Comments By Banks

In my adult life, I've learned that everybody wants to complain, but nobody wants to do anything.

That's kind of a scary statement. In other words, if I'm in a position to take advantage of you, then that's your fault, so you get to suffer the consequences and I get to blame you.

Their not looking at employees as people, they're looking at them as dollar signs. If McDonald's is your only option, you take what they give you. Why don't you or I work at McDonald's, Brett? Because we have options.

In the early 20th century, death rates were extremely high, with estimates ranging from 20-30 deaths per 100,000 workers annually in the US.

But it's no longer the 20th century. All the alphabet government agencies and lawyers have made work places as safe as they can be. I know FedEx doesn't care about my safety, they just don't want me to do something that will get them sued or workers comp claims and God forbid negative press. I'm safe because I care about my safety and getting home the same way I left.

You can't just sit back and watch them take advantage of people and then blame the people they're abusing for it.

I disagree. How many posts do we see here where people need weed to sleep? How dare the corp not hire them!!

That DWI was 20 years ago, why do they care?

I only have 4 speeding tickets... That's not a lot.

You just limited your options. Circumstances have a direct correlation with decisions and actions.

I didn't want to learn a trade or get a degree, but Dunkin donuts should pay me a living wage so I can buy a house!

When does the line get drawn?

But being financially responsible in your everyday life is not the issue we're discussing. The issue is unfair pay practices.

It's an important part. What you tolerate is the base line for how people treat you. When you put yourself in a position of desperation and limited options, you're willing to tolerate a lot more. If employees are tolerating less, employees will have to offer more.

So it isn't going to be you, and that's ok. You don't have to be the guy to do it. Maybe you're in a position where your earnings and treatment are fair.

Fair point, but it was me at first. FedEx makes it easy to contact the executives. I had a lengthy conversation with the Senior Vice President of Operations of FedEx freight. I wanted them to stop using purchased transportation for truckload shipments while employees were on furlough and sitting at home. It was a productive conversation. I learned more about how FedEx determines what to send truck load and the discrepancies in costs. My argument was with record profits, they should be willing to eat the cost but I'm only one person. When I tried to get others to speak up and reach out to him.... Crickets. So fudge it then. Anytime I hear somebody complaining about contracted transportation I tell them, did you reach out to Jeff First? No? Then stfu.

Nobody wants to make waves, so I stopped wasting my energy and focus on it. I'm in a fortunate position where I don't need FedEx. I'm good, financially. I'm at FedEx because I like what I do, but I'm not taking up arms by myself.

In fact, why does FedEx pay their drivers so much better than most places would?

FedEx pays about the same as ever other LTL company. There's not really a lot of difference.

He used his influence to convince many corporations to keep their workers here and even move some production back to this country. This has to continue.

But it won't as long as they have to answer to big government and unions. It's too much bureaucracy red tape. In an ideal world, it's one or the other.

Most people are not leaders. I just don't like to hear people say, "There's nothing I can do about it" and at the same time denounce unions. You can't change it on your own, but you don't want to join forces with people to make change, either?

They can't make it change. Corporations have already learned how to push back on this and just like my example above, nobody is willing to make those waves. The teamsters have also pooped the bed with Yellow. Anybody paying attention to that fiasco knows they were just as responsible for that shutdown as the execs. It turned into a ****ing match that cost 30k people their jobs and in the aftermath those faithful teamsters are looking to their locals for help and getting no answers.

Why would anybody put their faith and livelihood in the hands of the union with the way that played out? Because UPS got a good contact? That's not good enough.

We have a lot of anti-union people here, and I welcome all opinions

I'm not antiunion... I'm indifferent. I don't care either way. I look at things through a nuanced lens and try to remove all bias. In this case, I have no bias. I know people that work for ABF and I know people that worked for Yellow. They're good people just trying to make it like everybody else.

I just don't think the union deserves praise because UPS deflated their management payroll. They got rid of salary employees and they're cutting hours of hourly employees as they move towards automation. Instead of having (for example) 100 people in a warehouse, it's now 75.

Fast food spots are doing it too. No more people at the counter, there's a kiosk. Better yet, use the app and get a free drink. The drink is cheaper than the employee, but people don't care because they got a free drink.

I don't say "that's just how it is" because I have no fight. I say it because everybody is out for themselves. This country is too divided for people to stand together. You'll never get 10 people on the same page, let alone thousands or millions. Unions are just another divisive topic.

XPO had a union in one of their Florida buildings, Albany and a NJ building. XPO would make negotiating impossible. Those employees saw their counterparts getting raises and making more money. Eventually, they decertified and got put on the pay scale. They lost out on the raises before that.

Estes had a building vote in the teamsters. They shut that building down and then reopened it 18 months later with a whole new staff.

FedEx freight had 1 building that was union in Stockton. Same as XPO, FedEx wouldn't play ball. That went on for about 8 years and then FedEx shut the building down. Imagine losing out on 8 years of raises, just to get shutdown.

