Not topped out record Express

[bacha29]

Fred out maneuvered us and got the company covered under the Railroad Labor Act. And then when it looked like a vote was finally going to take place on the Express Employees Relief Act, an attachment to an FAA bill, he threw a reputed $32 million at Democrat Congressmen to vote to table the act to a later date, plus put new requirements on voting for a union under the RLA. Became nearly impossible for us to unionize. The Teamsters walked away from us.

I never expected UPS pay and benefits. Just stick to their promises of topping out in a reasonable time and keep our benefits in place. As I've pointed out before they have overhead flying most freight that UPS doesn't and it's not realistic to give everyone $40hr+ and great benefits. That's what advocates like @bacha29 won't tell you. But in their pursuit of profit they turned a solid job into a joke.

Exactly. Prime Weasel and his loyal followers succeeded in burning into your minds the belief that due to market forces they can't pay UPS range wages and benefits..... And by doing so they never have to first test the market to see if the market will support comparable compensation.

Teamsters on the other hand have market analysists of their own. Either inhouse or contracted expertise from outside firms.
They go into negotiations with a pretty could idea as to what the market will bear and base their demands accordingly .

And over the years..... they've become pretty darn good at it.

 

[It will be fine]

Hey, I get it they had their problems, but do you really think you were better off without them?

I sure have been.

 

[UnionStrong]

Hey, I get it they had their problems, but do you really think you were better off without them?

Must not have liked mean tweets either.

 

[fdxsux]

I've seen the numbers. FedEx Express pays over half its gross on payroll. 25% on fuel. Out of the rest they cover aircraft, trucks, rent, building maintenance, uniforms, etc. What's leftover is gross profits and after paying the taxes on that they pay dividends to shareholders and use the rest for expanding their business. That after tax profit has ranged from $2 billion in very good years to less than $100 million in lean years. The year I looked at the numbers they grossed $52 billion and over half was payroll. It's considerably more now but their number of employees has greatly expanded too. Please tell me how with those kind of numbers they are going to give $40hr or more after 3 or 4 years? With company paid healthcare for not only the employee but his family too? And a pension of $50k or more? You guys have unrealistic expectations but that won't stop some here from accusing me of being a corporate apologist. FedEx is a private company. They can't print money. Nor can they pass all the extra cost onto customers in a competitive market. It's exactly why they started Ground. The cost to them per package is much, much less than at Express which makes Ground freight much more profitable. Ground is an UPS type operation but to their shame FedEx has structured it in such a way to keep unions out and Ground employees wage slaves. And their contractors justify it as these are just entry level jobs and the drivers don't deserve anymore. So please focus your anger on where it's due. FedEx could pay better at Express, but nowhere near what many employees think they can. They could pay a lot better at Ground, but they want those profits for themselves and they are aided and abetted by contractor managers who don't care about driver pay as long as they get theirs.

The only reason they don’t pay better is because they don’t have to.

 

[vantexan]

The only reason they don’t pay better is because they don’t have to.

Okey dokey.

 

[!Retired!]

Hey, I get it they had their problems, but do you really think you were better off without them?

No idea what would've/could've been. I do know wouldn't be where I am today if I started with UPS.

 

[vantexan]

Exactly. Prime Weasel and his loyal followers succeeded in burning into your minds the belief that due to market forces they can't pay UPS range wages and benefits..... And by doing so they never have to first test the market to see if the market will support comparable compensation.

Teamsters on the other hand have market analysists of their own. Either inhouse or contracted expertise from outside firms.
They go into negotiations with a pretty could idea as to what the market will bear and base their demands accordingly .

And over the years..... they've become pretty darn good at it.

And yet the Teamsters refused to organize any further at Express after 2010. What does that tell you about FedEx Express ability to pay comparable to UPS wages and benefits? If the money was there the Teamsters would've been trying to get their share of it.

 

[Thebrownblob]

No idea what would've/could've been. I do know wouldn't be where I am today if I started with UPS.

