8/97

For the United States Postal Service, the UPS strike could not have come at a better time! Almost as if a gift from above, the UPS Executive Management and "Teamster" Employees of UPS are butting heads smack-dab in the middle of the USPS' aggressive drive to gain a much greater market share of the expedited services and parcel delivery business generated in the USA.

In this exclusive article, rather than parroting the same media contained in the different parties "Politically Correct" and well thought out speeches and scripts (or at least attempted to be well thought out) drilled into us from the Major Media, I will expose several real-life reports and comments as taken directly from UPS Headquarters, UPS Employees, UPS Customers and of course the USPS.

In order to lay the basic foundation for any of you who may have been locked in a time capsule, away on vacation, or hiding in a cave, let's summarize the reasons for the current strike, which began at 12 O'clock Midnight on August 3rd.

In short, it's time for the UPS Teamsters / UPS Employment Contract to be renewed and the two parties can't seem to come to agreement at all. In personally reviewing the various copies of circulated proposals and propaganda it is clear that the two parties are surely reading from separate pages in a BIG way.

In the past the majority of the US population had always considered UPS to be a great place to work and the kind of place you were thrilled to "get into", but the tables are quickly turning.

While the starting pay for UPS workers has always been somewhat average comparatively, primarily it has really been the generous healthcare, pension and profit sharing types of benefits which actually fueled the big desire for people to work for (and stay with) UPS.

The contract currently proposed by UPS is much less attractive to the UPS Teamster Employees than what the are accustomed to from UPS.

While it is common nowadays for companies to cut back and downsize certain areas, it makes good business sense that each particular company must gauge its pay scale and benefit packages against its profits and monetary capabilities and no two companies are exactlythe same.

Currently the UPS workers are saying they work hard and expect the same type of compensation and benefits as they are used to from UPS, and UPS appears to be playing the old cut-back game and wants to see more part-time, and less full-time positions.

This brings up a major point and a few questions to my mind. If the UPS claims that the currently proposed contract is the best they can do now, what changed ? Sure the cost of living, operating costs and inflation rise often, but hasn't UPS been growing and adding countries and service areas to its list of revenue producers ? Are these efforts costing more than was expected ? Are they losing money on new services or areas which were expected to be more profitable then they actually are ?

Has the U.S. Postal Service been steadily plucking customers from UPS'once somewhat monopolized customer base by the introduction andimprovement of all of its Priority Mail, Express Mail and Parcel DeliveryServices to the point that the revenues won by the USPS are finally becomingmore apparent and threatening to UPS and they are getting worried about their lucrative future ? Is UPS starting to open their eyes more clearly,further realizing and accepting the Private Express Statutes which are the rulesthey must respect and follow ? Is UPS just getting greedy ? Or have they simplybeen paying out "too much" and being too generous over the years and now they want to accept the role of just another "average" company, losing their "great place to work" status ?

As far as the UPS customers are concerned, without doubt, the strike is impacting the American population and economy in a major way. The strike is quickly refreshing everyone's mind of just how much this country has been relying on UPS over the past years. It appears that in between the parts/supplies acquisition, manufacturing operations and stock order distribution processes, more items (or internal components) than not have at some point been shipped via UPS. It is heavily affecting homes as well as businesses.

Here at DeMayo Mail Management Consultants & DMM Web we have been suffering the consequences accordingly. As Certified, Mailing, Shipping and Internet Operations Consultants we often rely on receiving new computers,parts, accessories and software bundles from manufacturers who ship via UPS for both our clients as well as our NJ based Headquarters, various satellite stations and remote offices around the country. Since the strike first began our phones have been ringing off the hook with clients seeking our professional assistance to determine their best alternate sources of shipping & distribution services for their immediate, as well as long term needs.

Unfortunately for UPS, we're finding that many of their long time, best clientsare quickly loosing faith in the overall stability and reliability of UPS and they are rapidly switching over and building solid business relationships with other carriers around the world. The trust that took years for UPS to build is quickly being pulled out from under UPS as their customers are afraid that they will never be able to trust UPS like they used to.

After all, if you were in search of a company to deal with, would you choose onewhere the Management, Employees and a third party (Union) couldn't work things out and cooperate with each other as a team in order to better serve their customers ?

