Roadway Change of Operations Approved
On February 1, Teamsters Union freight representatives agreed to approve Roadway’s major change of operations, which will close some breakbulks and relay points and move approximately one thousand road, dock, yard and office jobs. In return, certain job protections were written into the change agreement.
Will Hoffa Enforce the Freight Contract?
In January 2006 the Eastern Conference panel heard a second grievance and ruled DHL must pay a penalty of over $2,000 for each day the company fails to pay the original $90,000 ruling. They now owe over $200,000.
Why won’t DHL comply with the contract and pay up? The answer is Brad Slawson.
Last October International Rep. Slawson, the right-hand man to General Secretary Treasurer Tom Keegel, went behind the back of the affected Teamsters to try to cut a deal with DHL and let the company to pay a measly $16,000.
In a January 17, 2006 notarized statement, DHL vice president for Labor Relations, Patricia Ann Burke claims that Slawson approached her with the deal. This was after the Pittsburgh Teamsters had been duly awarded $90,000 for two years of giving away union work.
This is the same Brad Slawson who was put in charge of DHL Teamsters for the International Union by James Hoffa.
Local 249 members continue to press for the acknowledgement of their victorious grievance and the money owed. The Eastern Region Joint Area Committee met on January 18, 2006 and found in favor of the Local 249 grievance calling for penalty pay from October 19, 2005 forward. Local 249 has received strike authorization from Joint Council 40. The request has been sent to the International.
It’s time for Hoffa to do right thing. Send Slawson back to Minnesota, and support the Pittsburgh Teamsters who are asking for nothing but what they are entitled to.
Freight Panel Corrects Decision
On February 21 the National Freight Grievance Committee issued a clarification in a case from Local 776, which protects the right of a freight Teamster to appeal to a third doctor regarding a DOT physical. If the company doctor disqualifies an employee, and the Teamster’s personal doctor gives a conflicting diagnosis, the Teamster can appeal to a third doctor.
This document corrects what appeared to be a very wrong-headed decision issued on February 3.
Freight, Carhaul Teamsters to Get Raise
Freight and carhaul Teamsters will make less this year than last due to wages lost to inflation—despite COLA increases which will take affect next month.
Freight Teamsters will get an extra 10c raise on April 1 because inflation has jumped to 4.1% over the past year, triggering a payout from the cost of living clause in the National Master Freight Agreement. Under the NMFA, a COLA kicks in when inflation exceeds 3.5 percent—so freight Teamsters will get an extra dime or slightly less than 1/2 percent of the wage rate.
The carhaul contract has superior language, so carhaulers will get 21c per hour, or about 1%, on June 1. Carhaulers suffered a two year wage freeze in the present contract, and lost 6% of real wages to inflation, so the 1% increase is more than welcome.
These COLA increases are in addition to the regular wage increases of 45c (2.0%) for freight, and 40c (1.9%) for carhaul. The COLA for freight mileage pay is .25c per mile, and for carhaul it is 1.05c per loaded mile and .525c per running mile.
Even with COLA payout, freight and carhaul Teamsters will lose real wages over the year to inflation. Freight Teamsters will make 33c less this year than last, measured in “real wages”, the economists’ term that takes into account inflation. Carhaulers will make 27c per hour less.
International officers will get a COLA raise on July 1, calculated on a rather different formula, the details of which will be known in May. If inflation for that period is 4.1%, the COLA raise for James Hoffa will be $5.03 per hour, with similar increases for other IBT officials.
Will Our Union Fight to Save Carhaul Jobs?
Over 200 Baltimore Jobs Lost
At the end of December Baltimore Local 557 lost over 200 carhaul jobs to carrier New Concept Solutions. Leaseway, now owned by Penske, had operated out of the terminal since 1938. GM refused Leaseway’s request for a rate increase and Penske terminated the contract. Drivers at New Concept Solutions are represented by the machinists’ union. This arrangement has popped up elsewhere. The presence of what is basically a company union poses just as big a threat to the unionized carhaul industry as does nonunion competition.
It appears that Hoffa’s power and prestige mean little within the AFL-CIO if the IBT is unable to stop another union from raiding one of its core jurisdictions.
More Lost Jobs in N.Y. and Mo.
