Carhaul Concessions Spread

In the July-August issue of Convoy Dispatch, we exposed the concessions to the carhaul contract and warned that they could spread. It’s already happening.

On Aug. 26, Youngstown Local 377 signed a side-deal with Cassens that provides for 85 percent of scale, and lower zone rates within an 85-mile radius. The deal states that the rates will come up to contract level, but after our national contract expires in 2008.

E&L (PTS), Allied, and now Cassens. Like a little bit of cancer, concessions tend to spread unless a concerted effort is made to isolate and stop them. In this case, the officials in charge are cheering them on. James Hoffa (Mr. “best contract ever” and “your benefits are guaranteed for five years”) and carhaul director Fred Zuckerman are allowing the contract to be violated.

John Thyer, St. Louis Local 604 president, has filed charges under Article 19 of the IBT Constitution against Hoffa, Zuckerman, Tom Keegel, and Louie Miller of Minnesota Local 120. The charges allege undercutting the national agreement and imposing concessions without a vote.

Zuckerman and other pro-concession officials justify them by saying we have to grant concessions to help union carriers underbid the nonunion outfits. Where does this position lead? What good is our national contract if companies and locals are free to make any deal they like, in direct violation of the contract?

The Cassens Teamsters in Youngstown are hauling cars previously hauled by Cassens drivers out of Smyrna, Tenn. Now they haul them a shorter distance, out of the Warren, Ohio, rail head, and at a rate below what is allowed in the contract. Drivers in Smyrna were only offered Article 5 transfer rights to get the lower-paid work.

We need a leadership that can devise a plan for carhaul and make it happen. Instead we have leaders lie to us, allow the contract to splinter, and then say “what else could we do?” after the fact. That’s not what will build our union and save our contract.