ABF | About ABF's next contract

[Deleted member 5115]

But what's the answer then? Until the cost of healthcare comes down we're kind of stuck with the model we have...

Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Bitch about it and let them know it's not right and you don't like it. Laying down in complicity will not get it done. You're paying $45/wk, that's $1.12/hr based on a forty hour week. But don't just talk about how cheap it is.

 

[vongrimmenstein]

It is really simple. Ya have to convince the company & your own Union that you mean business. No working under the old contract till we can all agree. You set up a picket line & walk it until the company agrees to your demands. Our contract does not allow us to strike. But the minute you are out of contract it is legal to set the picket line. The last time you worked under the old contract, ya got screwed. Ya gave them part of your pay check so they can set themselves up to pull a Conslidated Freightways all over again. Like the sign said when you entered the Jim Jones Compound 'those who forget the past, are condemned to repeat it'. von.

 

[pennzoil]

we cannot get anyone that is good now. good luck to A.B.F. I think this ship hit the iceburg and the band is moving the chairs around .They keep playing while the water is coming over the deck.I was at a regular customers of ours last week,he said that Panther was just here to deliver product we do every week. they are preparing for the contract negotiations by running panther on ltl runs. let us see what the contract is and i say ,get the burning barrels ready for the strike.

i dont know about the panther trucks at yur terminal, but in atlanta they show up in flip flops,wore out equipment. those contracters arent making money. Judy and company got sucked into buying a pig. yeah we're propping them up, not much we can do about that it is what it is. Oh, and next time you see her ask her how that mike moss move worked out for her

 

[Songremainsthesame]

And the sad part about this line of thinking is that too many share it. Those copays should never have gotten started to begin with and now this new crowd sees them as usual and customary. Life will never get better with that attitude.

So if I'm reading what you say correctly our employers should foot 100% of the insurance AND do it without having any responsibility at all on the employee for out of pocket expense? Sounds great but that's never going to happen and frankly it's not fair to your employer. What I don't get is that we all would find it ludicrous for our employer to pay for our car insurance but expect them to foot the bill 100% for our health insurance and expect to pay nothing out of pocket to care for the most complicated machine in the world, our bodies.

The real problem is that healthcare itself is too expensive. Granted there are a lot more advanced procedures than when doctors made house calls and took chickens and vegetables for payment, but all of the ancillary expenses have gotten way out of hand. In a perfect world the system should work that your insurance is only there to protect you from financial ruin in the case of catastrophic situations. But for that to work the cost of routine services would have to come way down.

 

[Deleted member 5115]

So if I'm reading what you say correctly our employers should foot 100% of the insurance AND do it without having any responsibility at all on the employee for out of pocket expense? Sounds great but that's never going to happen and frankly it's not fair to your employer.

Maybe you are not aware of the prosperity our workers enjoyed in the past while our employers 'unfairly' paid for our health insurance. You don't get it and never will and your line of thinking is detrimental to the rest of us.

 

[canaryinthemine]

So if I'm reading what you say correctly our employers should foot 100% of the insurance AND do it without having any responsibility at all on the employee for out of pocket expense? Sounds great but that's never going to happen and frankly it's not fair to your employer. What I don't get is that we all would find it ludicrous for our employer to pay for our car insurance but expect them to foot the bill 100% for our health insurance and expect to pay nothing out of pocket to care for the most complicated machine in the world, our bodies.

The real problem is that healthcare itself is too expensive. Granted there are a lot more advanced procedures than when doctors made house calls and took chickens and vegetables for payment, but all of the ancillary expenses have gotten way out of hand. In a perfect world the system should work that your insurance is only there to protect you from financial ruin in the case of catastrophic situations. But for that to work the cost of routine services would have to come way down.

They've deliberately made it expensive. And complicated. How do you know you're getting your dollar's worth when there's no way...... or time...... to compare procedures, hospitals or doctor's.

And insurance companies? They are a parasitical leech on the entire healthcare field........ Only interested in maintaining their chokehold on our collective wallets.

Employers themselves set this system up. After WWII there was such a dearth of able-bodied workers that employers started to offer healthcare as a benefit. They didn't do that in Canada, Britain, Europe, or Australia....... Or, later on, in Germany, Japan and Italy.

So,..... Yes,...... Employers love the control over the Labor pool,...... They set it up this way,...... so let them take complete responsibility for workers AND retirees healthcare. They created this burdensome, insurance-driven Rube Goldberg system of "healthcare"....... and now they are trying to foist the cost off on us.

 

[Songremainsthesame]

Maybe you are not aware of the prosperity our workers enjoyed in the past while our employers 'unfairly' paid for our health insurance. You don't get it and never will and your line of thinking is detrimental to the rest of us.

