LETS GO UNION
 

Well I didnt want to do this but i called the teamsters a couple days ago. Am trying to get my company to go union. They took away one to many benefits from us. We used to get OT after 8 now it is OT after 40. Used to get $$120 a year for work boots. Now we get no work boot money. Used to have 5 sick days. Now we have 2. Used to have 6 personal days. Now we got 4. They also took the day after turkey day was paid not no more.
Am telling them 2marrow am talking to the union and leading all of this. I know i will be on there black ball list but that is fine. I just hope i can get enough votes to make it happen. Where will it stop i dont think it is going to. For years we had them benefits but now management is messing up and we are losing for there mistakes. Well i will let you know how it goes.

Oh and on top of things i forgot to say we got a big 3% rise oh boy. For me it is like 55 cents an hr. Last year they gave us 5%.

Good luck Mackman!!!

thanks ben i just hope they stand behind me(other drivers) when i put my neck on the line. I think some are just talking out there ass and if it comes down to it wont do it.

Somebody tried to start a union at my work we all got a dollar raise and 35 people lost thier jobs. Couple of things happen six months after the ten votes for and the 135 against. One we lost our raise two threats were made anyone else talks about union you will lose your job a few other things they siad they let slide would be perment record.

I'd love to see a new union, the teamsters are just too screwed up for words. They are still not as screwed up as the generic OTR outfit though. The problem with union work and the new breed trucker is that they shun work rules and regulations, they did not get into trucking to be a conformist or to follow any rules. This is the "lifestyle trucker". To work a union job you really have to want to follow some pretty constrictive work rules, but it beats not getting compensated for 70% of what a driver is required to do.

Im no expert by any means, but from what i hear he who leads the unionization effort gets fired to make an example for the other drivers. I suggest some sort of covert approach till you have momentum to win a vote. Do your homework first- theres watchdog groups and surely some help and tips from the unions. good luck to you, I really hope you succeed! Keep us posted Mackman!

In my previous life when I worked at Rubbermaid there was talk going around to try to unionize the factory I was in. Rubbermaid had corporate people come in for a huge meeting at the plant. They made it plainly clear that if we voted in a union they would simply close down the plant and move its operations to Mexico.

They made no qualms about stating it either. I think the meeting lasted about 5 minutes. Needless to say it never went union.

I was wanting to say that to a point. Why are all the Companies going to Mexico? No Union there.

Re: LETS GO UNION
 

I have mixed feelings about unions. I still feel that people should be paid according to performance. A union takes away the need to perform your best. In fact, most places where I have gone over the years and there was a union present, it is frown upon to perform above a certain level. I understand that the company has taken away a few paid days and they are no longer paying for your work boots. I have never had a company pay for my work clothes, nor would I expect it. Business has been way off the last several months. They did give you a raise, even if it wasn't as much as before. I would consider that a blessing in itself. Most companies don't pay over time until after 40 hours. It could be that some were abusing the paid off days. They may only be doing what they can to survive. I am not necessarily defending them, but it seems to me as though things really aren't all that bad. My feeling is that if you don't like the direction of the company where you work, you leave and find a company you like.

Re: LETS GO UNION
 

I've seen this too. Working faster/better/harder is a good way to get the union brothers to gang up on you in the parking lot after work. I'm not against unions, but I've seen unions that just weren't working for their members. I have no opinion on the IBT one way or the other though. I just don't know enough about what's going on with them these days to have any basis for an opinion. (That's one for the record books. A truck driver who admitted he doesn't know what he's talking about, and didn't try to opine on the subject anyway :D )Here's my take on these last two points. Business was down so far at my last company that they dumped their entire transportation division, and went with a third-party carrier. Boom. We're all out of a job we planned to keep forever. On the last day, we got together and gave our former boss a 24x36 sized poster version of that little picture in my .sig, with every driver standing in front of his truck, and his signature on the picture. We all stood around crying. Ten grown men bawling like women at a wedding.

We thought they were cheap bastards because our insurance kept getting more expensive, and paying for less; because they took away this and that; because we all went several years in a row without a raise, etc., but at the end of the day they really couldn't afford to do any of those things, and we would have just been out of a job that much sooner if we had tried to organize and force them to give us our way.

I pretty much realized this, and I didn't make any noise about no raise, etc. I was just happy to have the job. I'll never have another job that fit my personality and my lifestyle so perfectly as that one.

I'm trying to make the best of it where I'm at now, but life will never be the same. If I had known what was going to happen, I would have taken a painful pay cut to keep that job. If I could go back there and take that pay cut now, I'd give up $290 a week right now straight off the top to go back working for my old company.

I'm just saying maybe Mackman needs to think about what else is out there, and how much he likes where he is at now. I know where I am at now is a job I turned down three other times without the slightest interest in taking it. The guy's trying to give me this yee haw everything is great now that you finally came to your senses kind of deal, but the fact is I am doing a lot more work for a little more money over here, and it wouldn't be worth it if I had any other choice.

I'm glad this was here for a Plan B, because it's still a lot better than most of what else is out there in this business, but I was also wise to turn this job the three other times. I wouldn't have been happy here a month if I still had my old home to go back to.

This is me, not you. You have to make up your own mind, Mackman, but if you like your job any kind of the way I used to like mine, you really might not want to see them slam the doors shut in your face. It sucks.

Well I talked to my boss (friend of the family) today. HE told me just to watch out cuz i will be walking a fine line. Am OK with that. HE told me these new management people cant not run the business that's why are benefits are slowly going away. There just not turning a profit like they should. Bidding jobs way to cheap. So that makes me even more mad cuz we the drivers did nothing wrong to deserve this. Fire management and get people who can do there jobs.

By the way this is not the normal trucking business with haul SEPTIC SLUDGE so we are busy all year round. By the way we used to top out at 5 weeks pd vac. now it is only 3. Found that out today. Sorry for the missed spell words am kinda in a rush but we keep you all up to date.

Re: LETS GO UNION
 

Well if you count all the stuff they took away we didnt get a raise we still lost. The raise does not over come what we lost
. :evil: