The UPS Strike

Why is UPS on strike? The average driver makes $20.00 an hour. They have better benefits than most workers. They have a good pension plan, which would be better if UPS managed it.

I believe the reason the union went on strike is because they want to totally control the pension plan. The Teamsters union is known as one of the most crooked unions in history.

Unions only make up around 15% of the workforce in America today. Union membership has dwindled dramatically over the past few decades. The reason; they're not really needed anymore for the purposes of which they were started.

A UPS worker who retires today would receive about $1,200 a month. The UPS offer would boost it up to over $3,000 per month. The difference is that the Teamsters want to control the pension money, because they spread it out to other unions that are weak. UPS says it wants to keep the money in UPS to better benefit their own employees.

Who could argue with this? The socialist union representatives that's who.

I've listened to the news and to talk radio on this subject. The socialist union reps call into talk radio and all say the same things. "Do you want to revert back to the 1930's?" "All corporations are evil." "The workers built UPS, so shouldn't they have an equal share of the pie?"

First of all, we couldn't revert back to the 1930's, because there are laws on the books that would prevent that. Granted, the unions helped get those laws on the books, but the unions have no purpose today, because the laws are already there. Secondly, all corporations are not evil. UPS is employee owned. If the company is employee owned then I guess the socialist union reps calling in are evil as well. And lastly, the workers did not build UPS to where it is today. The union didn't put up the capital to start the company. The union didn't create the guidelines that fit the niches of the market such as the uniforms to where, the method of package delivery, the time-tables for delivery, the rates to charge, etc.. These things were done by the corporate employees such as the marketing people and sales people, etc..

Polls indicate that over 80% of the workers do not want to be on strike, and they don't understand why they are on strike. The deal that was offered to the union by UPS was a sweetheart deal. I couldn't imagine making $20.00 and hour to drive a truck with great benefits and a better pension plan than most other companies. It would be a dream job, which it is to most of the employees. But, the same old tired rhetoric keeps coming out of the mouths of the socialist union representatives.

I think the company has a right to ask the union what the company can expect from the union if the company agrees to their demands. Doesn't the company have a right to expect better productivity from the workers? Why is it always that the unions expect and have demands? How come the company has no right to ask for something in return?

The best thing the workers of UPS could do is to get rid of the Teamsters. Hell, the Teamsters didn't even allow a vote on whether or not to go on strike in the first place.

Frank Dracman - Montgomery County, Pennsylvania