A threatened U.S. strike at United Parcel Service could be “one of the costliest in at least a century,” topping $7 billion for a 10-day work stoppage, a think tank specializing in the economic impact of labor actions said on Thursday.
UPS faces two unappealing choices, Stifel analyst Bruce Chan said in a recent note: Risk a strike and resulting customer losses or acquiesce to Teamster demands that could worsen the company’s labor cost disadvantage versus nonunion rivals in an inflationary environment.
I cannot roll my eyes any harder at the words “labor cost disadvantage”
Go union! Hold out and strike if necessary.
The idea that those are the only two options is just painful. These are supposed to be the experts, and they cannot conceive of ANY other options, really?
How about addressing that “labor cost disadvantage” by encouraging unions and lobbying for 'em? Fuck it, go to Washington and say it is unfair – the competitors should ALSO be forced to have unionized labor forces to even the playing field. No more cost disadvantages and UPS made the world a slightly better place in the process.
How about embracing the union as a vital part of the business? Accept that growing profits is not the be-all. Become an employer worthy of those workers even if it means taking a haircut. Because it’s worth it in exchange for being able to fucking sleep at night. It is not NECESSARY to treat the employee union as a belligerent that must be fought or “acquiesced” to. Just work with them to make the service better for everyone. In the process, they’ll likely find the business gets better in other immaterial ways that more than make up for the reduced profits.
The idea that UPS is on the verge of total collapse as a business if they deal fairly with the union is just noxious. If they’re so close to total collapse and bankruptcy that you need to treat your employees like dirt… go ahead and just collapse, please.
They cannot conceive of any other options because the “experts” are biased, and are furthermore not being paid to conceive of any other options.
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I would normally agree with you, but from what I understand FedEx doesn’t have union and nether does Amazon so that did place them in a tough spot.
I’m not saying that I don’t support their employees striking, I’m saying the others should be required to have unions too.
Oh, they absolutely should! As @admiralteal says above, the best play for UPS is to go pro-union and start lobbying that all of their competitors should also be required to have unions! Win for workers, win for UPS.
The executives in charge of these organizations would sooner destroy the entire company than be seen willingly acquiescing to their worker’s requests. The C-suite at this large of an entity tend to actively revile the rank and file workers, they truly view them as subhuman beggar urchins, crowding around them to try and peel scraps of money away from them, the “real earners”. Giving workers a “win”, even when it’s the smart business move, would destroy their credibility in their entire social circle and would likely lead to the prompt end of their positions.
Sounds like these workers are extremely important and the company is dead in the water without them. The company should be well motivated to provide them a great deal they are happy with right? /s
Good. Go get em. I can hold out on their service as long as necessary, and so can you.
Don’t settle! Strike! Good luck.
Why do they hate when the free market works.
Also clown analyst is a bootlicker and fake news spreading this misinformation … Not surprised but certianly very disgusted.
Costly for who? Hint: it’s not for you or me…
Now we see the bias inherent in the system.
Headlines like this nearly always make the workers the villains.
This is all just media theatrics to amp up the perceived “economic damages” of a strike that the “country” will “suffer”, because they’re hoping to get the railroad treatment. They’re posing striking workers as some kind of economic terrorists. They probably have a multi-million dollar fruit basket on the way to the white house right now with a saccharine note pleading for a finely polished boot to descend upon their workers’ throats.
Sounds like its prepping to call them essential workers and for the government to intervene and once its over the politicians will start complaining that the post office is unfare competition to the private shippers. ugh.
