Thursday, April 29, 2010

Teamster takes down Wall Street Journal

Teamster Vincent Kloss from Ohio responds to a hideous Wall Street Journal editorial that repeats Fred Smith's talking points:


FedEx has developed a significant ground operation to compete with UPS. FedEx even uses ground transportation to transport its "air" packages where feasible. UPS simply wants a level playing field to compete with FedEx.

Your comment that UPS is at a disadvantage because its workforce consists of union members is an insult to every Teamster who helped build UPS into one of the most efficient, well-respected companies in the world. That system is labor intensive and requires thousands of dedicated employees to sort and deliver those packages.

You say that union employee equals "labor woes." I would hardly consider one 15-day work stoppage in my 32 years as a Teamster at UPS the kind of labor strife that has impeded UPS's ability to expand and be profitable. Last time I checked, UPS was still making billions of dollars in profits a year. And that, despite the fact that UPS was saddled with union employees.

Vincent J. Kloss
Aurora, Ohio