And the worst part is the Yellow employees. Those guys are struggling to find work because nobody wants to hire a teamster. Of course, they won't say that but that's what it is. The union they paid dues to for 10,20, 30 years is no where to be found to provide help with placement.

If things are to get better people have to want to be better. McDonald's doesn't pay 15 an hour out of the kindness of their hearts. That's the least they can pay to get people to walk in the door. Why should they pay more? They take advantage of those with no other options, but those with no options are in that position by their own doing.

Ok, how many union companies went bankrupt even though their CEO was making under $1 million per year, with their top 10 executives making less than $50 million per year? I'd bet anything the answer is zero.

Darren Hawkins made 2M a year and the execs at Yellow were between 500k and 1.5M a year. Not knocking it out of the park compared to what their peers make.

So once again, you have 10 people at the top who do almost nothing but make $100 million, yet it's the workers asking for a raise that bankrupts the company.

I never said that.

However, the union does have some control over operations. That's where the problem, in my opinion, comes into play. You know, as well as I do, that fluidity is necessary in this industry. We also know that the union is a bureaucracy and the motto of any bureaucracy is "hurry up and wait". It doesn't bode well for things that have to get done.

Well, I'm not happy with the situation, and I'd like to see the middle class return to this country and be able to live comfortably without going $500k into debt.

I would too, but I'm also a realist. That's not going to happen unless people are willing to make decisions that make them immediately uncomfortable. Same goes for the country. Can't keep kicking this can down the road to be dealt with later.

How can you blame the union for failures at the company when the executives running the company into the ground are paying themselves $100 million per year? Not to mention, when they do bankrupt the company, they get massive bonuses, often in the tens of millions, as "severance packages," but I don't hear anyone crying foul about that, either.

The execs at Yellow weren't anywhere near 100M per year.

I aslo never said I was ok with their severance packages. It should go without saying that it's wrong, but that isn't what was being discussed.

I see. So should everyone just shut up, take what little bit management gives them (when they come back from their Hawaiian trip or golf outing), and accept it?

I broke down the reasons for this in the post you quoted. To make it clearer, when everybody was making money hand over first in 2021 and 2022, what did they do? They bought cars and went further into debt. Not only did they buy cars, they paid "market adjustment" fees up to 20k. At what point does personal responsibility come into play here? In 2023 their credit is destroyed, interest rates are high and they're making no money.

Banks, are you ok with the top 10 people making $100 million per year while the workers are barely getting by? Let me run this by you for fun.....how much cash do you think UPS is sitting on right now?

I'm not ok with that, but I understand that there's nothing I can do about that. Instead, I focus on doing what I have to do to better my position.

I'm very aware of how much money UPS has. They're my employers direct competitor, so I pay attention to what's happening there the same way I pay attention to every other LTL company. That's how I know feeder drivers are sitting at home and UPS is shutting down smaller sort buildings and moving those packages to automated sort buildings.

I can see the corporate propaganda has worked well on people.

That's disingenuous and borderline insulting. I don't need a union to defend me or negotiate on my behalf. I'm capable of thinking for myself and seeing the facts the way I see them.

They have successfully softened most of the men in our society to the point they have no fight left in them. They shut up and accept the mistreatment they get. That's pretty sad.

I'm not soft or mistreated and I have no problem standing up for myself. I've done it on a regular basis to the point where I created an email address to correspond with the brass at FedEx freight and when I have an issue with a supervisor or anybody else, a conversation is had.

Banks, I don't know if you're okay with any of this or not, but you don't seem upset by any of it, and you haven't proposed any ideas for change. So, what do you think? Do you think anything can or should be done about this?

I'm not upset about it. I don't sit at home comparing my pay to what Raj makes. I get ahead by doing the best I can with what I have.

Nothing will change as long as individuals continue to put themselves behind the 8 ball. I remember when McDonald's was a job for seniors and high school kids. Today you have 30 year olds demanding 20/hr or a liveable wage for a job that was never meant to be a career. It starts with personal accountability and people wanting to better themselves instead of being corporate America for some dimes.

Businesses don't care about you. They care about revenue and profits. You bring in a union and a business will shut down and move south or overseas.

I know many of you have taken an anti-union stance, so I guess you're not too excited about celebrating a union victory.

It's not really a victory for anybody else and there are plenty of rank and file union members that are also suffering through this. It's just not reported because it's not a "massive layoff" and UPS does this all the time.

Worcester, MA, Warwick, RI, Portland, OR Swan Island and a few other buildings have had their sorts cut. Change of operations, follow the work or get laid off indefinitely. Sucks for those teamster package handlers, but it's not in the news.

I don't hear one single person saying, "UPS is in trouble now. They need every manager they can get!" That's because we all know that management teams become bloated and take more than their fair share of the pie over time.

