FedEx mounts big-money push to head off unionization by US workers

[bacha29]

We've got 50-something veterans who can get the job done way quicker/better than a lot of the new young couriers. The veterans have 5 stops made before the new guy has all the addresses put into his phone some mornings.

Running fast and speeding doesn't necessarily equate to being faster. Many veteran couriers can walk to every stop on their entire route and do it in less time than a new courier who runs, simply because they spend too much time spazzing about how many stops they have or whatever.

Good to hear that but here's a situation I saw too many times at Ground:

Ground contractor to 55 year old box ox: "You've done a good job for me all theses years but I have to let you go. It's not that you're doing less it's just that you can't seem to do any more not only when it comes to doing your own ever increasing daily route load but also your growing inability to do the route of the guy who happened to call off that day along with your own.

Dependable, long suffering contractor employed driver:.. " Ok, so if this is your way of rewarding loyalty then all I have to say is "hasta lavista, baby. I'm out of here as in right this very moment"....Starts walking out.

Contractor: "But,but wait. You can't go yet. You have to stay 3 more weeks to train the guy who is going to replace you because I don't have a manager and I drive a daily route myself".

Dependable, long suffering contractor employed driver: " You think so? Don't you remember? I am an "at will" employee and you've just told me that I've been
replaced. Therefore, training and bringing the replacement up to speed is a contractor problem that requires a contractor solution".

Believe me, I saw this situation plenty of times.

 

[Cactus]

Good to hear that but here's a situation I saw too many times at Ground:

Ground contractor to 55 year old box ox: "You've done a good job for me all theses years but I have to let you go. It's not that you're doing less it's just that you can't seem to do any more not only when it comes to doing your own ever increasing daily route load but also your growing inability to do the route of the guy who happened to call off that day along with your own.

Dependable, long suffering contractor employed driver:.. " Ok, so if this is your way of rewarding loyalty then all I have to say is "hasta lavista, baby. I'm out of here as in right this very moment"....Starts walking out.

Contractor: "But,but wait. You can't go yet. You have to stay 3 more weeks to train the guy who is going to replace you because I don't have a manager and I drive a daily route myself".

Dependable, long suffering contractor employed driver: " You think so? Don't you remember? I am an "at will" employee and you've just told me that I've been
replaced. Therefore, training and bringing the replacement up to speed is a contractor problem that requires a contractor solution".

Believe me, I saw this situation plenty of times.

No one should have to do more than their own route unless their own route is very light and they might need the work. But too many times this happens at both Ground and Express when they try to get away with extra lean staffing but it will always bite them in the ass before long. Expecting a driver to become superman and handle too heavy of a workload is gonna have its' consequences, whether be injuries, vehicle accident or poor service. So many managers and contractors are so guilty of this and they're usually the ones who couldn't even do a half a route in a day.

 

[bacha29]

No one should have to do more than their own route unless their own route is very light and they might need the work. But too many times this happens at both Ground and Express when they try to get away with extra lean staffing but it will always bite them in the ass before long. Expecting a driver to become superman and handle too heavy of a workload is gonna have its' consequences, whether be injuries, vehicle accident or poor service. So many managers and contractors are so guilty of this and they're usually the ones who couldn't even do a half a route in a day.

Yep. We've seen it many many times. Now IWBF on the other hand thinks it's funny and creative. That's because he thinks the whole damn world is like his Boston metro area. I'm sorry to have to inform him that it's not. Rural contractors running out of small terminals driving a route everyday is still a very common occurrence. The handful of dollars of income those 4-5 additional routes make won't sustain a person.The shortened life span of the vehicles is one of the reasons. By the time you get one paid for it's smelter bait and in many cases you're lucky if it even lasted that long.

 

[It will be fine]

Yep. We've seen it many many times. Now IWBF on the other hand thinks it's funny and creative. That's because he thinks the whole damn world is like his Boston metro area. I'm sorry to have to inform him that it's not. Rural contractors running out of small terminals driving a route everyday is still a very common occurrence. The handful of dollars of income those 4-5 additional routes make won't sustain a person.The shortened life span of the vehicles is one of the reasons. By the time you get one paid for it's smelter bait and in many cases you're lucky if it even lasted that long.

Which is it? Rural is super duper bad and impossible or the dude you sold to operates at a profit large enough to pay off the sale early? It can’t be both.

