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This article was posted yesterday by Zippo in the News thread. Anyone interested in this thread's topic will find it interesting so I've added a copy here for your convenience.
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In Love With Hoffa
by John D. Schulz, Traffic World (May 1, 2000)
UPS enjoys Teamsters change of tune, leadership in forging strong ties with Hoffa in new partnership
United Parcel Service, the nation's largest transportation company, feels it has taken part in one of the great trades of all time in labor: James P. "Jimmy" Hoffa for Ron Carey as president of the Teamster union. "Jim Hoffa understands business," said Thomas Weidermeyer, president of UPS Airlines and a senior member of its labor negotiations team. "He understands a very basic tenet of labor. If you want more members, you've got to want to help make companies grow."
UPS, which just last year admitted it got back to normal after Carey engineered the first work stoppage in UPS's 93-year history by taking out more than 200,000 workers in a 15-day strike in August 1997, is enjoying a love fest with Hoffa. The pair is intrinsically linked, Hoffa is up for re-election at the end of 2001, just as labor talks start at UPS, the union's largest employer. "We are in a period of understanding and mutual cooperation," Weidermeyer said at last week's meeting of the National Small Shipments Traffic Conference here. That is just about as close as any labor negotiator says to "I love you."
Weidermeyer, in response to a question, went out of his way to paint UPS's strike as a rogue move by a desperate labor leader trying to hold onto his eroding base of power. He said he doubted whether similar circumstances could happen again. "I was part of the negotiations in 1997," Weidermeyer said. "That was one person (Carey) who had a political problem. He had no interest in anything except a strike. Some of Ron Carey's associates are either in jail, on appeal or on their way to being convicted. This (strike) was an issue with Mr. Carey. This gave him a platform."
Hoffa, on the other hand, has been shrewd in his early dealings with UPS, Weidermeyer said. He was able to take credit for creating 2,000 new full-time jobs at UPS, even though it was the Carey-engineered strike that caused UPS to sign onto such a pledge. It took UPS more than two years after the strike to sufficiently rebuild volume levels to the point where they supported 2,000 new full-time jobs. But Weidermeyer said Hoffa's business acumen goes beyond the simple public relations expertise of taking credit for somebody else's work. "The internal things, grievances, settlements of disputes, have all gone well," Weidermeyer said.
Hoffa has gone out of his way to scratch UPS's back as well. UPS, simply put, is dying to fly its planes into China. Currently FedEx has the world's largest country all to itself, among American-based cargo companies. UPS has been lobbying the Clinton administration to open up China to some brown planes as well as the blue-and-orange ones. "Hoffa can say he's against the World Trade Organization but also say, by the way, let UPS deliver to China," Weidermeyer said. "It might seem a little bit of a dichotomy. But if the marketplace is there, UPS should be able to be there."
Hoffa, who is still withholding formal endorsment of the 1.4 million-member Teamsters union from any presidential candidate to wring as much leverage possible from either Al Gore or George W. Bush, is doing this because of simple mathematics. Without growth from UPS, the Teamsters are a shrinking union. In an era when less than 9 percent of all private-sector employees are unionized (down from 33 percent just 25 years ago), the Teamsters need a vibrant UPS to stay viable. "They can't affort to lose 10,000 members," Weidermeyer said. "In the last decade all the growthin the Teamsters has been with UPS. Take UPS out and the Teamsters are a shrinking organization. We have a cooperative effort going on there. The needs of our customers will be well served by UPS and the Teamsters working cooperatively."
On a related note, Weidermeyer renewed UPS's attack on goverment-sponsored rivals such as Deutsche Post and the U.S. Postal Service. UPS has long stated it believes the USPS subsideizes profits from its first-class mail monopoly to help fund its priority mail and international business to the detriment of UPS. It's a charge the USPS has denied but UPS official hardly buy it. "Our biggest competition is a government agency," Weidermeyer said. "When they make a profit, they don't have to pay taxes. It costs less (on USPS) to send a 10-pound package from San Francisco to Europe than it does for them to send that package on the ground from Baltimore to Washington. Tell me there isn't some cross-subsidization going on? I don't call that a level playing field."