Mr. Richard Smithers, has owned Mail Boxes Etc. (a private packaging & shippingfranchise) in Randolph, NJ for the past 3 years after previously working for UPS for91/2 years and is very familiar with the workings and management of UPS. Knowing what he does from his vast experience, Mr. Smithers reported that "I think they are all losing out. They are going to lose a lot of business and jobs from this strike. I think that all of the employees should vote on the issues now in front of them".

Mr. Stuart Bruskin, Owner of the Mail Boxes Etc. in Rockaway, NJ stated that "The strikeagainst UPS accomplishes nothing for the employees other than loss of salary which can never be made up. There is no reason why representatives of both sides can't sit down and respond to the question "what can we do to resolve the issues ?" This apparently has not been done." Mr. Bruskin continued, "The strike has created a tremendous hardship on all businesses across the country. From those who have to ship the products they make and/or sell to those of us who do the packing and shipping for thesmall business, home office businesses and individuals who need to get their packages sent worry free. The economic loss can not be measured. We are using many othershipping and courier services, but unfortunately at a greater cost to our customers.

Ms. Kristi Wolfgang, Spokesperson at UPS Corporate Headquarters in Atlanta, GA was very anxious and glad to share the message from UPS. It was extremely apparent during our conversation that the majority of UPS Executives are perfectly in sync with their messages. While speaking with her I continually encountered what could almost be perceived as flashbacks of reading the various newspaper and internet articles on the subject, almost exactly word-for-word.

Ms. Wolfgang reported that "The talks with the involvement of the Federal Mediation Board scheduled for Thursday, August 7th will be an excellent opportunity for UPS to sitdown with Teamsters Officials and encourage them to take the proposal to the 190,000UPS Teamster employees for a vote. At this point we feel that this irresponsible andunnecessary action on the part of the Teamsters Officials has hurt UPS Customers,UPS Employees and their families".

Ms. Wolfgang continued, "UPS has presented the Teamsters Officials with a comprehensive economic proposal that addresses all of the major issues which Teamsters identified as being crucial to reaching a labor agreement. It includes wage increases for part-time and full time employees and a new profit sharing plan, significant improvements in employee pensions and healthcare benefits, the creation of several thousand full time positions for part-time employees and a guarantee that "NO" UPS driving positions will be replaced or eliminated through sub-contracting." In closing, Kristi advised that "over 6,000 workers had already crossed the picket lines to return to work and many of them have reported to UPS that they wished that the Union would let them look at the contract and then let them vote on it".

All of the UPS Teamsters whom I interviewed on the picket lines at the UPS Facility in Mount Olive, NJ strongly disagreed with the statements indicated by UPS as indicated above as well as those contained in all of the major media announcements on television, the internet and in print. UPS Teamster Shop Stewards Ms. Lisa Thomas, Ed Boyer, and Ken Gunther as well as other strikers together claimed that they did in fact conduct a vote. They added that "before any of these contracts,when we sat down initially, our International Union President, whom we elected said "I need authorization from Union people, if in fact it's not a good contract, we need a strike authorization vote. Nationwide, on July 13th we had a 95% strike authorization vote".

Strikers present unanimously continued with passion,"WE HAVE ALREADY VOTED on the fact that we do not wanta sub-standard contract going out for a vote!" Our vote has been cast! We have now empowered the Negotiations Committee and the International President to do the job we elected them to do. And that is to come up with a fair contract. They repeated, our vote has already been cast. By offering stock to the employees at one point, they thought we wouldn't strike (against ourselves) because we now own part of the company".

With high emotions, and an American Flag flying majestically above their overhead shelter they continued "The entire country is watching us to see how we make out. We have to help America to have more full-time secure jobs and prevent private sub-contractors and part-timers from taking our jobs.

Several items proposed in the contract were unliked by UPS Teamster Employees. Most important were the issues which relate to a lack of commitment to award more full-time jobs to part-time employees, reduced healthcare benefits and the perceived downgrade to HMOs and less attractive pension programs. Some of the items represented in the literature were hard to comprehend or understand because they claimed that their information from UPS would often refer to documents by document identification code numbers without their being provided with copies of the actual documents which the numbers represent.