Nearly as many Teamsters worked out of Selkirk, N.Y., at one time. They also received an unwanted Christmas present when Allied closed its terminal at the end of December.
In Missouri, Teamster jobs were lost to nonunion competition even before Ford’s recent announcement that the Hazelwood plant would be closed.
Allied is also using the current climate to push for concessions. Brokers out of Boston Local 25, for example, are under the gun. Allied has told them that they will have to eat whatever concessions are needed to keep the Volkswagen traffic — or lose their jobs.
Norfolk, Va., one of the few terminals in the East to resist concessions, has now been strapped with the flex workweek.
Mechanics Oppose the Flex
In the Midwest, Allied is maneuvering to get the flex workweek for mechanics. Some locals appear to be helping Allied’s efforts by repeating the lie that other locals have already accepted the flex. Fortunately, stewards are actively in touch with each other and can overcome this trick.
Conditions in driveaway [see related article] are just as difficult.
Aggressive Steps Needed
Some local unions are grumbling about the International’s lack of action, wondering when real steps (rather than PR) will be taken to address this growing problem. At a recent Detroit Local 299 meeting, members suggested that carhaul locals put together their own network.
What will come of this, or of the International’s position, is not clear.
What is clear is that hundreds more Teamster jobs are down the dumper, with more to come if aggressive steps are not taken.
Allied Requests Wage, Benefit Concessions
The International has rejected the deal; there is no way it could be accepted. Other carriers would immediately demand equal treatment, and any mid-contract concession must be voted on by members in a national referendum. Granting the freeze on health and welfare contributions would force carhaulers out of their benefit plans and into second-tier plans.
What is Allied Really After?
Allied claims that these concessions are needed to help the financially ailing company, and to deal with the growth of nonunion carriers, which are concerns on the minds of Allied’s employees.
Management is playing on the fear of employees; no one wants to lose their job. The program is endless: CDs mailed to every Teamster, conference calls, letters, and even one-on-one meetings to go around our union and probe our weak spots. Management is manipulating fear more effectively than they are moving automobiles.
Are they simply trying to soften us up for next year’s contract? Or setting up the union to take the blame for the company’s problems?
One thing is certain: concessions will not save jobs or make them secure. Job security comes with a strong contract and a union that has a plan to defend our jobs and to aggressively organize the whole carhaul industry.
Allied Gives Away More Carhaul Jobs
Vascor is a growing logistics player in the auto industry and already operates some off-site yard operations in carhaul. In a letter from Allied’s labor relations department to IBT carhaul director Doc Conder, Allied says Vascor intends to open nonunion, but that they are “not adverse to Teamster representation.”
Teamsters from a number of the GM locations report that they have not heard one word from the International union, and some local union officers report that they can’t find anything out from the International either.
Has the union met with Allied about these jobs? Has Allied opened their books so the union can see the economics of the situation? Has Vascor been approached about accepting the experienced TSI/Allied workers, and the union contract? What is the plan to organize Vascor, and to protect the jobs and pensions of the affected Teamsters? Is there any plan at all?
Our union has given plenty of goodies to Allied management, including a wage freeze. It’s time to call in the favors and protect the jobs of a lot of Teamsters.
Carhaul Companies, Union Both Need to Change
Billy Scott, now driving for Allied and a long-time union rep for Detroit Local 299, made the following observations in a letter to carhaul friends:
The union carhaul carriers can't see the forest for the trees. They are unwilling to take on the nonunion sector. More importantly, they are unwilling to take on the manufacturers. They continually want to beat up on the union for letting this happen to them, while they continue to give these nonunion operations footholds into their business.
Allied is the prime example: Allied is content to let the nonunion entities chip off, piece by piece, segments of their operations. They would rather a nonunion carrier get their work than one of their union competitors.
The Teamsters Union leadership has written this 10,000 member division off. They give it a lot of lip service, but provide little or no resources to actually go after these non-Teamster companies. They say that the Local Unions should do it. I know of no Local Union with the resources to take on a full blown organizing drive, not even for a small company, let alone an operation like Fleet Car, United Road Service, Swift, BMW or Waggoneer.
This attitude on the part of the union leadership has to change, and rank and file carhaulers have to make it happen, and participate in that organizing.