 

[bacha29]

Which is it? Rural is super duper bad and impossible or the dude you sold to operates at a profit large enough to pay off the sale early? It can’t be both.

The proposed early payoff was conditional upon a successful upcoming peak season. That's why I suggested to him that he focus on peak season redundancy first then worry about an early payoff later.

 

[Fred's Myth]

The proposed early payoff was conditional upon a successful upcoming peak season. That's why I suggested to him that he focus on peak season redundancy first then worry about an early payoff later.

Do you mean that if you accepted an early payoff, and peak wasn’t successful, you’d have to give the money back?

You don’t make sense.

 

[bacha29]

Do you mean that if you accepted an early payoff, and peak wasn’t successful, you’d have to give the money back?

You don’t make sense.

Just try to keep up. The offer to pay off was conditional upon a successful peak season and the payoff proposal would occur following peak season. While I said that i would be receptive to a early payoff despite the lack of language to that effect I believed it would be mutually beneficial that he be as well prepared as possible for peak.

Now again not a single term in that contract is binding upon X. If this individual was totally unprepared and was failing miserably he would get an "order to correct" which gives him a limited amount of time to take corrective action or it's "hasta lavista baby" which they can easily do because of the existence of their teams of mercenary contractors they have roaming the country like locusts who quickly move in and cover the routes.

 

[Fred's Myth]

Just try to keep up. The offer to pay off was conditional upon a successful peak season and the payoff proposal would occur following peak season. While I said that i would be receptive to a early payoff despite the lack of language to that effect I believed it would be mutually beneficial that he be as well prepared as possible for peak.

Now again not a single term in that contract is binding upon X. If this individual was totally unprepared and was failing miserably he would get an "order to correct" which gives him a limited amount of time to take corrective action or it's "hasta lavista baby" which they can easily do because of the existence of their teams of mercenary contractors they have roaming the country like locusts who quickly move in and cover the routes.

Then you're not very savvy for not taking the money while it was there. If they pull the rug from under him, you end up empty-handed as well.

 

[btrlov]

CURRENT PAY RATE 37.64 TAXES
- REGULAR 37.640 40.00 1,505.60 FICA 140.01 6,031.47
- OVERTIME 56.460 13.33 752.61 FICA MEDICARE 32.75 1,410.59
- FEDERAL TAX 237.91 8,732.93
- CURRENT TOTALS 2,258.21 ST TAX- NC 98.00 4,156.00
- Y-T-D TOTALS 2,440.31 97,281.80 TOTALS 508.67
- DEDUCTIONS
-
- UNIONDUE 23.00 1,078.00
-

last check of year avg 43 hrs wk

I make 37.79/ at a northeast major railroad....at 40/hrs week I didn't Gross over 90k. Hence the op is doing extra hrs. 37.64 * 40 * 52 = 79k. I'm not seeing ur math

There nothing wrong with that but don't represent that as base salary to convey superiority over some poor FedEx courier. U had to work hard, u had to work long days,maybe weekends and maybe nights, and maybe u missed some social events . Bragging about a 6 figure salary while some part time preloader had to schlep boxes in your truck for 1/5 ur pay that u voted so that u can continue the pay...that is kinda asanine. that helper with crappy vest and crappy id also has to suffer low wages for ur 6 figure salary

 

[btrlov]

There nothing wrong with that but don't represent that as base salary to convey superiority over some poor FedEx courier. U had to work hard, u had to work long days,maybe weekends and maybe nights, and maybe u missed some social events . Bragging about a 6 figure salary while some part time preloader had to Unload trucks then schlep boxes in your truck for nearly 1/5 ur pay so that u can continue 6figs...that is kinda asinine. that helper with a crappy vest, crappy id that u give all the crappy stops too that may or may not have a job after peak also has to suffer low wages for ur 6 figure salary.

