What's new

ABF | after looking at earnings, can we swap Judy, etc with SAIA?

DCM_Doc said:
I expect pension fund directors to implement new plans for pension cuts or funding after the election. I don't expect either presidential candidate or party to help fund pension plans that are underfunded.
Click to expand...

I hate to admit it, but I think you are correct. After they are in office, they throw us to the wolves. And the next time they come up for election they figure we forgot about how they voted or we lost interest. And it's sad but probably true. When the IBT can't get more than 26% of 1.3 million to send in the their vote in the last general IBT rlection, why would a politician think different. Union truck drivers are a very small minority on a politicians radar scope. Just a little blip that has little or no bearing in their ability to stay in office. von.
 
vongrimmenstein said:
I hate to admit it, but I think you are correct. After they are in office, they throw us to the wolves. And the next time they come up for election they figure we forgot about how they voted or we lost interest. And it's sad but probably true. When the IBT can't get more than 26% of 1.3 million to send in the their vote in the last general IBT rlection, why would a politician think different. Union truck drivers are a very small minority on a politicians radar scope. Just a little blip that has little or no bearing in their ability to stay in office. von.
Click to expand...
You are correct about Teamsters voting record. When only about 25% of the rank & file take the time to mark a ballot that is mailed to them & put it in the mail box how can we expect politicians to vote for or against them on their position on labor issues? In the past labor had strength in the ballot box. Even if labor was not a majority they could be counted to vote for candidates that supported them.
 
DCM_Doc said:
You are correct about Teamsters voting record. When only about 25% of the rank & file take the time to mark a ballot that is mailed to them & put it in the mail box how can we expect politicians to vote for or against them on their position on labor issues? In the past labor had strength in the ballot box. Even if labor was not a majority they could be counted to vote for candidates that supported them.
Click to expand...
If only we had a politician that supported labor it would help take the bad taste out of my mouth in the voting booth.
 
Dracula said:
When the IBT doesn't back you up, allows the company to violate the contract, which affects your working conditions, didn't the company take your working conditions and making your vote worthless?
Click to expand...

Well,....... that's true. But that's why we're going through an election.

And,....in egregious cases of malfeasance, the IBT Constitution provides for recall votes.
We still have an independent review board from the Department of Justice overseeing daily operations.....

So we have the ability to "mind our own store" as it were.

The only problem is getting active members to actually do and care.

Unions are the only organization in the world where they don't get to pick their members.......The employers do that for us.......and sometimes they pick us some real doozies.......

Lately, since all the experienced LTL guys are either working,....or retiring,.......the companies are hiring inexperienced young people who've never been around a Union culture, and have no clue what a Union is.
We need active members and .,.... leadership.....to engage them,....not just take their dues money.......

With bumbling , Incompetent leadership , and young disinterested employees,...... it's easy for a company to take away hard fought rights and benefits.

We can't vote out the CEO whose malevolent feelings toward his.......or hers..... workforce causes most of the ills in the workplace.....but we can vote out lazy, fat , complacent , too-chummy-with-the-company, Union Officials who are supposed to safeguard and fight for better working conditions.

First Amendment guarantees Union guys still have that right.
 
Boilerpeddle said:
If only we had a politician that supported labor it would help take the bad taste out of my mouth in the voting booth.
Click to expand...

This probably isn't the place to do this,......but I will say one good thing about Mr. Trump.....(who I'm certainly NOT voting for..)...

Mr.Trump tapped into the rising anger of the working class and made it starkly evident that at least a little less than half of the electorate feels that any sort of economic recovery passed them by......All politicians are now aware of the......(.. Good Grief , I hate puns....).... elephant in the room, so to speak.

Whether Mr. Trump is just using that anger to get himself elected,....and then, to heck with those stinky working people,........let's lower taxes for the wealthy....... I guess will remain to be seen. Billionaires still only get one vote, so they have to trick enough of the working people to vote their way to get into office..... Billionaires, as a class, don't have hardly enough votes to do it themselves.

Whoever gets in will have to deal with a country divided on economic lines.......divisions created by the increasingly wealthy 1℅......

