ABF Road Driver Bret Subsits: 'Supporting Hoffa was The Biggest Mistake of My Life'
June 13, 2014: Bret Subsits is an ABF road driver in Local 710, a truck driver for over 30 years, formerly in Chicago locals 703 and 705. Bret was a Hoffa supporter in 1996 and 1998. He says that was “the biggest mistake of my life.”He’s been active in fighting back against concessions, and wants to rebuild Teamster power in trucking.
What's the situation in trucking like right now?
“I see a company out of control, and no push-back from our union. I see a lot of nonunion carriers doing too much of our work, and even pulling our trailers out of end-ofline terminals. I see an International doing nothing to organize in freight or trucking, or organize the nonunion carriers that the International expects us to work with.”
Bret has been networking with Teamsters and posting on Facebook pages “No More Concessions” and “Rebuild the IBT”.
What do you think about the 2016 IBT Election?
“We’ve had 15 years of Hoffa and little to show for it. This year, we had to give up a seven percent wage cut and a week’s vacation due to poor leadership at the top. We desperately need change at the International. With the 2016 election, we can start organizing now. We need to educate and involve members. Get back to basics. We need to defend our contracts and fight for better ones.”
Why did you join TDU?
“I think James P Hoffa is out of touch with members. He gives employers what they want, and lacks the backbone to fight for members. In the last contract fight, the International couldn’t hear our voice, but TDU did. Teamsters are talking more about TDU. More get information from the TDU website, as members get more computer savvy. We need organization and knowledge. That’s how we are going to get our union back on track."
ABF Proposes Change to Realign System
ABF submitted paperwork to the National Utility Employee Review Committee for a change of operation they propose to implement on or about July 13, 2014. The company requested the hearing be held on June 19 in Houston.
The change calls for a realignment of “High Velocity Exchange Points” and the use of utility drivers. ABF terminals and networks aligned with Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, and Seattle will be affected. The numbers are essentially a wash as UE, local cartage, and road bids are reshuffled.
The proposed change also addresses “end of the line” terminals in parts of the Central and Southern regions. Again it calls for a reshuffling or realignment of UE work.
ABF proposes a total realignment of 42 bids shifting to UE designation that were either formerly UE or also local cartage and road positions. The company claims the change is essential to increase market share and efficiencies for three to five day service lines.
80th Anniversary Celebrates Historic '34 Teamster Strike
June 13, 2014: Eighty years ago, in a defining moment for the American labor movement, the Teamsters Union defeated employers in a titanic truck strike in Minneapolis. It made Minneapolis a union town, spurred over-the-road organizing across the Midwest and paved the way for the Teamsters to become a powerhouse international union.
The strike will be celebrated in Minneapolis in July with two events:- A street festival on Saturday, July 19 from 4 to 10 p.m. at 7th Ave and 3rd St. Music will include acoustic folk, classic rock and hip hop, along with speakers and an historical display.
- A family picnic on Sunday, July 20 from noon to 4 p.m. at Wabun Picnic Area D, at Minnehaha Park. There will be short speeches, free lunch, children's games, an historical display and music. Strike descendants will be honored.
The July weekend was chosen because it coincides with a turning point in the strike that occurred on July 20, 1934 when police opened fire on unarmed strikers, shooting 60 people, almost all in the back and killing two strikers, Henry Ness and John Belor.
The Remember 1934 Committee is organizing the event and includes rank-and-file activists and support from a large group of Minnesota labor unions, including Teamster locals. Members of the Minnesota chapter of Teamsters for a Democratic Union are helping organize the events.
Teamsters Local 120 has called a march of its members from the Star Tribune printing plant to the festival on July 19.
The Minneapolis struggle employed innovative strategies and tactics that provide valuable lessons on how to win a strike, including a daily strike newspaper, cruising pickets, a committee of 100 that consulted with the leadership, and mass mobilizations of workers and the unemployed.
More information about the July 19-20 events commemorating this historic strike can be found here.
Top 10 Tips for Protecting Yourself from Harassment
June 20, 2014: Harassment isn’t an accident at UPS. It’s a strategy, called management-by-stress.
Under management-by-stress, the company uses harassment to try to intimidate us into working faster. Sometimes, they’re trying to provoke you into losing your temper. In extreme cases, they’ll try to harass workers into quitting.TDU asked experienced package car stewards for suggestions on how Teamsters can protect themselves from harassment at UPS. Here were their Top 10 tips.
Don’t Make it Easy for Them
You know the cardinal sins. Don’t commit them. Take your breaks and lunch according to the contract. Sheet every package in your truck and do it accurately. Make sure to be at the customer's address when making DIAD entries. Don’t turn late Air or a missed package into a dishonesty issue. If management is coming after you, don’t make it easy for them.
Don’t Overreact
Supervisors use harassment as a strategy to get results. If it’s not working, they’ll stop wasting their time on you.
Try not to let management get under your skin—and never let them know it when they do.
If you turn into a runner after you get called into the office, you’re teaching your manager that harassment works. Work safe and smart. Practice following the methods every day.
If you work inside, focus on safety, sort/load quality and protecting the packages. Don’t play into management’s hands by blaming coworkers for slacking; help them out instead and stick together so everyone can work at a sustainable pace.
This will be good for your body and your wallet.
Be Strategic In the Office
If you get called into the office, always bring your steward. Management’s goal in the office is to pressure you, get a rise out of you or fish for information. Be strategic.
Answer management’s questions with clear, simple answers. Whether they’re fishing or trying to goad you into reacting, don’t take the bait. Keep your cool and never make up an answer. If you don’t know or don’t remember, just say so.
When you leave the office, document what happened while it’s still fresh in your mind.
Put the Problems Back on Management
Inform management of unusual situations that come up. Send a DIAD message if there's a problem with your Air, if you need help with your pickups, or if you will have missed pieces. Don’t take shortcuts or count on supervision to always look the other way. Put the problems back on management and work as directed.
Don’t Let them Dirty Up Your Record
If you get a warning letter or other discipline, grieve it right away. If you get in more trouble later, a grievance panel or an arbitrator will hold it against you if you haven't challenged previous warnings.
Document Everything
Document your day with a Package Car Log Book, a notebook that fits in your pocket or on your smart phone.
Keep track of your stops, pick-ups and circumstances that affect your production, like being sent off route, changes in your work, construction, bad traffic, etc. Use your smart phone to take pictures of DIAD messages or summary screens for documentation.
Management is less likely to pick on the drivers who keep track of their days. When they know you’re prepared for them, they tend to leave you alone.
Track Management & Use that Smart Phone
If a supervisor gives you an instruction that violates the methods, make a record of it. If you get an inappropriate message on your DIAD board take a photo and save it.
File Harassment Grievances
If management is trying to build a case against you, you need to build a case of your own. If you’re being targeted by management, it’s too late to fly under the radar. File grievances and build a paper trail. Especially useful are well-documented, clear instances of harassment, discrimination or instructions that violate UPS’s own policies and procedures.
Include in your remedy that you want a record of the incident to be retained in your personnel file.
Put Management to Work
Make management pay for petty discipline by prolonging grievance meetings and using your rights in the grievance procedure. Caucus with your steward in the hall. Have the steward ask detailed questions about the company’s investigation and evidence.
Article 4 requires the company, upon request, to provide the local union or designated shop steward with documents and information that is “reasonably related” to a pending grievance.
Managers that issue frivolous warning letters are sending the message that they love paperwork. So put them to work producing more of it for the union's grievance investigation.
Strength in Numbers
If you're being harassed, odds are you're not the only one. Talk to your steward or other drivers and work together. If you see a driver who's feeling the heat, help them out before they get to the breaking point. Teamsters are stronger standing up to harassment when we work together.
Never Let Them See You Sweat
“Managers use harassment to get results. If it’s not working, they’ll stop wasting their time on you.
“Try not to let management get under your skin—and never let them know it when they do.
“If you turn into a runner after you get called into the office, you're teaching your manager that harassment works.”
Thomas Oliver, Steward, Local 804, New York
What Is Management by Stress?
Invented by Toyota and now championed by UPS, management by stress is a strategy for boosting productivity (and profits) by keeping employees under constant pressure. Management-by-stress techniques include intense monitoring of the workforce, and constantly demanding more production, in less time, with fewer employees. Other management-by-stress strategies are constantly changing how work is done or mounting revolving campaigns on different methods that that must be followed or mistakes that need to be eliminated at any given time.
New UPS Contracts Available from TDU: Get the Contracts Hoffa and Hall Don’t Want to Send You
June 13, 2014: The Hoffa-Hall administration has not made the new agreement available to members as a contract book or even online.
So TDU is making the new UPS contract available to help Teamsters know their rights and enforce the contract.
TDU created the 2013-2018 contracts by combining the new negotiated changes with the old language. These contract downloads are unofficial documents for use by UPS Teamsters, stewards, and local union reps.
To make it easy to spot the changes, the new language appears in bold type. Deleted language is not indicated.
Click here to download your contract today.
Make UPS Deliver on Surepost Promises
June 20, 2014: How to document violations and make Hoffa-Hall and UPS deliver on their SurePost promises.
The new contract includes restrictions on SurePost that are supposed to mean fewer packages diverted to the Post Office and more fulltime Teamster driving jobs.