Well, I don’t know where you are now, but I do know that FedEx express drivers wouldn’t have got such slap in the face raises, and most likely would’ve had a pension, lots of vacation, healthcare and would not be looking at the possibility of being absorbed by ground right now.

 

[Thebrownblob]

And yet the Teamsters refused to organize any further at Express after 2010. What does that tell you about FedEx Express ability to pay comparable to UPS wages and benefits? If the money was there the Teamsters would've been trying to get their share of it.

Sorry, I was actively involved in the campaign 2007-2009 it had nothing to do with FedEx not having the money it had everything to do with politicians, promising to remove FedEx from the Railway act and then stabbing us in the back most notably the Obama administration. Once that happened, it was effectively impossible for us to organize FedEx all at once. There just wasn’t enough money for that in the Teamsters at the time. Couple that with a less than stellar reception from many FedEx express employees they told us Fred S is going to take care of them we moved on.

 

[UnionStrong]

Sorry, I was actively involved in the campaign 2007-2009 it had nothing to do with FedEx not having the money it had everything to do with politicians, promising to remove FedEx from the Railway act and then stabbing us in the back most notably the Obama administration. Once that happened, it was effectively impossible for us to organize FedEx all at once. There just wasn’t enough money for that in the Teamsters at the time. Couple that with a less than stellar reception from many FedEx express employees he told us Fred S is going to take care of them we moved on.

Bingo.

 

[Thebrownblob]

Bingo.

It was one of the only times I saw the Teamsters and UPS get together and have us fill out letters to our elected officials asking for them to remove FedEx from the Railway act to even the playing field.

 

[UnionStrong]

It was one of the only times I saw the Teamsters and UPS get together and have us fill out letters to our elected officials asking for them to remove FedEx from the Railway act to even the playing field.

UPS got the last laugh.

 

[pkgdriver]

It was one of the only times I saw the Teamsters and UPS get together and have us fill out letters to our elected officials asking for them to remove FedEx from the Railway act to even the playing field.

Yep. I was about to bring that up. FedEx would have to be organized nationally I believe rather than each station/hub.

 

[Thebrownblob]

Yep. I was about to bring that up. FedEx would have to be organized nationally I believe rather than each station/hub.

Nearly impossible not to mention most organizing is done through the local level unions in the Teamsters.

 

[MrFedEx]

And yet the Teamsters refused to organize any further at Express after 2010. What does that tell you about FedEx Express ability to pay comparable to UPS wages and benefits? If the money was there the Teamsters would've been trying to get their share of it.

R.L.A.

 

[vantexan]

Sorry, I was actively involved in the campaign 2007-2009 it had nothing to do with FedEx not having the money it had everything to do with politicians, promising to remove FedEx from the Railway act and then stabbing us in the back most notably the Obama administration. Once that happened, it was effectively impossible for us to organize FedEx all at once. There just wasn’t enough money for that in the Teamsters at the time. Couple that with a less than stellar reception from many FedEx express employees they told us Fred S is going to take care of them we moved on.

You're pretty much saying what I did. Bacha was saying that the Teamsters are very skilled at analyzing and determining what is possible. So why did they walk away if it was still feasible to organize? If the money was there and they could get us organized then they would have. The government increased the amount of employees needed to sign union cards from 35% to 50% in order to force a vote. And under the RLA it had to be a national vote. Couldn't vote station by station.

No matter what if the union had got in and insisted on comparable to UPS pay and benefits at Express or else they would strike what do you believe would've happened? Emery Air Freight closed down after a strike in the late 80's. If the money isn't there it just isn't there.

 

[UnionStrong]

You're pretty much saying what I did. Bacha was saying that the Teamsters are very skilled at analyzing and determining what is possible. So why did they walk away if it was still feasible to organize? If the money was there and they could get us organized then they would have. The government increased the amount of employees needed to sign union cards from 35% to 50% in order to force a vote. And under the RLA it had to be a national vote. Couldn't vote station by station.

