FedEx And Conway Are Making Headway To Become Union Shops.

Historic Wins at FedEx Freight and Con-way

October 17, 2014: FedEx Freight workers in Philadelphia voted for this first time to join the Teamsters. Con-way workers in Laredo did the same.

I've known about this for a little while now but wanted some confirmation before posting. I can also say that there is a cook out at my local coming up to welcome FedEx freight haulers in our area into the Teamsters.

I hesitated on posting because I did not want to start another thread debating if unions are good or bad. I look at this as a good sign for trucking as a whole. In my opinion way to many drivers are under paid for doing an extremely dangerous job that takes them away from family and friends for extended periods of time. Any movement that in some way may help get drivers what they deserve is a move in the right direction.

Woody

VERY INTERESTING!

Wow....we'll see if that leads to anything. A couple of quotes from the article:

The companies are starting to respond, with both threats and pay hikes.

The best way to either get a raise or get fired is to say the word "Union" out loud at your place of employment. Well it's been said so here we go!

So far, the International union has not put major resources in the campaign: no financial backing to locals, no boots on the ground.

The IBT Organizing Department has held biweekly conference calls for locals to exchange information, and designed leaflets and signs. That’s a start. But no local union’s resources can be a match for the anti-union campaigns of these corporate giants.

Often times the most dedicated group wins. You can't half-*ss your way into great things. You have to go at it with both guns blazing. So far only one gun....we'll see if anyone else gets behind this.

I look at this as a good sign for trucking as a whole. In my opinion way to many drivers are under paid for doing an extremely dangerous job that takes them away from family and friends for extended periods of time. Any movement that in some way may help get drivers what they deserve is a move in the right direction.

I agree wholeheartedly. Drivers today, adjusted for inflation, start out at half of what we started out at in '93 when I got into it. In '93 I made about $40,000 my first year. Today you'd have to make $64,000 to have the equivalent spending power that $40,000 gave you in '93. Unfortunately today's drivers normally make about $32,000-$36,000 their first year.

That's one of the big reasons for the high turnover in trucking. The job is filled with high pressure situations, extended periods of solitude, very long days, and way too much time away from home, family, and friends. Heck, you can work 70 hours every 8 days. That's almost two full time jobs to make $40,000? You could literally do that working two full time jobs at fast food restaurants.

It's the lifestyle of an OTR driver that makes it worth doing in my opinion. There's no other career I know of that can compare to the experiences you'll have on the road. But the money alone isn't worth it. Unfortunately today there are very few blue collar jobs that pay a living wage so a ton of people have found trucking to be their best, and sometimes only choice.

Unfortunately there's one really, really big problem with unions in trucking - fragmentation. There are approximately 3.5 million trucks on the road and 1.1 million trucking companies. Keep in mind that an owner operator is a trucking company. 97% of all trucking companies have fewer than 20 trucks and 93% of all trucking companies have fewer than 6 trucks. Union wages and benefits will of course be much higher than non-union which renders the Union companies unable to compete. That's the biggest problem. As we've seen in manufacturing over the years it doesn't matter how much you make if your company closes its doors and send the jobs elsewhere.

So you're trying to unionize a highly fragmented, commodity service industry with extremely low profit margins and a high influx of people do to job losses elsewhere in the economy. That's a very tall order. Truckers deserve to start at $60,000/year for the risk, sacrifices, scrutiny, and extremely long hours the job demands. But without legislation or unionization the economics of the industry and the realities of today's economy isn't going to let that happen.