Unions??

cheryl

I started this.
Staff member
The type like the old IWW, yes but the modern contract management unions, not really.
I have known you online for many years. A few years before I started bc. You're edgy and sometimes try to offend and go over the line, but your posts are always welcome here. I am not worried that you have an agenda or are being tribal. You are a thinker. I respect you.
 

Bubblehead

My Senior Picture
I have known you online for many years. A few years before I started bc. You're edgy and sometimes try to offend and go over the line, but your posts are always welcome here. I am not worried that you have an agenda or are being tribal. You are a thinker. I respect you.
Up jumped the devil?
 

cheryl

I started this.
Staff member
Up jumped the devil?
Okay. I will be the devil. I have no official capacity in the teamster union. Doesn't matter to me or my family. Never a member. Accused of being biased and manipulating the teamsters many times. It is what it is. Doesn't matter to me or my family.

Try to find your real devil. I wish you well.
 

MC4YOU2

Wherever I see Trump, it smells like he's Putin.
Okay. I will be the devil. I have no official capacity in the teamster union. Doesn't matter to me or my family. Never a member. Accused of being biased and manipulating the teamsters many times. It is what it is. Doesn't matter to me or my family.

Try to find your real devil. I wish you well.


I'm curious as to why you would have been accused of those things. Were you in mgmt? I've always wondered but it never seemed to be a topic I'd seen anywhere.

What gave you the inspiration for BC? We sure have all benefitted from reading and commenting here. But what were you doing prior to putting it up online? I'm genuinely curious.

If you've answered this before, my apologies. I'd just never seen the back story anywhere. At any rate, thanks for taking the initiative. We all truly appreciate your efforts.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
I have known you online for many years. A few years before I started bc. You're edgy and sometimes try to offend and go over the line, but your posts are always welcome here. I am not worried that you have an agenda or are being tribal. You are a thinker. I respect you.

OK, not exactly sure what this is about or where it's going but thanks the same.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
What gave you the inspiration for BC? We sure have all benefitted from reading and commenting here.

I'll answer some of this and it has to do with Cheryl knowing me before BC was ever even an idea. When UPS announced it was going public, Motley Fool immediately created a UPS stock forum and it was in this forum that she and I first met. The problem with Motley Fool was this forum was for only talking about stock and issues related directly to stock but not anything determined inside information. Such was heavily moderated and such post were deleted. Some folks wanted ot talk about some of the day to day things at UPS and quite honestly I thought MF was way to heavy handed there. Many people expressed frustration and somewhere along there Cheryl got the idea of what became Browncafe and the rest of that history I'll leave to her to fill in. It was at the time a very welcome thing among a lot of people who sadly are not active here anymore.
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
The type like the old IWW, yes but the modern contract management unions, not really.
I get your point Buddy but I have to stick up for 'the modern contract management unions'.
Corporations and larger companies have shown that they don't look at a human resource any differently than they look a piece of machinery. The only element in place right now (at least in Georgia) is Unionized collective bargaining. At least, as far as I know.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
I get your point Buddy but I have to stick up for 'the modern contract management unions'.
Corporations and larger companies have shown that they don't look at a human resource any differently than they look a piece of machinery. The only element in place right now (at least in Georgia) is Unionized collective bargaining. At least, as far as I know.

The old unions such a the IWW and Knights of Labor were real unions in the true sense of the word. Once govt and Corp. America destroyed those unions and created contract management, labor was effectively dead and only the years need to roll by until they came to realize it. 100 years later we have reached that reality.

Next year UPS will for the most part dictate terms and the IBT will snap to attention and say yes sir. I see little else in the way of any other option.
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
The old unions such a the IWW and Knights of Labor were real unions in the true sense of the word. Once govt and Corp. America destroyed those unions and created contract management, labor was effectively dead and only the years need to roll by until they came to realize it. 100 years later we have reached that reality.

Next year UPS will for the most part dictate terms and the IBT will snap to attention and say yes sir. I see little else in the way of any other option.
That's unfortunate!
I've looked at it from a business and operational perspective and UPS is continuously getting squeezed by competitors with key lower operating cost in certain variables.
It's not bleak just gray.
I look at my UPS Pension and Social Security with about the same probabilities and plan accordingly.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
That's unfortunate!
I've looked at it from a business and operational perspective and UPS is continuously getting squeezed by competitors with key lower operating cost in certain variables.
It's not bleak just gray.
I look at my UPS Pension and Social Security with about the same probabilities and plan accordingly.

Looking at what is happening to non union pensions at UPS, that is a HUGE warning shot being fired over the bow. All UPSers, union and non union alike should be saving big time and eliminating any and all possible debt. UPS is saying something and everyone needs to listen. This ain't about the next contract, this is about the next 10 years out. It's coming, get ready.

Pro-Union here---but I do wish they would have managed the pension fund better.

They choose direct raises meaning more union dues for themselves over the obvious problems than would manifest over the longterm with the union brethren being the one left without a chair when the music stops. Sadly you are a testament to that reality. I've said what I would do if I were in charge concerning this problem and you yourself saw how quickly that got shot down by folks right here. Had that been done day one when the hand writing was on the wall, I doubt Central States or some of the other funds would be in the trouble they are in and most likely, the union would still have control of the pension funds and in a little better position to push back.

One other thing the union should have done was to think of the membership first and make our insurance upon retirement free so to speak and upon turning age 65, instead of losing the union insurance all together, make the union insurance a supplemental policy with Medicare the primary. That's called taking care of your people which builds loyalty and maybe even lead to more employees not just becoming members but other non union workers wanting to become union to enjoy the fruit of that labor.

But once unions became big business themselves, we were bought and sold many times over and now here we stand.
 
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