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Who Is Serious About Unionizing?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ricochet1a" data-source="post: 1164380" data-attributes="member: 22880"><p>The RLA was passed in the mid-1920s to 'control' all the railway strikes which were threatening the economy of the nation back then. Striking workers at a few locations could and did shut down entire railroads, threatening the national economy. The Railway Labor Act was passed to solve the issue brought up by localized strikes in a national system.</p><p></p><p>When the airlines a number of years later were looking at labor 'difficulty', they were included under the RLA, since they had a national level service footprint and localized strikes could've shut down the entire system. </p><p></p><p>Federal Express managed to lobby to be included under the RLA (for its labor), since it declared itself to be a cargo airline and specializing in 'express' transit - therefore was given classification under RLA. Fred had to place some money in the right pockets though in order to pull this off.</p><p></p><p>The issue of Express being under RLA was called into question in the mid-90's after UPS entered into the overnight market in a big way, using non-RLA employees to move their freight for a portion of their movement. FedEx managed to fight to retain its RLA status, and consequently has made any attempts to organize Express by unions prohibitively expensive. Up until the turn of the last decade, Express paid well enough to keep a majority of wage employees not interested in organizing (even if they were presented an opportunity for a certification vote), so Express' having the RLA was more of a 'preventive measure', rather than something critical to its business model. </p><p></p><p>That has all changed with the ending of the Defined Benefit Pension Plan along with the deliberate stagnation of Express pay in an attempt to gradually narrow the differences between Express and Ground. FedEx wants Express to have that same profitability that Ground is experiencing, and it WILL do whatever it takes to achieve that. </p><p></p><p>The narrowing has taken place in compensation between Express and Ground since 2009 and continues to this day. About the only difference in compensation between a new Express Courier and a Ground driver now, is that the Express Courier has health insurance provided by their employer. The difference in wages (when one computes Ground driver pay for an hourly rate including overtime premium), between a new Express Courier and a Ground driver is only a few dollars an hour now. Compare this to the difference between an Express Couriers pay with 4 years in to that received by a UPS driver, and that slight difference between Ground and Express becomes almost inconsequential. Express is slowly adopting the ways of Ground, Fred is just moving at a snails pace in pulling it off. </p><p></p><p>For those who think that Fred will go one step too far - he's too smart for that. If back in 2008, he would've come out and announced the ending of the pension plan, a permanent freeze in real pay progression for all hourlies, a reduction in work hours, ending of split shift pay, increases in benefit premiums and reductions in coverage, presenting FedEx customers options to shift their freight over to Ground for a lower charge (taking volume out of Express).... all at once, even the most deluded Couriers would've been asking for representation cards. I knew back in March with the announcement of no pay raises that it was 'then' or never when it came to the Couriers ever taking it upon themselves to do the work of organizing. There was 2 weeks of collective outrage expressed here, but after that, posters started back into the same old refrain of looking for another union, then admitting in private that they weren't going to commit themselves to attempting to build organization, since it would take too much of their personal time and if or when their management found out - they'd be in jeopardy for their jobs. </p><p></p><p>You can look at the list of the unions I posted</p><p></p><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trade_unions_in_the_United_States" target="_blank">List of trade unions in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_unions_in_the_United_States" target="_blank">Labor unions in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a></p><p></p><p>To put things succinctly, Express employees will never organize as long as the status quo exists in Congress and the Couriers refuse to do the necessary legwork themselves. Either learn to accept the way things are (and they are going to get a LOT worse), or start looking for other employment and get out as soon as you can; simple as that.</p><p></p><p>In all honesty, you as an Express Courier need to forget about any possibility of organization ever happening. The Couriers as a collective (even just looking at the posters here), WILL NOT go to the effort to build the NECESSARY organization to overcome the obstacle of the RLA - they just won't do it. Without organization, having a few individuals in a station here or there getting out rep cards won't do a damn thing to convince the Teamsters that 'life exists' in Express. The numbers game is against you at this point. </p><p></p><p>If Express were removed from under RLA and placed under NLRA like it should be, then there would be a chance to get the Teamsters interested in organizing a few stations in labor friendly areas, then using the 'Domino effect' to gradually get all of Express unionized. That ended election night 2010 when the Republicans took the House and the Democrats made it abundantly clear that they weren't going to expend any of their political capital to get Express removed from the RLA. There was a slim chance after that if the Couriers would've realized they needed to do the legwork themselves (why I continued to post), but at this stage it is abundantly clear that won't ever happen. </p><p></p><p>I keep on telling myself to put up a post with a header of "Final Posting", but I'm not quite able to do that yet- it is coming though. I do understand that getting on here and doing some 'venting' helps you cope with the situation you are in, but when you wake up the next morning, you still go in and move Fred's freight for him under increasingly maddening conditions. As a Courier, you NEED to make a decision to either stick it out till retirement or involuntary termination, OR commit yourself to finding other employment then once you do find it, turn in your uniforms and ID badge and tell your station management to SHOVE IT. Those are the options available to you. Having a union, any union, accept the cost of organizing the Couriers is simply wishful thinking at this stage - if not outright delusional thinking.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ricochet1a, post: 1164380, member: 22880"] The RLA was passed in the mid-1920s to 'control' all the railway strikes which were threatening the economy of the nation back then. Striking workers at a few locations could and did shut down entire railroads, threatening the national economy. The Railway Labor Act was passed to solve the issue brought up by localized strikes in a national system. When the airlines a number of years later were looking at labor 'difficulty', they were included under the RLA, since they had a national level service footprint and localized strikes could've shut down the entire system. Federal Express managed to lobby to be included under the RLA (for its labor), since it declared itself to be a cargo airline and specializing in 'express' transit - therefore was given classification under RLA. Fred had to place some money in the right pockets though in order to pull this off. The issue of Express being under RLA was called into question in the mid-90's after UPS entered into the overnight market in a big way, using non-RLA employees to move their freight for a portion of their movement. FedEx managed to fight to retain its RLA status, and consequently has made any attempts to organize Express by unions prohibitively expensive. Up until the turn of the last decade, Express paid well enough to keep a majority of wage employees not interested in organizing (even if they were presented an opportunity for a certification vote), so Express' having the RLA was more of a 'preventive measure', rather than something critical to its business model. That has all changed with the ending of the Defined Benefit Pension Plan along with the deliberate stagnation of Express pay in an attempt to gradually narrow the differences between Express and Ground. FedEx wants Express to have that same profitability that Ground is experiencing, and it WILL do whatever it takes to achieve that. The narrowing has taken place in compensation between Express and Ground since 2009 and continues to this day. About the only difference in compensation between a new Express Courier and a Ground driver now, is that the Express Courier has health insurance provided by their employer. The difference in wages (when one computes Ground driver pay for an hourly rate including overtime premium), between a new Express Courier and a Ground driver is only a few dollars an hour now. Compare this to the difference between an Express Couriers pay with 4 years in to that received by a UPS driver, and that slight difference between Ground and Express becomes almost inconsequential. Express is slowly adopting the ways of Ground, Fred is just moving at a snails pace in pulling it off. For those who think that Fred will go one step too far - he's too smart for that. If back in 2008, he would've come out and announced the ending of the pension plan, a permanent freeze in real pay progression for all hourlies, a reduction in work hours, ending of split shift pay, increases in benefit premiums and reductions in coverage, presenting FedEx customers options to shift their freight over to Ground for a lower charge (taking volume out of Express).... all at once, even the most deluded Couriers would've been asking for representation cards. I knew back in March with the announcement of no pay raises that it was 'then' or never when it came to the Couriers ever taking it upon themselves to do the work of organizing. There was 2 weeks of collective outrage expressed here, but after that, posters started back into the same old refrain of looking for another union, then admitting in private that they weren't going to commit themselves to attempting to build organization, since it would take too much of their personal time and if or when their management found out - they'd be in jeopardy for their jobs. You can look at the list of the unions I posted [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trade_unions_in_the_United_States"]List of trade unions in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/URL] [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_unions_in_the_United_States"]Labor unions in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/URL] To put things succinctly, Express employees will never organize as long as the status quo exists in Congress and the Couriers refuse to do the necessary legwork themselves. Either learn to accept the way things are (and they are going to get a LOT worse), or start looking for other employment and get out as soon as you can; simple as that. In all honesty, you as an Express Courier need to forget about any possibility of organization ever happening. The Couriers as a collective (even just looking at the posters here), WILL NOT go to the effort to build the NECESSARY organization to overcome the obstacle of the RLA - they just won't do it. Without organization, having a few individuals in a station here or there getting out rep cards won't do a damn thing to convince the Teamsters that 'life exists' in Express. The numbers game is against you at this point. If Express were removed from under RLA and placed under NLRA like it should be, then there would be a chance to get the Teamsters interested in organizing a few stations in labor friendly areas, then using the 'Domino effect' to gradually get all of Express unionized. That ended election night 2010 when the Republicans took the House and the Democrats made it abundantly clear that they weren't going to expend any of their political capital to get Express removed from the RLA. There was a slim chance after that if the Couriers would've realized they needed to do the legwork themselves (why I continued to post), but at this stage it is abundantly clear that won't ever happen. I keep on telling myself to put up a post with a header of "Final Posting", but I'm not quite able to do that yet- it is coming though. I do understand that getting on here and doing some 'venting' helps you cope with the situation you are in, but when you wake up the next morning, you still go in and move Fred's freight for him under increasingly maddening conditions. As a Courier, you NEED to make a decision to either stick it out till retirement or involuntary termination, OR commit yourself to finding other employment then once you do find it, turn in your uniforms and ID badge and tell your station management to SHOVE IT. Those are the options available to you. Having a union, any union, accept the cost of organizing the Couriers is simply wishful thinking at this stage - if not outright delusional thinking. [/QUOTE]
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