On a darker note, Weidermeyer brought up the federal government's seizure of Elian Gonzales last weekend as an example of how the government can act arbitrarily to effect any end it may want. "On a similiar vein, like what happended in Miami the other day, our president could decide that all domestic packages should go by USPS," Weidermeyer said. "If they (USPS) are not going to play by the rules, they ought to stick to their government monopoly. They do that pretty well. It's been a long time since one of my bills didn't arrive at my house on time. Can't say the same thing about Priority Mail."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Love With Hoffa
by John D. Schulz, Traffic World (May 1, 2000)
UPS enjoys Teamsters change of tune, leadership in forging strong ties with Hoffa in new partnership
United Parcel Service, the nation's largest transportation company, feels it has taken part in one of the great trades of all time in labor: James P. "Jimmy" Hoffa for Ron Carey as president of the Teamster union. "Jim Hoffa understands business," said Thomas Weidermeyer, president of UPS Airlines and a senior member of its labor negotiations team. "He understands a very basic tenet of labor. If you want more members, you've got to want to help make companies grow."
UPS, which just last year admitted it got back to normal after Carey engineered the first work stoppage in UPS's 93-year history by taking out more than 200,000 workers in a 15-day strike in August 1997, is enjoying a love fest with Hoffa. The pair is intrinsically linked, Hoffa is up for re-election at the end of 2001, just as labor talks start at UPS, the union's largest employer. "We are in a period of understanding and mutual cooperation," Weidermeyer said at last week's meeting of the National Small Shipments Traffic Conference here. That is just about as close as any labor negotiator says to "I love you."
Weidermeyer, in response to a question, went out of his way to paint UPS's strike as a rogue move by a desperate labor leader trying to hold onto his eroding base of power. He said he doubted whether similar circumstances could happen again. "I was part of the negotiations in 1997," Weidermeyer said. "That was one person (Carey) who had a political problem. He had no interest in anything except a strike. Some of Ron Carey's associates are either in jail, on appeal or on their way to being convicted. This (strike) was an issue with Mr. Carey. This gave him a platform."
Hoffa, on the other hand, has been shrewd in his early dealings with UPS, Weidermeyer said. He was able to take credit for creating 2,000 new full-time jobs at UPS, even though it was the Carey-engineered strike that caused UPS to sign onto such a pledge. It took UPS more than two years after the strike to sufficiently rebuild volume levels to the point where they supported 2,000 new full-time jobs. But Weidermeyer said Hoffa's business acumen goes beyond the simple public relations expertise of taking credit for somebody else's work. "The internal things, grievances, settlements of disputes, have all gone well," Weidermeyer said.
Hoffa has gone out of his way to scratch UPS's back as well. UPS, simply put, is dying to fly its planes into China. Currently FedEx has the world's largest country all to itself, among American-based cargo companies. UPS has been lobbying the Clinton administration to open up China to some brown planes as well as the blue-and-orange ones. "Hoffa can say he's against the World Trade Organization but also say, by the way, let UPS deliver to China," Weidermeyer said. "It might seem a little bit of a dichotomy. But if the marketplace is there, UPS should be able to be there."
Hoffa, who is still withholding formal endorsment of the 1.4 million-member Teamsters union from any presidential candidate to wring as much leverage possible from either Al Gore or George W. Bush, is doing this because of simple mathematics. Without growth from UPS, the Teamsters are a shrinking union. In an era when less than 9 percent of all private-sector employees are unionized (down from 33 percent just 25 years ago), the Teamsters need a vibrant UPS to stay viable. "They can't affort to lose 10,000 members," Weidermeyer said. "In the last decade all the growthin the Teamsters has been with UPS. Take UPS out and the Teamsters are a shrinking organization. We have a cooperative effort going on there. The needs of our customers will be well served by UPS and the Teamsters working cooperatively."
On a related note, Weidermeyer renewed UPS's attack on goverment-sponsored rivals such as Deutsche Post and the U.S. Postal Service. UPS has long stated it believes the USPS subsideizes profits from its first-class mail monopoly to help fund its priority mail and international business to the detriment of UPS. It's a charge the USPS has denied but UPS official hardly buy it. "Our biggest competition is a government agency," Weidermeyer said. "When they make a profit, they don't have to pay taxes. It costs less (on USPS) to send a 10-pound package from San Francisco to Europe than it does for them to send that package on the ground from Baltimore to Washington. Tell me there isn't some cross-subsidization going on? I don't call that a level playing field."
On a darker note, Weidermeyer brought up the federal government's seizure of Elian Gonzales last weekend as an example of how the government can act arbitrarily to effect any end it may want. "On a similiar vein, like what happended in Miami the other day, our president could decide that all domestic packages should go by USPS," Weidermeyer said. "If they (USPS) are not going to play by the rules, they ought to stick to their government monopoly. They do that pretty well. It's been a long time since one of my bills didn't arrive at my house on time. Can't say the same thing about Priority Mail."
