Uncle Rico

[MrFedEx]

A week or so ago I was accused of being an "Uncle Rico", the loser uncle character in "Napoleon Dynamite" who is still stuck in his 80's high school past as star quarterback of the football team. I was told I'm looking for the Federal Express "of the past", or words to that effect. Sorry, but I disagree with that assessment.

While Federal Express circa the 80's was a much better company than today's pathetic organization, I'm not the one stuck in the 80's... Mr. Smith is. I'd like to be paid wages that make sense today, not pay that is commensurate with 1985. I'd also like decent benefits that have kept up with the times...guess that isn't happening either, is it?

My pay was around $15 per hour in 1985, about the same as a new hire in most markets today. Gee, has the cost of living gone-up in the last 28 years? Why, I believe that it has, but Fred still thinks $15 per hour is a good wage, and so do folks like bbsam, who pay less than that, with no benefits whatsoever. Perhaps they are actually back in the 70's with Richie, Potsy, Ralph, and The Fonz, since that type of pay corresponds with a competitive wage almost 40 years ago, if you figure-in the fact that Ground drivers get zero in compensation besides their puny wage.

So, no. I don't want to live in my van and take videos of myself delivering Zapmail ala' Uncle Rico, and I don't revel in a "glorious past" of Federal Express, because it really wasn't all that great anyway. But I do want to be paid a living wage in 2013, and I want my coworkers to have a rate of pay that corresponds to the amount of risk and effort they undertake in their jobs.

Remember, Fred also wants higher rates of productivity than we had back in the 80's too, but he doesn't want to pay for it. The Express courier has never been more productive OR more underpaid. Perhaps bbsam and the others who want to live in the past can get there through pretending they are back in the 1930's, when workers had finally had enough , and fought-back...hard.

But we can't have that, right? Hoffa is such wuss that he'd never have the cajones to support workers like a true union leader.

 

[DontThrowPackages]

A week or so ago I was accused of being an "Uncle Rico", the loser uncle character in "Napoleon Dynamite" who is still stuck in his 80's high school past as star quarterback of the football team. I was told I'm looking for the Federal Express "of the past", or words to that effect. Sorry, but I disagree with that assessment.

While Federal Express circa the 80's was a much better company than today's pathetic organization, I'm not the one stuck in the 80's... Mr. Smith is. I'd like to be paid wages that make sense today, not pay that is commensurate with 1985. I'd also like decent benefits that have kept up with the times...guess that isn't happening either, is it?

My pay was around $15 per hour in 1985, about the same as a new hire in most markets today. Gee, has the cost of living gone-up in the last 28 years? Why, I believe that it has, but Fred still thinks $15 per hour is a good wage, and so do folks like bbsam, who pay less than that, with no benefits whatsoever. Perhaps they are actually back in the 70's with Richie, Potsy, Ralph, and The Fonz, since that type of pay corresponds with a competitive wage almost 40 years ago, if you figure-in the fact that Ground drivers get zero in compensation besides their puny wage.

So, no. I don't want to live in my van and take videos of myself delivering Zapmail ala' Uncle Rico, and I don't revel in a "glorious past" of Federal Express, because it really wasn't all that great anyway. But I do want to be paid a living wage in 2013, and I want my coworkers to have a rate of pay that corresponds to the amount of risk and effort they undertake in their jobs.

Remember, Fred also wants higher rates of productivity than we had back in the 80's too, but he doesn't want to pay for it. The Express courier has never been more productive OR more underpaid. Perhaps bbsam and the others who want to live in the past can get there through pretending they are back in the 1930's, when workers had finally had enough , and fought-back...hard.

But we can't have that, right? Hoffa is such wuss that he'd never have the cajones to support workers like a true union leader.