One point which I feel should be mentioned is that UPS Officials claim that only about 17% of the UPS Teamsters actually cast a "Strike Authorization Vote", which is a relatively small number of the overall UPS Teamsters population). If this is true that only 17% of the UPS Teamsters cast the 95% unanimous decision, then in reality only approximately 16% of the UPS Teamsters cared enough, or were able to initially vote so they have set the course for all the others. With this in mind, and since the situation has become so bad, it would make good sense that the other 84% of the UPSTeamsters (the ones who didn't care to vote at first), should now voice their opinions too, rather than still taking a back seat and letting others decide their destiny.

Another element which the strikers don't like about the proposed contract is that if it is passed, UPS Drivers would be forced to cross other (sometimes very dangerous) picket lines in order to deliver packages. (Instead of their current procedure of returning to their local UPS Depot and having their managers call the recipient customers to give them the option to come pick their packages up at the "safer" UPS facility.)

On the other hand, the USPS' temptation to send a HUGE bouquet of flowers combined with a bottle of fine wine and a thank you card to UPS must be tremendous. The UPS strike has automatically and quickly added a great deal of revenue, momentum and volume to the USPS' ongoing drive to increase it's Expedited (Express Mail and Priority Mail) as well as it's Parcel Distribution Services (Standard Mail B and Parcel Post).

Several local USPS Postmasters agreed that they highly appreciate the business and have been working closely together to handle the added volume. USPS sales reps have been in heaven adding new accounts daily and jumping through hoops to accommodate the needs of their existing as well as new customers.

A USPS Bulk Mail Acceptance Unit clerk at a regional Annex who wished to remain anonymous stated that "We're handling all the extra volume pretty well and from what I can see our Priority Mail volume has increased by about 50%, compared to usual. I have also seen a dramatic increase in Express Mail".

Mr. Meredith Osborne, Plant Manager of the USPS West Jersey General Processing & Distribution Center (often referred to by his friendly nickname of Ozzie), has also been loving the extra volume and it's revenue and has reported that he is happy to see just how smoothly things have been going and how they have been able to handle the extra volume much more easily than was initially expected. Currently, US customers have been asked to bring shipments of 4 packages or less to their local Post Office and shipments greater than 4 packages should be taken to a special facility (by appointment) in order to get those larger loads out. Ozzie's plant is in fact one of the specially designated centers and like all USPS facilities they appreciate the extra business and are proud to be able to help the customers in need of reliable services.

As a Certified Mailing & Shipping & Communications Consultant in the industry who gets around a great deal and has contacted many people regarding this issue, I can truly see many valid points from both sides. I just think that if the Union is doing this partially to "help America" (as they presently claim), it would have been nice for them to use some of their full page ads, television spots and internet articles to officially warn us all that they were going on strike as of a certain date, giving us all an opportunity (maybe a week or so) to let our existing UPS packages in the system get delivered and line up other alternatives for the time they decided they would no longer be willing to provide us with service.

Don't forget, while the UPS may in fact be missing out on a lot of additional "potential extra revenue" from lower package volume then normal, they also have extremely lower operating expenses to cover each day that the picketers are not working. They are not spending anywhere near what they would normaly have to for wages, gasoline, electricity, etc. So the credibility of the loss figures we see on TV may be somewhat clouded (Nobody else seems to be mentioning that.)

I am very sorry to say that regardless of how much money the UPS big shots and UPS as a Corporation may be missing out on while the strike continues, without doubt it is the overall American population, and UPS employees who are suffering and will continue to suffer the most until the strike ends.

The strikers I interviewed seemed to sincerely believe that their efforts will send out the signals to help change America and restore more full time positions, get Americans better benefits and more good jobs. It would be nice if that actually happened although in reality they are definitely hurting a great deal of Americans today with hard-dollar losses and overall inconvenience while telling us that if they do in fact get their way that the payback will be there for all of us (as Americans) sometime in the distant future.

The Teamsters are currently gambling at our expense as well as theirs. So regardless of our personal opinions in the matter and our own desires of the outcome we should all really be rooting for them so that they can win the prize of a better working-America in the future which we are all paying for now and would be rightfully ours to gain as well.