U guys never talk bout being fired by center managers for the slightest of dishonesty ..being sneakily denied union book by on car sups and full time sups ...having to shave....backlogs of arbitration because of management violations. the thousands of hours of work hrs lost by management working because the union cant get their employees to come to work consistently, the injuries the wear in tear. yall never talk about hybrid or combo jobs that have further sold out younger and newer employees to inferior wages. Talk bout the pensioners that still working in their 70s taking up spots for younger ppl. look at the other forums ups is not an oasis of the promise land... plenty of ppl leave ... its a job

 

[bacha29]

No one should have to do more than their own route unless their own route is very light and they might need the work. But too many times this happens at both Ground and Express when they try to get away with extra lean staffing but it will always bite them in the ass before long. Expecting a driver to become superman and handle too heavy of a workload is gonna have its' consequences, whether be injuries, vehicle accident or poor service. So many managers and contractors are so guilty of this and they're usually the ones who couldn't even do a half a route in a day.

Indeed. The difference at Ground however is that the majority of those grunts are on perdiems/salary so there's no overtime. Therefore, it doesn't matter if the job takes 8 hours or 14 hours it all pays the same. Now if he's able to do the call off guy's route in addition to his own and the call off guy in all likelihood didn't get paid for the day then that contractor got the call off guy's load delivered for free.

 

[bacha29]

Then you're not very savvy for not taking the money while it was there. If they pull the rug from under him, you end up empty-handed as well.

Trying to help the young man to survive. Remember I was one of 3 guys who actually started that station and in addition to finding a way to survive on our own at it we did whatever other tasks that had to be done to fight off closure twice in the first 3 years.

As the place grew a little bit new routes opened up and all 3 of us handed them off to new people and we did everything we could to help them survive. Unfortunately the majority didn't make it and the ones who lasted the shortest length of time were the ones who got greedy and took additional routes.

The common failure was that they couldn't adjust to the fact that in this environment profit that's what you give the government. What you live on is your cash flow requiring that you live well within your means in order to preserve and build cash. By doing it this way when the time came to go I walked away totally debt free, a healthy 6 figure after tax corporate cash reserve when closed and a fully funded self employed IRA. For those who went below the Mendoza Line it was almost always a case of the inability to withstand the physical beating combined with trying to live beyond their means.

 

[Fred's Myth]

Trying to help the young man to survive. Remember I was one of 3 guys who actually started that station and in addition to finding a way to survive on our own at it we did whatever other tasks that had to be done to fight off closure twice in the first 3 years.

As the place grew a little bit new routes opened up and all 3 of us handed them off to new people and we did everything we could to help them survive. Unfortunately the majority didn't make it and the ones who lasted the shortest length of time were the ones who got greedy and took additional routes.

The common failure was that they couldn't adjust to the fact that in this environment profit that's what you give the government. What you live on is your cash flow requiring that you live well within your means in order to preserve and build cash. By doing it this way when the time came to go I walked away totally debt free, a healthy 6 figure after tax corporate cash reserve when closed and a fully funded self employed IRA. For those who went below the Mendoza Line it was almost always a case of the inability to withstand the physical beating combined with trying to live beyond their means.

Obviously you post on BC to regale the masses with your colorful life story under the guise of sharing your nonexistent business acumen.

 

[MrFedEx]

Obviously you post on BC to regale the masses with your colorful life story under the guise of sharing your nonexistent business acumen.

And your qualifications to comment on Ground contractors are...?

ZERO

 

[bacha29]

Obviously you post on BC to regale the masses with your colorful life story under the guise of sharing your nonexistent business acumen.

Coming from a guy who never spent a single day in self employment .

 

[MrFedEx]

Coming from a guy who never spent a single day in self employment .

He's a Republican, AND a Christian, so he gets knows everything.

 

[It will be fine]

Coming from a guy who never spent a single day in self employment .

Pro tip, if someone wants to give you money, say yes. You’re welcome.

 

[Fred's Myth]

Coming from a guy who never spent a single day in self employment .

More inaccurate bloviating from the ignorant.

 

[59 Dano]

Express "standard of speed" is a variable, subject to the whims of management. It is based on the premise that if a number has ever been achieved, regardless of circumstances, it is attainable under all circumstances.

When a certain level of performance has been consistently achieved by a swing/substitute and checkride verified, the guy who has has been on that route for 10 years should be able to consistently achieve a comparable level of performance.

It is immaterial that the purported experts, management, cannot personally demonstrate that attainability. I say put up or shut up.

I've always loved this attitude. It's a wonderful copout.

 

[59 Dano]

Remember I was one of 3 guys who actually started that station

I think you may have mentioned it once.

For those who went below the Mendoza Line

I'll take Misused Figures of Speech for three hundred, Alex.