No matter what if the union had got in and insisted on comparable to UPS pay and benefits at Express or else they would strike what do you believe would've happened? Emery Air Freight closed down after a strike in the late 80's. If the money isn't there it just isn't there.

The point is that the company colluded with members of Congress to make it nearly impossible to organize. Who knows what money they would have paid employees if a union was started. Are you or were you the CFO? Bottom line, you don’t know, no one does. But given the current situation, seems like it would have been worth a try.

 

[MrFedEx]

You're pretty much saying what I did. Bacha was saying that the Teamsters are very skilled at analyzing and determining what was possible. So why did they walk away if it was still feasible to organize? If the money was there and they could get us organized then they would have. The government increased the amount of employees needed to sign union cards from 35% to 50% in order to force a vote. And under the RLA it had to be a national vote. Couldn't vote station by station.

No matter what if the union had got in and insisted on comparable to UPS pay and benefits at Express or else they would strike what do you believe would've happened? Emery Air Freight closed down after a strike in the late 80's. If the money isn't there it just isn't there.

Learn about stock buybacks, which increase share prices and add vastly to the value of executive portfolios. FedEx has been guilty of doing this at exponential levels for many years. Top management and pilots have done very well indeed.Thanks, Ronald Reagan.
Don’t forget all of the investment in Ground infrastructure from Express profits.
All of this while Fred picked your pockets by cutting perks, benefits, and not allowing wages to keep pace with inflation.
Get real.

 

[vantexan]

The point is that the company colluded with members of Congress to make it nearly impossible to organize. Who knows what money they would have paid employees if a union was started. Are you or were you the CFO? Bottom line, you don’t know, no one does. But given the current situation, seems like it would have been worth a try.

It's public knowledge from federally required publishing of all expenditures, taxes, profits, etc of a publicly traded company. They don't get to hide money. That's the point of having accountants keep books. And people have gone to prison for trying to beat the system. The money to do what UPS does just wasn't/isn't there. As I've repeatedly said which you guys won't acknowledge is that Express has much higher overhead, much higher cost per package, from flying most of its freight.

Do you understand why our pension and healthcare were gutted? Why our raises for years were held down to 2% if we got a raise at all? FedEx was using that money to build Ground infrastructure. If the money had been there to give us much better pay and benefits if we had unionized then it would've happened. They had to rob Peter to pay Paul in order to build up Ground. THEY COULD HAVE LEFT THINGS AS THEY WERE AND TOPPED US OUT IN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME WITH DECENT PAY AND BENEFITS. BUT THEY WANTED A MUCH HIGHER STOCK PRICE SO THAT THOSE WHO HELD A LOT OF STOCK COULD GET THAT MUCH RICHER. THEY SCREWED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE OVER IN PURSUIT OF HIGHER PROFITS. And now they have a company with mostly dead end jobs.

 

[Thebrownblob]

You're pretty much saying what I did. Bacha was saying that the Teamsters are very skilled at analyzing and determining what is possible. So why did they walk away if it was still feasible to organize? If the money was there and they could get us organized then they would have. The government increased the amount of employees needed to sign union cards from 35% to 50% in order to force a vote. And under the RLA it had to be a national vote. Couldn't vote station by station.

No matter what if the union had got in and insisted on comparable to UPS pay and benefits at Express or else they would strike what do you believe would've happened? Emery Air Freight closed down after a strike in the late 80's. If the money isn't there it just isn't there.

Because Politicians did not follow through with what they promised. The Railway act protection was supposed to be taken away. The Obama administration reneged for whatever reason. It wasn’t a FedEx didn’t have the money it was that the Teamsters were not set up to organize national at once. Couple that was a cool reception from many of the employees. It was just not going to happen. There was plenty of money .
No one saying you would’ve gotten a contract, the same as UPS. But they would’ve got a contract, and they would’ve had guarantees and protections.