Technology puts more people out of work than illegal immigrants,........and the wealthy want that tax break to buy more technology.

The next election will either see us angrier ...and more deeply divided...or we'll have learned to start taking care of each other, and start forcing corporations to pay for a "misery tax" for the lost jobs and wrecked lives.
 
If you removed all the chaff, insinuations, slander, anger, conspiracy theories and innuendo,..........then you would vote on the facts.

Unfortunately, quite a few voters will vote by outrage and emotion instead of facts.....

Might be quite a bit of "buyer's remorse" on Nov. 9th......

In politics,........once that used car salesman sold you that '78 Buick Skylark with 193,000 miles and the puddle of oil,......it may take you four years to get him to take it back.
 
canaryinthemine said:
If you removed all the chaff, insinuations, slander, anger, conspiracy theories and innuendo,..........then you would vote on the facts.

Unfortunately, quite a few voters will vote by outrage and emotion instead of facts.....

Might be quite a bit of "buyer's remorse" on Nov. 9th......

In politics,........once that used car salesman sold you that '78 Buick Skylark with 193,000 miles and the puddle of oil,......it may take you four years to get him to take it back.
Click to expand...
Very true and quite often the devil that you know is better than the devil that you don't know...but given the facts on Hitlery and the 'more of the same' (which BTW isn't working well for me) that we get with her I am left to vote for some hope and change.
 
Something similar is happening now with our contract......

The "sales people" used fear and emotion to trick a minor majority into ratifying this contract......

It only took a couple of months for "buyer's remorse" to set in....... probably right after their announcement of the purchase of Panther,.......and executive bonuses....

It will take us until 2018 to trade in this wobbly-wheeled, broken, smoking disaster of a contract........

Hopefully we elect IBT leadership that won't aid and abet the company contract "salespeople"......
 
Boilerpeddle said:
If only we had a politician that supported labor it would help take the bad taste out of my mouth in the voting booth.
Click to expand...

You put the cart before the horse. We as Union workers have to have enough of ourselves to give a rats ass by showing up @ rally's, monthly meetings, & other functions that support our union & its efforts. When we reach that goal, then the politician will come to us rather than us coming to them. A prime example is the NRA. Even the majority of elected politicians @ any level in government know if they go against the NRA there is a very good chance they will be looking for a new way to make a living come election time. Now that is power. My last issue of the NRA rag has a cut out showing the position of all people running for election in the state of Indiana with a grade from A to F. Can you even imagine Hoffa & gang doing something like that? I know, let's take a poll listing from A to F on how well Hoffa & gang are doing. Wait, we are to late. That should have been done over the summer before the election, not during it. Is it fair to say our rank & file are a day late & a dollar short? von.
 
Last edited:
I am not a Trump fan but he has said that NAFTA is a huge mistake that resulted in losing American jobs. Very few presidential candidates have taken that stand.
 
I think it's pretty much evident to all of them how much it hurt jobs. Just look at all the wrangling about the TPP.........

Complicated issue.........too many foreign companies here to make us a protectionist country........

All we need is some working people's lobbyists to lobby in our favor,........instead of the whole thing negotiated by business lobbyists.......

Oh,...... that's right,.....,our opinion isn't needed because we can't afford " free speech" as much as our bosses can.....
 
DCM_Doc said:
I am not a Trump fan but he has said that NAFTA is a huge mistake that resulted in losing American jobs. Very few presidential candidates have taken that stand.
Click to expand...
The only two I remember coming out against NAFTA are/were Trump and H. Ross Perot. Canada held it up for a few years and it was a major part of some of their elections.
 
Bill Clinton did put a moratorium on Mexican drivers entering the U.S.beyond the border commercial zone. George Bush lifted the moratorium.
 
ABFer said:
The only two I remember coming out against NAFTA are/were Trump and H. Ross Perot. Canada held it up for a few years and it was a major part of some of their elections.
Click to expand...
Patrick Buchanan also said NAFTA was a mistake that would result in lost American jobs. I think Mags or Pilot said that Bernie also was opposed to NAFTA. I usually remember promises made by candidates.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top