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I was talking to someone who’s partner works at UPS doing IT stuff. Apparently their contingency plan was to force people like him to additionally work the stri

I was talking to someone who’s partner works at UPS doing IT stuff. Apparently their contingency plan was to force people like him to additionally work the striking roles for no additional pay under the threat of firing.

sidewndr46 3y ago
This is how Caterpillar handled the assembly line employees strike. My understanding is they never really rehired union labor.
- vGPU 3y ago
  More than half of Cat’s labor is outsourced outside of the US, and they just got caught using slave labor in china not long ago. If we kept manufacturing inside of the US, they wouldn’t be able to abuse their workforce like that.
runako 3y ago
I interned at AT&T a while back. At the time, they required all "management" employees to prepare for their alternative roles in case CWA called a strike. The IT group I was in had people training to do field installs and maintenance as I recall. Interns in the group were considered "management" employees. Weird times.
ImaCake 3y ago
If that’s true then UPS management is not very smart. Thanks to changing demographics there is now a permanent worker shortage which has allowed these strikes to succeed. You can’t threaten to fire people when they know they can get hired by the next company. The workers will just call your bluff.
- Mountain_Skies 3y ago
  I worked with UPS's top management in an outside consulting role unrelated to labor issues around the time of their first contract negotiations after the strike of the 90s. Avoiding another strike was their number one priority even if they had to put out a strong public face of something different. Workers have fared well each time the contract has come up and I believe the 90s strike had far more impact on the company's management culture than most, even the union, realizes. The folks I worked with seemed to believe another strike would be perhaps not fatal but damaging enough to put the company on a path towards death. It was to be avoided at all costs.
  - vGPU 3y ago
    Nobody really notices that the garbage on TV is a rerun and not a new season of my 600lb life. They notice really quick when their Amazon packages get delayed. If a worker strike caused Amazon delays by 2-3 days people would be storming UPS headquarters.
favorited 3y ago
This is what happened last time. Managers and office workers were sent out on delivery runs, usually doubled up since they're not going to be as efficient.
nonethewiser 3y ago
I was at UPS IT and my manager regularly did deliveries. In that case it had nothing to do with unions.
zecaurubu 3y ago
That's also the contingency plan for the national postal service in Brazil (ECT/Correios) - a state-owned company. My father, an instructor, had to drive a van around the town to deliver express packages during strikes. The strangest thing about these situations was that old employees (a few were 80+) were also assigned to package delivery duties and some of them would end up getting lost. This was before cellphones were widespread, so Dad and his colleagues would go searching for the missing employees after lunchtime and bring them back to the office.

sidewndr46 3y ago

This is how Caterpillar handled the assembly line employees strike. My understanding is they never really rehired union labor.

vGPU 3y ago
More than half of Cat’s labor is outsourced outside of the US, and they just got caught using slave labor in china not long ago. If we kept manufacturing inside of the US, they wouldn’t be able to abuse their workforce like that.

runako 3y ago

I interned at AT&T a while back. At the time, they required all "management" employees to prepare for their alternative roles in case CWA called a strike. The IT group I was in had people training to do field installs and maintenance as I recall. Interns in the group were considered "management" employees. Weird times.

ImaCake 3y ago

If that’s true then UPS management is not very smart. Thanks to changing demographics there is now a permanent worker shortage which has allowed these strikes to succeed. You can’t threaten to fire people when they know they can get hired by the next company. The workers will just call your bluff.

Mountain_Skies 3y ago
I worked with UPS's top management in an outside consulting role unrelated to labor issues around the time of their first contract negotiations after the strike of the 90s. Avoiding another strike was their number one priority even if they had to put out a strong public face of something different. Workers have fared well each time the contract has come up and I believe the 90s strike had far more impact on the company's management culture than most, even the union, realizes. The folks I worked with seemed to believe another strike would be perhaps not fatal but damaging enough to put the company on a path towards death. It was to be avoided at all costs.
- vGPU 3y ago
  Nobody really notices that the garbage on TV is a rerun and not a new season of my 600lb life. They notice really quick when their Amazon packages get delayed. If a worker strike caused Amazon delays by 2-3 days people would be storming UPS headquarters.

favorited 3y ago

This is what happened last time. Managers and office workers were sent out on delivery runs, usually doubled up since they're not going to be as efficient.

nonethewiser 3y ago

I was at UPS IT and my manager regularly did deliveries. In that case it had nothing to do with unions.

zecaurubu 3y ago

That's also the contingency plan for the national postal service in Brazil (ECT/Correios) - a state-owned company. My father, an instructor, had to drive a van around the town to deliver express packages during strikes. The strangest thing about these situations was that old employees (a few were 80+) were also assigned to package delivery duties and some of them would end up getting lost. This was before cellphones were widespread, so Dad and his colleagues would go searching for the missing employees after lunchtime and bring them back to the office.