NoKoolAid

Although you opinions are well stated, they are just that, your opinions. Personally, I disagree with what I view as your defeatist attitude on the whole labor situation here at UPS, or at any company, for that matter.

You have to play the cards you have. Any illusions of power that the IPA or ALPA has aren't held by this poster (me). I think that in the middle of all the chest pounding, is the agreement.

However, UPS is a bully. Pure and unadulterated bully. And as we all have in our life, you have to stand up to the bully. Plain and simple. Because if you don't, the bully will only make your life hell. Now and always.

The Eastern strike would have been much much much more effective should the 250-300 pilot not initially crossed the picket line. It was enough to keep a skeleton operation running and give the company management the illusion that they could whether the storm of the strike. They were wrong in the end. Weren't they? It would have been better to shut the whole operation down. Completely. And FORCE management to the table, for better or worse. And at that point, it is force. And if Eastern would have been shutdown correctly, maybe, just maybe, they would be here today.

So the 200 replacement management pilots at UPS cannot do the job. But, they can buy the company time. About two weeks before they time out with 30/7 FAA restrictions. The replacement management pilots at UPS are all part of the labor puzzle of, "all-in", poker. And part of UPS corporate union busting 101 is to make the membership sweat. And after 2 weeks or so, the company is gambling that IPA guys will start to get fidgety and start to cross. And that, if it happens, is when the IPA blinks and UPS wins.

So the 200 replacement management pilots at UPS are very much a part of the union busting formula in playing their part. It's all about applying pressure and making the other side blink. And the pressure goes up exponentially when the strike is actually on. The management pilot replacement workers are precisely that tool.

Make no mistake about it.

Otherwise, your hypothesis' might be correct. Or, they might be wrong. In fighting the bully, you have to go with what is right, regardless of the political climate and what you think the current administration will do. You have to do what is right.

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HSLD,

Excellent.....EXCELLENT saying. It is the same saying as I was taught in Political Science, "The people will get the government they deserve."

And it works both ways. Government (management), will get the relations (labor), that they create.

I couldn't agree more. As I said, I love the stability of UPS and won't leave because of time in service, the knowledge 5 times previous of knowing what it is like to start over, and the bottom line that UPS has.

But, UPS is psychotic in many ways. They are extreme, EXTREME control freaks. To the point of paranoia. Which they transmit daily through their puppet managers. And each of those managers is on a string with upper management. From the chief pilot (Barnes), on down. And I don't think Rick Barr is in any way immune to Atlanta telling him to jump up and down. And believe me, Rick Barr will do it. They are all puppets on a string. Sorry, its the truth.

To sit down with the pilot managers and have a beer is one thing. Talk about sports and so on. But its never far from your mind that they have sold their soul for their management position. They make a lot of money, but it comes with a big cost.

Nashmd11, I couldn't agree more....we all...collectively....have to stand together against the bully. Not to destroy the bully. We....none of us has the desire to do that. We, the IPA, and Teamsters, and the union that represents the dispatchers, and any other organizations on the property, have to and will stand together.

Its that simple. Because if Atlanta UPS thinks for one second that they can buy time with replacement workers and break a union on their property, they will do it. Sure as the sun rises in the east every day, UPS will do it.

YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)