I've never heard anybody say UPS is in trouble, ever. They'll always do what they have to do to appease their shareholders, like any other publicly traded company.

Those management numbers probably got inflated due to the e-commerce boom of 2020. Their volume has been on a steady decline with inflation and the economy being what it is. They're effected same as ever other company and they're making the necessary changes.

They even over hired feeder drivers. Those bottom 10-15 percent truck drivers are sitting at home by the phone everyday hoping for a call. What good is 45/hr if you're getting no hours?

If you go to any bar in America at 5:00 on a weekday, you'll find it packed to the roof with workers complaining about unfair pay and practices.

That's not my style and I don't like people like that. They're the equivalent of terminal rats. Complaining about stuff within your control, wasting money at a bar that you can be using to improve your situation.

I've never been one to stay at an employer that makes me miserable and definitely never stay at one that makes me waste money at a bar.

I do what FedEx asks me to do and they pay me what I agreed to be paid for doing it. Nothing more, nothing less. If the day ever comes where I feel it's not worth what they're offering, I'll move on. No harm, no foul.

I'm kind of surprised I'm not hearing any optimism about this situation at all.

You shouldn't be. It doesn't matter to anybody outside of UPS.

Like I said, they're the exception. The poster child of the teamsters, the star of the show. UPS is Tom Cruise and every other teamster company is the extra eating at the restaurant, just before the fight scene.

They always say look at what we got for UPS.... They never say look at what happened to Yellow, NEMF, PIE, Preston or the rest of that long list of union trucking companies that went under or got purchased by their competition. This isn't a bias, it's a fact.

But I can show you a long list of charts and statistics that demonstrate clearly what has happened over the past 50 years when managements were no longer held accountable. It's painful and frustrating, to say the least.

That's just how it is today and that's what it will continue to be as long as people make foolish decisions like getting 100k in debt for a degree in basket weaving and now you're desperate and have to take what you can get. It also ties in to the immigration program. People willing to work for a lot less drive down wages of unskilled labor. It's hard to find a competent, qualified CEO, but anybody willing to work can be a package handler. So those at the top move up and those at the bottom are crabs in a barrel fighting over scraps.

I consider myself to be indifferent to unions, but I think it's disingenuous to point to UPS as the standard. They're more of an exception.

Their relationship with the teamsters goes back over a 100 years. UPS is the advertising the union uses to try to recruit new employees. They're also the exception because everything from benefits to retirement is handled in house. They also have no competition. It's just UPS, FedEx and USPS.

The teamsters typically use central states funds, which was almost tapped out until the butch Lewis act went into effect. Our tax dollars bailing out another major fund.

Yellow employees were also teamsters. They were the lowest paid employees in the LTL sector, their equipment was trash and they took a 15% pay cut so corporate could buy more companies to build in an expedited way. In the end the relationship between Sean O'Brien and Darren Hawkins soured so much that they were spatting on Twitter like teenage girls. In the end, Yellow went under and from the people that I know that worked there, the union is no where to be found.

So the money will now go where it belongs, to the workers, who banded together to make sure management didn't abuse the company's money.

UPS has enough money to fund the new contract. This was just a move to keep their bottom line in tact to appease the shareholders. The union employees won't be getting anymore than what they would already get.

By the way, football players have both a union for all players and agents for each player. Do you know what NFL players would make if they didn't have an agent or a union? Probably $25/hour.

The WNBA has a union too and they make 100k a year. I think these numbers are tied to demand and butts being in seats.

Seems to be the new trend. Rob went through it not too long ago, I had an issue with dispatch last week and now you're experiencing it. Being forced to use PTO is a new low though. I've never been forced to use PTO at any job I've ever had.

I'd definitely start a conversation with safety over this via email.

Illinois definitely makes being a truck driver a tedious job. First the having to retest, then the forced break and now this.

No laws were broken here. There's nothing for the FMSCA to do here, because they didn't violate anything. If they don't want you there, why are you insisting on staying?

Welcome, John. You have questions and we have answers.

Turnover rates are high (not just in the bigger companies) because people romanticize the adventure aspect of this career and forget that's theres a lot of work and responsibility involved. The frustrations get to them and they break. Another reason is poor communication. For example, a person gets tired of running OTR but they don't communicate that to the company to see if other options exist (they usually do) and they quit. Then you have those that get fired for stupid mistakes like not reporting accidents because they're minor.

If you're interested in pursuing this career path, my advice would be to make sure your 100% committed and this option number 2 or 3. If you go into this thinking failure is an option, you will fail. The frustration levels get that high when starting out.

As for the schedule, most of the time you can drive when you want as long as you make your appointment times. If you prefer nights, reefer may be something to look into. It's also important to communicate if your not going to be able to meet your appointment so arrangements can be made.

Hang around and ask any other questions you may have. This place is a wealth of knowledge and experience.