Back when the unions were at their strongest was when they had ties to the mob. Only fear, not the goodness of their hearts, made company heads do right by the average employee. Today the mob is worried more about other endeavors to be bothered with unions. The fear is gone and Ceo's have deemed themselves 400 times more important than the average working man. 70pct of the economy is consumer spending. No one I know is buying any big ticket items so either the Ceos have figured out the perfect balance between profit and justifying their 400X over salaries or stocks prices are over inflated. Time will only tell. Instead of sleeping in tents and doing nothing, the 99 percenters would have been better serve organizing a mass retail boycott. "We have no money, we buy nothing".

 

[bbsam]

Seems I struck a nerve, eh Uncle Rico? Don't start blaming Hoffa or anyone else for Express' monumental failure to organize. Everyone knew it would be ugly, that there would be blood, and they decided to stand down, bend over, and grab their ankles instead.

 

[Cactus]

Seems I struck a nerve, eh Uncle Rico? Don't start blaming Hoffa or anyone else for Express' monumental failure to organize. Everyone knew it would be ugly, that there would be blood, and they decided to stand down, bend over, and grab their ankles instead.

Well then enlighten us all and detail your step by step process to accomplish this.

Hell, Hoffa and his boys ran from the FedEx Ground loaders that tried to organize out east a few years ago before there was even a chance to vote. I guess Hoffa found Fred's wallet more to his liking than any potential new members.

 

[bbsam]

Full frontal attack. Leaders need to step up and put it on the line, probably those with the most to lose. Topped out couriers outside Express stations handing out cards and spreading the organizing message. Gotta show the rank and file that it's worth fighting for, worth losing for otherwise it's all just piss and vinegar.

 

[bbsam]

Of course, maybe it's not worth fighting for....

 

[MrFedEx]

Back when the unions were at their strongest was when they had ties to the mob. Only fear, not the goodness of their hearts, made company heads do right by the average employee. Today the mob is worried more about other endeavors to be bothered with unions. The fear is gone and Ceo's have deemed themselves 400 times more important than the average working man. 70pct of the economy is consumer spending. No one I know is buying any big ticket items so either the Ceos have figured out the perfect balance between profit and justifying their 400X over salaries or stocks prices are over inflated. Time will only tell. Instead of sleeping in tents and doing nothing, the 99 percenters would have been better serve organizing a mass retail boycott. "We have no money, we buy nothing".

Hoffa Sr. was a known crook, but you need a criminal to deal with a fellow criminal (Mr. Smith) effectively. I'll take senior over his son any day. If it takes fear to eliminate Fred, so be it. How are political criminals any better than the mob variety? They're both bad.

 

[Sniper]

Who else recalls when the pilots organized. "Oh, we will go bankrupt", "Oh, they will strike and stop the shipments"... Oh...crap.... "the sky is falling"
NONE of that happened and WE never missed a beat. There is a lesson here...

 

[MrFedEx]

Who else recalls when the pilots organized. "Oh, we will go bankrupt", "Oh, they will strike and stop the shipments"... Oh...crap.... "the sky is falling"
NONE of that happened and WE never missed a beat. There is a lesson here...

Yes, there is. You, and a few others have learned it. Everyone else needs to get a clue.

 

[bbsam]

Problem is, it's no good preaching to the choir. Gonna have to expand the congregation.

 

[MrFedEx]

Problem is, it's no good preaching to the choir. Gonna have to expand the congregation.

The congregation largely "gets it" these days, so expanding their numbers isn't the answer. We have the numbers, but we don't have the organization to bring the different "churches" together.

 

[bbsam]

That's where Rev. Ed could play a role.

 

[MrFedEx]

That's where Rev. Ed could play a role.

Actually, Reverend Hoffa would be better, but he's not available. I'm a regular Ed listener, and he doesn't like to criticize people like Smith so much, preferring to go after those trying to kill public sector unions. I'd like to see Hoffa as a guest, and then have Ed lob softballs at him just like the other liberal hosts do. I really doubt that Ed would go after Smith because Smith was praised by Obama and Ed thinks Obama walks on water. Ergo, no attack on Smith's business practices.

