DHL Cuts Jobs
August 1, 2008: Less than two months after members ratified a concessionary contract that IBT officials touted as saving jobs, DHL has implemented layoffs, which could be permanent cuts.
Those with sufficient seniority are being offered the option to bid on part time positions, which the new contract allows.
It seems clear DHL got what they wanted from those negotiations.
I'm trying to get Local 295 to stop aiding DHL in violating our contract terms. DHL recently laid off 100 of our members and forced 419 other members to participate in a "bump and roll" layoff scheme.
Belew is a Letter to members that I have distributed locally in the hope of informing Local 295 members and getting them to protest Local 295's aiding of DHL's violation of our contract.
John Charte
Teamster Local 295 Member - TTN Terminal
Email: Tuffmugster@comcast.net
To: ALL DHL Teamster Local 295 Members
DHL intends to lay off many if not most of us but we must not make it cheap and easy for them. DHL is beginning this process by violating our contract. You must help me and yourself by getting Teamster Local 295 to stop them.
Four Hundred and nineteen of our fellow members are being forced by the company to participate in a “bump and roll” process. The Company has lied to these 419 by telling them they “will not be laid off: however, your current status will be affected.“ These 419 members are being forced to bid for 385 total positions, 242 full time and 147 part time. Do the math! 419 people but only 385 positions equals 34 guaranteed layoffs! How many will be downgraded to part-time????
Some will ultimately be laid off and be able to collect unemployment. Others will be forced to work at a terminal not of their choosing and may be forcibly downgraded to part -time status. Others will refuse reassignment or downgrading and be labeled “Voluntary Quits“ with no right to recall, and become ineligible for unemployment compensation. These are your Brother Teamsters! Help stop this NOW!
This will be the first layoff and first “bump and roll” of many more to come if we don‘t act together NOW!. The “bump and roll” process makes it cheap and easy for DHL to lay us off. I’m not cheap and easy. I want them to pay me for my lost job with a buyout offer or pay me for relocation with a relocation bonus. You must help to stop the “bump and roll” now before DHL bumps and rolls you into the street with no job and no unemployment or into a distant terminal and/or lower status and /or shift.
The “bump and roll” process is not in our contract! We never agreed to it. This “bump and roll” process violates our contract by filling full-time vacancies in a forced bid. The bid for these positions is not by terminal seniority as required by the contract. Furthermore, the company has no right under the contract to force someone to bid and no right to force a full-timer to bid and accept a part-time position (Section 7.B.( c)). By contract, if no one bids, the Company is required “to hire for that position”. (Collective Bargaining Agreement, page 26, Section 7:C.1 New Full-Time Positions, Full-Time Vacancies.) So the company created these vacancies by laying off people or withholding these vacancies from the emergency bid they just forced down our throats! Now DHL is forcing 419 of us to bid for unwanted positions and hoping many won‘t take them so DHL can lay them off without unemployment compensation.. DHL is not hiring for those positions as the contract clearly states it must! DHL is screwing 419 of us to fill those positions! Soon they’ll be coming to screw you too!
We can stop this if we work together. It’s time for the membership to stand up and shout out our disapproval of what DHL is doing to us!
Victory through Unity!
Call Lou Calemine at Teamster Local 295 at 516 568 1970 today and tell them you want the “bump and roll” stopped NOW! Tell them DHL is violating our contract! Tell them it is their duty to uphold our contract and protect the members!
Copy this letter and give it to any DHL driver who hasn’t seen it and to DHL drivers you may know in other terminals. We must work fast!
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I welcome any help, comments, or suggestions you may have about the layoffs and how the Union's collusion with DHL to violate our contract and victimize our members can be stopped!
John Charte tuffmugster@comcast.net