I interact with people for my job everyday many personalities and types and peoplelove their UPS man whether I'm in a union or not. Unions definitely still have a great role in society as corporate greed is rotting away at America.
I'd call this situation union greed, and the destruction of social norms when Teamsters harass funeral-goers because their raise isn't high enough. You make good money for driving a truck, and you've laughed plenty of times at others on this board who aren't in unions, and are struggling. It's stuff like that that gives unions a bad name, and I do agree that I find private unions OK, although you guys are acting more and more like public unions these days with the thuggery. Do you think you guys are the SEIU or something?
lol such a bullshit lie, but that seems to be your thing in these kind of threads. Paint the picture you want to paint whether made up or not. The funny thing is I don't get paid the money just 'driving a truck'. So much more that goes to my job. Were the face of a company that is making record profits every year and blowing its competition out of the water. I come across people all the time at business and look at my package car boxed out. I've had a couple older gentleman make a comment to me after looking at me sweating my ass off at a loading dock in the back of a hot ass package car throwing around freight and tell me the, "the UPS guy, hardest working guy in America".
Work on an oil rig, then get back to me. You've mocked people here for complaining about things like insurance rates, saying things like you don't have to worry about them. You're young, but you seem to have a decent head on your shoulders. I hope someday you can stop your groupthink. You know I have a neighbor who drives for UPS. He makes great money, and is a really cool guy. Basically, he just does his job and isn't an asshole about it, and none of us ever talk about work, but rather sports and the kids.
Belonging in a union has nothing to do with it. A bricked out package car front to back almost on a daily basis. Sometimes I can't even open the package car door when I get to my first stop. Mind you the weight limit on a package is 150 lbs and I average about 15 or more over 70 packages a day. Just last week I had a lady at an apartment complex order a huge air conditioning unit that weighed 85lbs. She lived on the 3rd story of an apartment complex and the package needed a signature to be released. I haul this thing up therein 90 degree weather and she's not home and have to turnaround and haul it back down. Stuff like that on a regular basis. Proven fact the FedEx guy had half the amount of stops we do. Those UPS drivers are just overpaid union bums I tell ya!
You guys wouldn't have your weekends, vacations, overtime pay or any of that if it wasn't for Unions. As a driver you're the face of a company that nets record profits every year, as long as that happens I'm going to continue to be an overpaid union slob and love every minute of it.
These guys are owners plus others who are paid like owners. Their class had weekends, vacations, and comp time centuries before unions. It lost money by losing the institution of slavery.
I don't have weekends, vacations, or overtime pay. Who are "you guys?" With ObamaCare, people who work hourly will have more than just weekends off, can pay for their vacations without paid time off, and won't get enough hours to qualify for OT. Great, isn't it?
My UPS guy is fine. My son calls all of you "Mr. Brown" (which caused me some embarrassment when a black guy delivered a package to our house). It doesn't bother me that you've unionized. You have every right to do so, and UPS is a well-managed company. You're misstating the point about your involvement with your union, however. Most of your customers aren't likely aware you're in a union. If you started picketing in front of office buildings where UPS delivered packages because you were on strike, I bet your customers' view of you would change. As for the role unions play in mitigating corporate greed, that through shows a profound lack of understanding of basic economics. Who do you think owns UPS? Probably anyone who has a 401k. UPS stays competitive by keeping costs down while providing a high level of service and reliable delivery. Labor costs are a huge part of that. What do you think UPS does with their profits? They reinvest in the company and they share dividends with their shareholders. If labor costs become too high, they have to raise their prices, which may cause them to become uncompetitive. If anything, corporations are less "greedy" that they used to be because barriers to entry into many industries are lower than ever due to technology. I think there should always be a healthy conflict between management and labor. One side wants to keep costs as low as possible. The other side wants salaries and benefits as high as possible. Where they end up is usually a market rate. Getting back to the issue I have with the union picketing funeral homes while there is a funeral occurring is simply one of decorum. There has to be limits to what a union does to protest. Picket the funeral home, but find out the schedule so that the picketers clear out any time there is a service. Respect for the deceased and the bereaved should be sacrosanct. It's certainly more important than any small increase in their package they would hope to garner. The parallel I make is when people do terrible things in the name of a religion. Unless other members of that faith stand up in opposition, they're all smeared with the same brush.
That's largely true. However, the government now guarantees much of what unions fought so hard to achieve in the late 19th and early 20th Century. Like the buggy whip, unions have simply outlived your usefulness.
Its no secret that were in a union and people have to be pretty naive to not understand that. Those record profits don't just go to the shareholders. They come to us in form of our rightly deserved raises and benefit packages and goes to the high up guys like CEO Scott Davis and his cronies who line their pockets with ridiculous annual salary packages. As for the Teamsters in Chicago doing that at a funeral (we really don't have all the details and I'm sure its not outside of the realm of possibility that there was some smearing going on with the media), that is a horrible thing to do and the people involved are idiots. Does that make me feel like I have some kind of ties to it or should feel guilty just because I'm a Teamster? HELL NO.
As long as people keep making these Union bashing threads I'm going to continue to gloat about my industry leading wages, pension and medical package.
I'd be proud of your accomplishments, as well. As maxie pointed out, you work for a well-managed company......unionized, or not.
Hey, at least you admit it. Meanwhile, disrupting the funeral of a child, among other things, is disgusting to most rational people.