So far, drivers report a different story. “I deliver to the Post Office on my route,” said Michigan Local 243 Teamster Marty Labut. “I still see SurePost packages on dead-end streets where I already have deliveries. I see SurePost packages right next door to stops on my route. We are supposed to be delivering these parcels.”
“Hoffa and Hall have had months to work out the details on enforcement. The SurePost language should have been implemented as soon as the contract was forced through,” Labut said.
Enforcement Tips
It’s time to enforce the contract. Under the new language:
- SurePost packages are contractually limited to 10 lbs. in weight and less than three cubic feet in size.
- SurePost service is for business-to-residential shipments only.
- SurePost packages are supposed to be put on a package car for final delivery by a Teamster whenever they are being delivered to the same address or in the vicinity of an address where there is a UPS package for delivery. If you deliver to the Post Office, you’re in the best position to help enforce the contract.
- Take a photo of any SurePost package you see that is addressed to a location close to where you deliver UPS Ground.
- Take a photo of any SurePost package that is more than three cubic feet or weighs more than 10 lbs.
If you’re a driver, use your smart phone to document these violations—when you're off the clock is best. Then file a grievance saying that the company is violating Article 26, Section 4 (SurePost).
Preloaders can help too by flagging oversized and overweight SurePost packages to the driver. Fewer packages going to the Post Office means more full-time jobs.
Contract Loopholes
In a glossy PR mailer to every UPS Teamster, Ken Hall claims the new SurePost language “puts more packages back on UPS trucks and protects Teamster work and jobs.”
A closer look at the new language in Article 26, Section 4 reveals the usual grey areas and loopholes that management loves to exploit.
Instead of strict restrictions there are vague promises that UPS will “use and develop new technology” to move SurePost packages out of the Post Office and on to package cars and implement the technology “when available.”
It will be up to UPS Teamsters to document violations, file grievances and put heat on the International Union to deliver on their SurePost promises.
NLRB Tells UPS: Hands Off Teamster Voice
June 13, 2014: Tom Glidden, a UPS driver at the Maple Grove, Minn. UPS facility, has passed out Teamster Voice for years. He does it in the parking lot before and after work and leaves a few copies in break areas.
UPS management told him to stop. Now the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has directed management to back off and respect the rights of Teamster members.
In May 2013 Tom’s supervisor told him he would be disciplined if he continued to pass out the Teamster Voice or any contract-related materials. Glidden knew his rights and contacted TDU. TDU attorney Barbara Harvey then filed labor board charges.
Management at the Maple Grove UPS facility must now post a settlement agreement that informs all Teamsters that they have the right to distribute union-related information, including TDU literature, in non-work areas at non-work times.
“I know how important it is to get info out to Teamster members. Knowing more about the issues we face makes us stronger as a union. It gives us more power to enforce our contract,” Glidden said.
Glidden is not the only Teamster that UPS tries to stop from distributing union information. If management interferes with your rights, contact TDU for help.
Got Union: New York Dairy Teamsters Taking Back Their Local
June 13, 2014: A group of rank-and-file reformers, Local 584 Members First, are organizing to empower members, defend their jobs, and take back their union.
Dairy Teamsters in Local 584 have had a rough go of it. A change in state law has allowed nonunion competitors to flood the New York City milk market.Aside from the nonunion competition, the big winner in this has been Elmhurst Dairy. Local 584 officials gave concessions to Elmhurst and Teamster dairy jobs have been cut as companies lease operations to nonunion competitors, in violation of the contract. More than 250 dairy Teamsters have lost their jobs in the last two years.
Rank-and-file members first got involved with TDU in late 2012, when 42 Teamsters at Elmhurst Dairy were fired and replaced with new hires off the street. TDU activists organized co-workers to pressure the union to launch a public campaign and do outreach to the community to defend their jobs.
But the union called off a planned rally and told members to wait on the arbitrator to settle the dispute. They lost the arbitration and members uncovered a slew of secret Memoranda of Agreement that had stripped away seniority protections and members’ rights. The union has been nonexistent for members who are demanding help in enforcing
the contract.
“We can’t afford to wait any more,” says Stephen Mohan, TDU member and a leader of Members First. “The Elmhurst firings and loss of jobs pushed a lot of members to start demanding a plan from the union. Members began asking questions. They see that our officials are not up to the task of standing up to the companies and fighting for us.”
Members First organized to reform the local’s bylaws this spring to give members the right to elect negotiating committees, vote on trustee appointments, and have contracts translated into Spanish if members request it.
A clear majority of members voted in favor of the proposed reforms, but the local’s leadership refused to put them in place and invoked the clause that proposals need twothirds approval to pass.
“We used the campaign to reach out to members and say what we stand for,” said Robert Ortiz, a member from Derle Farms. “The bylaws campaign showed the true colors of our current officials, who actively opposed measures to give more rights to our members. It’s obvious they don’t want us to be informed.”
