Hopefully,...because all Union Brothers should be concerned with erosion of our industry conditions in all the companies. It seems that the American Trucking Association is more organized.....and successfully promoting their agenda,....than the Teamsters are.
I don't think we would be in this position if yrc dident vote yes 3 times....... Just my opinion ....
No,I think you're right, Brother,...I just think that the whole process isn't clear how we arrived here. 5 years ago, there was a modicum of trust in the communications we all got from our IBT leadership. In the first YRC pay cut, and the subsequent MOUs, the IBT abused that trust,.....whether our top leadership was deluded by management or not, they should'nt have negotiated away pensions, and lied to employees about the true state of YRC's finances. Mr. Hoffa's two .....uhhh...."watchdogs" on YRC's board of Directors are a good case in point. They're still getting their $250,000 a month in spite of being called "unconscienable" by Mr. Hoffa. Right about now, the IBT doesn't dare to allow YRC employees to vote on anything,....because there's enough built-up rage over being lied to and frauded out of pension and pay......by our own "leadership"....that those guys would vote to close the company, burn the equipment, and bulldoze the property.....irregardless of what they're asked to vote on...
Nothing personal here right now, we're all in this together (sort of) but I have to agree with both you and GO40. YRC put themselves into dire straits and the IBT had to make a decision. Whether or not the really thought out their decision(s) and the resulting fallout will probably never be known. Historically any freight company that ran itself onto the rocks was left to die on the rocks in Darwinian fashion (survival of the fittest). That process weaned the weak and left the strong to thrive, and lately just survive. So...YRC has crashed their ship on the rocks and the IBT lowers to bar to help them survive. This is the same bar the we at ABF live by and ABF was not in this predicament. We were almost there in 1995-96 with the Carolina debacle and I doubt that you would have had to take a pay cut to help with our survival. We would have died as we should have. So, as I see it and as many others see it we have taken our pay cut because you folks at YRC took yours. I'll go one step farther and say that different people will handle this differently and we haven't even been hit with the economics of it yet, that will be coming our way soon enough. All that being said I would like to take a moment and applaud the ABF drivers who are suffering for the ills of YRC and not displaying it too openly. You will probably never know what it's like to take a cut for the sake of someone elses well being as we are at ABF, not that I wish it on you but one can never fully understand until it happens to them.
I believe yrc needed some relief, but not all that the union let them get away with....
And they left way too many bases uncovered. YRC went out and lowered rates after concession, which were intended to save the company were granted.
The Bottom line is it's our fault the Rank & File. We voted it in. We the Rank & File haven't done a good enough job educating the others around us. Most of the Yes voters I believe didn't even know what the vote was about. They listened to the selling points by the company & union & were voting because they were told to vote yes. Many that I talk to didn't know half the points of the contract or supplement. We have to get out the word & educate the younger ones on the job & we must change the leadership of our union., We start by voting out the local leaders. They work for us not the other way around. Start the education campaign by educating the people in your local that the leadership is ineffective & paper lions for the international. UNION STRONG HOLDS NEW ENGLAND, NEW JERSEY, CARLISLE VOTED OVERWHELMING YES THAT WOULD'VE NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE
