Originally Posted by jungle

FEDEX and UPS tend to mirror each others moves. Guys at Brown are saying as soon as FEDEX gets their contract we will get ours. Neither wants to have a disadvantage in the market place-it would not surprise me if high level talks among the two are sorting out the eventual settlement. Illegal, but they do seem to get things done in a very similar fashion very often.
The only possible catalyst is a requirement to settle with other components of labor within the company, or a strong desire to alter work rules to gain more productivity, or a demand by the labor boards to finish the negotiations.
Maybe next summer.
I don't believe in fairy tales, but it does seem odd that a company so proud of it's fairness, charity and public image would treat it's employees so poorly.
We are a commodity being priced in the market and nothing more. It really isn't about the money, since the settlement differences are so small as to be meaningless to the companies involved.
In the meantime both companies are destroying good will within the workforce that could cost them dearly in the long run. If fuel remains at the current high levels or goes higher, the entire cargo market could get very ugly.