 

[MrFedEx]

Back when the unions were at their strongest was when they had ties to the mob. Only fear, not the goodness of their hearts, made company heads do right by the average employee. Today the mob is worried more about other endeavors to be bothered with unions. The fear is gone and Ceo's have deemed themselves 400 times more important than the average working man. 70pct of the economy is consumer spending. No one I know is buying any big ticket items so either the Ceos have figured out the perfect balance between profit and justifying their 400X over salaries or stocks prices are over inflated. Time will only tell. Instead of sleeping in tents and doing nothing, the 99 percenters would have been better serve organizing a mass retail boycott. "We have no money, we buy nothing".

Fred always tells us that the Teamsters are connected with the mob anyway, so why not go in with eyes wide open? Hoffa Sr. used to regularly raid the Central States Pension Fund in order to loan money to the mob so they could build casinos in Vegas etc., and as far as I know, they paid back into the fund. Now, while that's criminal, how is what Mr. Smith is doing (buying politicians and manipulating our legislative system) any less palatable?

Bottom line? I could care less if the IBT has mob ties or if we need organized crime to have a "baseball bat" with which to threaten Fred. He plays dirty, so we need to play dirty back. Perhaps we need to resurrect some of the ways of the past to deal with the present.

 

[MrFedEx]

Seems I struck a nerve, eh Uncle Rico? Don't start blaming Hoffa or anyone else for Express' monumental failure to organize. Everyone knew it would be ugly, that there would be blood, and they decided to stand down, bend over, and grab their ankles instead.

You're right. I'm going to give-up, move to Mexico in my gold 1978 Dodge Tradesman (with cool camper conversion), and start taking videos of myself in my old FedEx uniform. Maybe I can find some hot Mexican babe who digs Angel Flight pants, powder blue suits, and white shoes.

vantexan and I can be neighbors and we can talk about how the US government has been taken over by Communist liberal Kenyan Muslims with ties to the Taliban and George Soros. I can hardly wait.

 

[CJinx]

Hell, Hoffa and his boys ran from the FedEx Ground loaders that tried to organize out east a few years ago before there was even a chance to vote. I guess Hoffa found Fred's wallet more to his liking than any potential new members.

That battle was lost before it began. Most of the complaints from the package handlers were quickly addressed before the vote(old/damaged equipment, white managers vs minority preloaders, cookouts, etc). I also heard that HR saturated the building with anti-union propaganda and personnel.

 

[Cactus]

That battle was lost before it began. Most of the complaints from the package handlers were quickly addressed before the vote(old/damaged equipment, white managers vs minority preloaders, cookouts, etc). I also heard that HR saturated the building with anti-union propaganda and personnel.

So the complaints were quickly addressed, big deal. I'm sure they solved them by firing the employees. The Teamsters ran like scared children.

 

[CJinx]

So the complaints were quickly addressed, big deal. I'm sure they solved them by firing the employees. The Teamsters ran like scared children.

As far as I know, nobody got canned... but package handler turnover is already ridiculously high anyway, nobody would really notice. The point is that the movement was too stupid to notice what was going on and interest waned prior to the vote. Teamsters walked away from a fight they weren't going to win. Cowardly? You could argue that, but I suppose they'd rather live to fight another day.

 

[Cactus]

As far as I know, nobody got canned... but package handler turnover is already ridiculously high anyway, nobody would really notice. The point is that the movement was too stupid to notice what was going on and interest waned prior to the vote. Teamsters walked away from a fight they weren't going to win. Cowardly? You could argue that, but I suppose they'd rather live to fight another day.

Running away is something that's happening all to frequently.

 

[vantexan]

You're right. I'm going to give-up, move to Mexico in my gold 1978 Dodge Tradesman (with cool camper conversion), and start taking videos of myself in my old FedEx uniform. Maybe I can find some hot Mexican babe who digs Angel Flight pants, powder blue suits, and white shoes.

vantexan and I can be neighbors and we can talk about how the US government has been taken over by Communist liberal Kenyan Muslims with ties to the Taliban and George Soros. I can hardly wait.

​Lucidity, what a concept!