Active Takes 300 Teamster Jobs: Local 654 Sues
Over 300 Teamster carhaulers in Springfield,Ohio lost their jobs May 1 when their work hauling Navistar trucks was transferred from Active Transportation to Auto Truck Transport. Both Active and ATT are owned by JHT Holdings. ATT – whose workers are represented by the International Association of Machinists (IAM) – pays $620 per month in pension and health & welfare benefits. Active pays $1,760.
The job losses are particularly hard to swallow because in May 2003 the Teamsters agreed to a two-year wage freeze in carhaul to offset rising health care costs.
JHT’s CEO, Dennis Troha, has also used the same scam in other parts of the country to whipsaw Teamster carhaulers into accepting lower benefits or losing work. JHT’s subsidiaries haul more than 70% of the truck tractors made in the U.S. and Canada. Teamster Local 654 has sued in federal court to stop the Springfield work transfer, arguing that it was done solely to avoid paying pension and health & welfare benefits. The International union has not mounted a campaign to save Teamster driveaway jobs.
Allied Demands Carhaul Concessions
Allied’s CEO Hugh Sawyer dropped a hint (or a threat) into his February 1 letter, now distributed widely to Allied Teamsters, by mentioning the possibility of bankruptcy. If Sawyer attempts to use bankruptcy court as a weapon to attack our contract, we need to be prepared for an all-out fight. Not just Allied Teamsters, but all Teamsters.
Sawyer claims in his “Dear Jimmy” letter that a silent majority of Allied Teamsters support his drive for concessions. Sawyer, a master of salesmanship and paternalism, often claims to speak for his Teamster employees.
Allied — along with the whole industry — was given a two-year wage freeze in the current contract, and the June 1 raise will be the first one three years. In his February 18 response, Conder states that other union carriers are making money and declines Sawyer’s request for a commission to discuss concessions in wages and working conditions.
Allied continues to be its own worst enemy. For example, in February Allied has lost some Ontario Chrysler work to a non-union operator, Oakwood Transport, for no apparent reason. Allied can’t seem to handle all the Chrysler traffic, and yet has drivers on lay-off in Windsor, Ontario.
Go Teamsters: ATT Workers to Vote on Union
Auto Truck Transport (ATT) drivers across the country will soon get a chance to vote to become Teamsters. In mid- September the NLRB issued the election decision for 1,300 drivers in a nation-wide unit.
ATT is controlled by Dennis Troha, the CEO of Active Transport, which is covered by our national carhaul contract. ATT was created a decade ago as a union-busting device, and Troha has been able to evade the language against double-breasting in the contract.
Management has used ATT to underbid Active and throw Teamsters out of work in more than half a dozen cities. Active and ATT together transport the majority of heavy trucks made in the U.S. and Canada, as well as those made in Mexico and moved by ATT out of Laredo.
ATT workers will have the chance to end this division and improve their benefits and conditions. The Teamsters are competing against the International Association of Machinists (IAM). Unfortunately, the IAM has allowed itself to be used by management in their campaign to bust the Teamster contract.
Carhaulers can help by volunteering on the Teamster campaign or by talking to ATT drivers to support the drive.
Union Hires Pollster to Sell Carhaul Concessions
The poll asked Teamsters if they would forego the June 1 wage increase of 40 cents per hour or accept other concessions. U.S. and Canadian Teamster carhaulers have not had a raise in three years. Allied management (or is it mismanagement?) has once again demanded concessions, claiming that the carrier may go under unless they get them.
We expect Allied and all carriers will comply and pay the 40 cents, which is only a two-percent raise (after three years) and a one-percent increase in overall labor costs.
The poll was so company-oriented that several Teamsters told us they were shocked that it came from the union. Rob Hackett, an Allied driver out of Moraine, Ohio, Local 957, said, “After I hung up I started thinking about it. They seemed pretty company-oriented. They sort of put us on the spot over the pay raise. I wondered if it was really legit and done by the union.”
The poll also asked Teamsters to rate these individuals on a scale from one to five: James Hoffa, retiring Carhaul Director Doc Conder, and their BA. The International election is coming up in 2006.
Since our dues paid for the poll, shouldn’t the results be made available to the members?
Instead of using our dues to soften up members, our union leaders should have a plan to save unionized carhaul, including taking on the manufacturers, who are squeezing the unionized carriers too hard.