat out loading without even attempting to make it look like "training". UPS reduces it's costs by exploiting these working supervisors- paying them less in benefits and now eliminating their pension (participation rates in 401k's are dismal among young people, so matching funds will reduce their costs even more).
With the push to increase the Minimum Wage nationwide it has started to outpace UPS's contractual minimums negating the Company's push to repress starting wages.
Regardless of how you feel about mandated Minimum Wages, you should support it if only that it highlights the Company's misguided plan to erode our starting wage and attract a less desirable workforce. It won't be long before the minimum wage is more than double than the contract wage in several States, making the PT progression meaningless and also eroding the FT progression. I seriously doubt we will see double-digit wage increases anytime soon but at some point the Company will have to address their failure to keep starting wages competitive while at the same time not creating the perception that workers at Top Rate are a lot closer to minimum wage than is comfortable.
