Yes, you bravely stayed with the company to fight the good fight.
Staying with a sinking ship when one has a lifeboat available isn't brave, it is outright stupid.
I may be many things - stupid isn't one of them...
Just because you won't look for alternatives for yourself, doesn't mean that others should join you in your holding out till you are all forced into working for minimums or retire early - while seeing your real compensation steadily erode each year while doing so.
That isn't "fighting the good fight" - it is denying the inevitable.
If you think you are serving some higher purpose by staying at Express and being subjected to everything you have stated on this forum - you are either a masochist or severely deluded.
The one thing I do appreciate about your presence here is that it allows me to set up an argument as what NOT to do with one's life. It saves me the effort of having to set up a strawman argument. Your biggest obstacle in life hasn't been Express - it has been your own decision making skills. Thankfully, you're the only one who has to pay the consequences of those decisions you have made.
Put frankly, your "master plan" of holding out for as long as you can bear, then heading away to some foreign land to find yourself a woman that has it worse off than you've had it over the past 15 years, then spending the remainder of your life doing to her what you've lamented that Fred has done to you - is outright pathetic.
To the readers of this forum - you can allow yourself to go down the path that "vantexan" has allowed himself to follow, or you can realize the inevitable and do something about it. If you are in your 20's or 30's, you have time to reorientate your "career" prospects and look for something in which you can call a career instead of just a job.
The reality of the situation in Express realistically precludes certifying union representation and putting a stop to the takeaways. You should sign a union representation card if for nothing else than casting a personal vote against the deteriorating situation in Express. There aren't enough that do realize that Express is heading down the tubes (for the employee) to change the direction things are going, so signing a union rep card will be more symbolic than anything else at this point.
In the meantime, you should spend some time each day looking for other options, creating a resume and obtaining skill training in something that has a current demand. Take a look at the postings in Monster dot com, to get an idea of what is out there and what skills are desired by employers - then do what you can to obtain those skills.
Apply for jobs that you wouldn't really want to take - if for nothing else to gain experience in the interview process to better prepare yourself for interviews with employers you really would want to have a career with. I went to many interviews with companies I had no real intention of accepting a job offer from - just to sharpen my "interviewee" skills.
If you are fulltime, you may want to consider dropping down to part-time when a position opens, to allow yourself the opportunity to obtain the needed skills to switch jobs and place yourself into a career which you can be happy with. It is virtually impossible to find other employment when one is working full time. It is often better to take a temporary step backwards, to enable one to take two steps forward. As long as you stay with Express - you are going nowhere. You may be paying your bills now, but a rational person couldn't want to spend their life getting less and less each year, then find themself forced into working less than full time when their employer has fully implemented their vision of a majority part-time wage workforce.
Years ago, Express used to be a company which someone could accept a job with - then turn that into a career if they so chose. That isn't the case anymore. FedEx is already converting what used to be working class careers, into working class jobs with no prospects of either a middle class standard of living, or advancement into a salaried position that is worth having.
You can choose the path that "vantexan" has, you can start looking for something that you can call a career - or you can pin your hopes on having enough of your co-workers sign union cards and returning Express into a career option instead of just a job to pay bills and keep your family fed. While the latter option is noble, it is unrealistic.