Saturday, February 16, 2008

Message From Senior WatchDog ...

Where there’s people there’s power!!

If the employees at Fed-Ex Freight or any division of Fed-Ex we’re motivated by desire instead of motivated by fear, we would be a much more successful company.

Being motivated by fear is old school. But it’s very sad to see new managers moving up in the ranks, anticipating the opportunity to use fear, as a means of control, or to enforce their own power unfairly and unethically. This gives answers to a lot of the problems in our leadership today, which really makes representation, or a union necessary.

Fed-Ex has all the right slogans, acronyms, acrostics, and experience, to stay successful even with representation. Not to mention the pride of the company, which a majority of employees have.

But there is another issue of pride; the negative, egotistical pride that is held by our senior officers, and managers; That is; holding on strong to the reputation that “we’ve never had, or never needed a third party”, or “Union” The senior officers and management look at the Union as an Albatross around the neck of the company, ready to take it down, but instead of being open minded about what their employees want or need. But instead we have seen a lot of programs, campaigning, and other ways to deter the employees away from the idea of a Union.

It is also very sad, to see our managers / senior officers go through such physical distress at FXFW, because of holding on to the reputation of, “never needing a third party” or Union for their employees. I think it’s time we start applying our own company slogans to this issue. Like “work smarter not harder”, because if by chance, the employees acquire representation, it will be a bitter defeat for our senior officers and managers, but if they would just “listen” to their employees, and compromise or agree on a contract agreement, this could save much heartache for everyone. Just remember “where there’s unity there’s power” in the people.

In a day where corporations like Fed-Ex are making financial decisions, using employee funds and bonus programs to defer expenses in operations, can only be fully investigated through a third party interest, in which at this time we have none. This leaves the employees at Fed-Ex vulnerable to the conclusion of their calculations, of where and how is our hard earned money being spent.

THE TIME TO ORGANIZE IS NOW!
BE WISE AND ORGANIZE!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let me say that there is no third party; because the employee’s standing for their Rights are the union, Teamsters, and once grouping or uniting with each other are a union!!

Anonymous said...

Senior watchdog well said!! time to organize for our Rights.

Anonymous said...

I would like to start publishing some paragraphs of a book everyone needs to read. I have read it twice and like any good movie you miss parts the first time. I will post some interesting parts I found to be very interesting since the writer of the book was one of the great union busters off all time. He changed his ways when he finally found that he would one day have to answer to a higher person for what he had done to so many family's in the name of greed. The book is called confessions of a union buster by Martin Jay Levitt and it is the anti- union play book for corporations and their hired guns.
Union busting is a field populated by bullies and built on deceit. A campaign against a union is an assault on individuals and a war on the truth. As such it is a war without honor. The only way to bust
A union is to lie, distort, manipulate, threaten, and always always attack. The law does not hamper the process, Rather, it serves to suggest maneuvers and defines strategies. Each “union prevention” campaign, as the wars are called, turns on combined strategy of misinformation and personal assaults.
When a chief executive hires a labor relation’s consultant to battle a union, he gives the consultant the run of the company and closes his eyes. The consultant, backed by attorneys, installs himself in the corporate office’s and goes to work creating a climate of terror that inevitably is blamed on the union.
Some corporate executives I encountered liked to think of their anti-union consultants as generals. But really the consultants are terrorist’s. Like political terrorists, the consultants’ attacks are intensely personal. Terrorists do not make factories and air strips their victims; they choose instead crippled old men and school children. Likewise, as the consultants go about the business of destroying unions, they invade people’s lives, demolish their friendships, crush their will, and shatter families.

Anonymous said...

Forming a union at your workplace gives you and your coworkers the power to stand up for your families, your futures and yourselves. Through a legal, binding contract it gives you a strong, collective voice with which to demand decent working conditions, with fair pay and benefits.

That's what the Teamsters are all about: decent working conditions, better pay, strong benefits and dignity and respect on the job.


The Teamsters can help you explain the benefits of union membership to your fellow employees, and assist in planning an organizing drive.

Once you and your coworkers become Teamsters, working with your local union representatives, contract language and proposals for negotiations are developed. Local union officers and business agents fight with you to win a fair, good-paying Teamster contract with job protection that you deserve.

Teamsters contracts are the best in the labor movement. We have earned our reputation for bargaining hard and demanding the best protections and wages. For more than a century, Teamsters solidarity has kept corporate America from holding the cards and calling all the shots. When you join the Teamsters, you put that history to work for you.

Anonymous said...

The Teamsters are America’s largest, most diverse union. In 1903, the Teamsters started as a merger of the two leading team driver associations. These drivers were the backbone of America’s robust economic growth, but they needed to organize to wrest their fair share from greedy corporations. Today, the Union’s task is exactly the same.

The Teamsters are known as the champion of freight drivers and warehouse workers, but have organized workers in virtually every occupation imaginable, both professional and non-professional, private sector and public sector.

Our 1.4 million members are public defenders in Minnesota; vegetable workers in California; sanitation workers in New York; brewers in St. Louis; newspaper workers in Seattle; construction workers in Las Vegas; zoo keepers in Pennsylvania; healthcare workers in Rhode Island; bakery workers in Maine; airline pilots, secretaries and police officers. Name the occupation and chances are we represent those workers somewhere.

There are nearly 1,900 Teamster affiliates throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, with the following breakdown:
Teamsters Locals - United States
440
Teamsters Locals - Canada
35
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
and Trainmen (BLET) Locals
573
Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) Locals
635
Graphics Communications Conference (GCC) Locals 206


Teamsters stand ready to organize workers who want to bargain collectively. Once a contract is negotiated and signed, the Union works to enforce it—holding management’s feet to the fire and invoking contract grievance procedures if management chooses not to. Wages and benefits under Teamster contracts are markedly better than those of non-union employees in similar jobs. Teamster contracts are the guarantors of decent wages, fair promotion, health coverage, job security, paid time-off and retirement income.

The Teamsters Union also performs vital tasks in such areas as pension management, safety & health, community outreach, governmental affairs and communications. For more than a century, the Teamsters have been a public voice for the rights and aspirations of working men and women and a key player in securing them.

Anonymous said...

Remember FedEx gives you a 401k plan, but remember who the “collective bargaining” agent is with Vanguard, FedEx ….

Anonymous said...

Senior watchdog you have hit the nail on the head! I wish and hope people who have read your post get what this is about now! We will get recognized and we will get a fair contract!

Anonymous said...

Do not answer to employees who ask or inquired about when are we having a vote?
Or what is the time frame when we vote; they are fisher for management or for the union busters.
Observe your co-workers, some of us know who are very tight with management, and those employees who always go golfing or play poker night are the one to watch for, but don’t be afraid to talk or educate about the Teamsters, when off the clock or away from work areas.

Anonymous said...

Employers can’t fraternize; employers fraternizing with employees for inside information about other employees are illegal.