Members First are building their campaign throughout the summer. They're reaching out to stewards and members across the local and meeting with members from New Jersey to Long Island to learn what changes they want to see in the union. The campaign is also planning a BBQ and soft-ball game for late June.
The Members First campaign is about building a strong union that involves everyone. Close to 250 members, including many Latina and immigrant women, work at a food processing plant on Long Island and have long been marginalized from the union.
“Some members are just excited to see us come out and hear their issues because they feel like they've been ignored by the union for so long,” said Manny Garcia, a member from Tropicana. “Our support is growing everyday.”
“We can’t afford to wait any more. “Members are asking questions and they see that our officials are not up to the taskof standing up to the companies and fighting for us.”
Stephen Mohan, Rollin Dairy
“Members are excited to see us come out and hear their issues because they feel like they’ve been ignored by the union for so long. Our support is growing everyday.”Manny Garcia, Tropicana
Teamster Viewpoint: International VP Cost 166 Teamsters Their Jobs
June 13, 2014: International vice president Bill Hamilton has apparently cost up to 166 Philadelphia Teamsters their jobs, good paying jobs at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (PCC). Six labor unions were employed there. The Teamsters can no longer count themselves among them.
Was it because of tough negotiating, or a refusal to take concessions? No! Bill Hamilton has never had an issue capitulating to management. We need to look no further than his coercive campaign during the YRC/New Penn concession votes. Virtually every contract in Local 107 is stagnating or concessionary. He’s negotiated contracts as low as $11 an hour.
Hamilton and the 107 BAs lost these Teamster jobs because they could not deliver a signed copy of a contract addendum prior to a May 5th deadline that they knew about for 10 months.
Their inability to deliver the contract was due to the fact that, on May 5th the entire 107 Executive Board was either in Alaska, or golfing with Hoffa in Las Vegas at the “Unity Conference.” The PCC Board and venue management company, SMG, renegotiated a labor arrangement with the six unions called the “Customer Service Agreement” (CSA).
The purpose of the CSA was to make it more amenable to vendors. All unions were aware of the deadline. It wasn’t as if Hamilton was taking a hard line against the deal, because he signed the CSA. He just didn’t get it in on time. What is tragic is that the concessionary language in the CSA didn’t pertain to the Teamsters.
Having read the CSA, the highlights were; a 10-year contract with a 30 percent raise, and the creation of more Teamster jobs. These members lost their jobs needlessly.
In the aftermath of this debacle, Local 107 filed a ULP Charge against the PCC for bargaining in “bad faith.”
In their charge they admit: “The CSA was the product of joint negotiation by the six labor organizations.” They then go on to say: “On May 9, 2014, Local 107 signed the, offer” and that it “was rejected as untimely.”
Philip Harvey, professor at Rutgers School of Law commented that Hamilton has a “weak position” and, “There’s no real principle of law in dispute here.”
Hamilton’s reign has coincided with Hoffa’s. That’s no coincidence, he’s Hoffa’s man. The only growth Local 107 has experienced since is due to merging with locals 470 and 837.
This is a systemic problem in this union. Hoffa rewards his key yes men with multiple salaries. They in turn, surround themselves with yes men who sell the doctrine of Hoffa. In addition to monetary remuneration, rubber stamping Hoffa’s agenda apparently can garner you immunity. Ron Carey took Hamilton out with a trusteeship in 1996. Hoffa returned him. Despite 107 being cited by the IRB and NLRB multiple times for patronage and discriminatory hiring practices, Hamilton, under Hoffa’s protection, remains unscathed.
Given Hamilton’s dubious history and actions here, one question remains; were those jobs lost because of complicity, or stupidity?
By Ed Taylor, Local 107, Philadelphia
Chicago TDU Members Meet With Supporters
June 13, 2014: The Chicago TDU Chapter hosted a discussion and fundraiser for TRF (TDU’s nonprofit educational sister organization) on May 17 with Ken Paff, TDU’s National Organizer. The event drew TDU members, supporters of Teamster reform, and allies from other unions and netted $2,600 for TRF.
“We had a good discussion on where our movement is headed and it was great to see the support and interest from members from other unions and organizations who are inspired by TDU’s work.”
Frank Pesce, Central States Pension
Fund, Local 743, Chicago
New York TDU Chapter Bowls for Teamster Reform
June 13, 2014: The NY Chapter raised more than $6,000 at a Bowl-athon in May. Members sold raffle tickets to help pay a $500 team-entrance fee and team captains recruited more than 60 bowlers.
“Members really got into the Bowl-a-thon,” says TDU member and Local 814 organizer Julian Tysh, who helped organize the event. “It was a fun way to build some solidarity and get to know one another better. We’re going to make it an annual event.”