Sideshow Bob

FDX guys love the anonymity of this venue, unlike the UPS forum where everybody, including our management moles knows who says what. See...we at UPS don't live in rainbow and unicorn land thinking that management EVER has anything good in store for us, and thusly we regard each other in like dislike.

We are watching FDX contract negotiations with great interest, as conventional wisdom would indicate that you may well settle first, which will either raise or lower the bar for us. From what I gather talking with FDX guys, Fred and his gang may well become dramatically more hard-core this time around, and will play the kind of hardball that to a UPS pilot is normal day-to-day life at work. There is discussion in our ranks that it may in everyone's best interest if we settle (or try to) with UPS first, as it sure seems (based on chatter amongst FDX ranks) that Fred is out for blood this time more than ever.

Look...we are BOTH on our own here. Joe six-pack couldn't care less about us, nobody in DC gives a rat's posterior about OUR unions, Asia, India and Europe are teetering and the U.S. economy is hanging by a thread, slower shipping modes are in vogue and there is a LOT of belly space on a lot of jets these days.

We BOTH have only ourselves to rely on both within our respective seniority lists and between our two unions.

We BOTH have MBAs at the gates with torches and pitchforks.

And at the end of the day we BOTH will only have ourselves to blame should we fail.