You only quoted part of my post. But since you said it, yes in the past healthcare was almost always covered completely by the employer. You have to remember that healthcare wasn't always as expensive as it is now. Now if you spend a single night in the hospital or visit the ER it's likely to cost $10,000. Yes the technology and advances in healthcare procedures are part of the issue. But just as big a cost is the malpractice insurance the doctor has to carry, the huge bill the doctor paid to go to medical school, and the recovery of costs by the hospital because of only partial payments or nonpayment by the government for Medicare and Medicaid patients. Not to mention recovery of nonpayment by the uninsured.

Health care should have never been tied to our employment in the first place. Like I said in my previous post, you wouldn't expect your employer to pay for your car insurance. Why should they pay for your healthcare? But if we as individuals were required to pay for our health insurance ourselves there's no way we could afford it for how much the premiums cost. The system is completely broken. I don't have an answer to fix it, but just because this is the way we've always done it isn't a justifiable reason to expect it to continue that way.

 

[Deleted member 5115]

You only quoted part of my post.

I'm not trying to skew the gist of your post, just boiling it down to the parts that I am addressing.

You have to remember that healthcare wasn't always as expensive as it is now.

Neither was a basic Chevy sedan or a house

Like I said in my previous post, you wouldn't expect your employer to pay for your car insurance. Why should they pay for your healthcare?

So...why don't you find yourself a job that doesn't include health insurance and quit burdening your employer unnecessarily?

 

[Songremainsthesame]

I'm not trying to skew the gist of your post, just boiling it down to the parts that I am addressing.

Neither was a basic Chevy sedan or a house

So...why don't you find yourself a job that doesn't include health insurance and quit burdening your employer unnecessarily?

Youre missing my point, for the system we have now to change, health insurance should be a system similar to car insurance. You don't file a claim on your car insurance if the battery quits or you need an oil change. Only for damage that is more expensive or for catastrophic events. And even then you have to pay a deductible. Health insurance should be the same, only for catastrophic events that would otherwise bankrupt an individual or family. The only problem is that most everything in the healthcare marketplace is so expensive that everything's catastrophic. Therein lies the problem, which leaves us with what we have now.

 

[Songremainsthesame]

They've deliberately made it expensive. And complicated. How do you know you're getting your dollar's worth when there's no way...... or time...... to compare procedures, hospitals or doctor's.

And insurance companies? They are a parasitical leech on the entire healthcare field........ Only interested in maintaining their chokehold on our collective wallets.

Employers themselves set this system up. After WWII there was such a dearth of able-bodied workers that employers started to offer healthcare as a benefit. They didn't do that in Canada, Britain, Europe, or Australia....... Or, later on, in Germany, Japan and Italy.

So,..... Yes,...... Employers love the control over the Labor pool,...... They set it up this way,...... so let them take complete responsibility for workers AND retirees healthcare. They created this burdensome, insurance-driven Rube Goldberg system of "healthcare"....... and now they are trying to foist the cost off on us.

If they love it so much why are they doing everything possible to get us to pay for as much as possible?

 

[Deleted member 5115]

The only problem is that most everything in the healthcare marketplace is so expensive that everything's catastrophic. Therein lies the problem, which leaves us with what we have now.

I do agree with that and there will be no such thing as affordable, quality healthcare. Medivacs are waaaayyyyyyy overused and duplicate our ambulance system which, by the way, still exists in tandem with the medivacs because the choppers can't fly in inclement weather. Patients are flown to distant hospitals and for the most part could be hauled to a closer hospital faster in an ambulance. Then we spend too much money extending our lives by one more year, quite often a miserable year at that, when we near the end of our lives. I believe that we should be able to opt out of such services for a lower premium, much like auto insurance.

 

[LTLAnonymous]

Regardless of whether you should be paying toward your insurance, don't forget that you gave up 7% of your pay (with some help from YRC), and the company turned around and purchased another company rather than investing in you guys. They had more freight than drivers and equipment, so they brought in purchased transportation.

After all that, how valued do you feel? Probably not much, since you're considering kicking in on your insurance.

 

[canaryinthemine]

If they love it so much why are they doing everything possible to get us to pay for as much as possible?

As I said before, Brother....... They are adjusting their labor costs with an adjustable "deductible " that actually has no relation to your healthcare.

One of the biggest parts of the original Obama care bill........ Before Congress threw in all the monkeywrenchs ......... was a single payer system that was income based,....... forcing insurance companies to compete with the gov't for your business. See how you get all that mail from Geico and All state and State Farm offering to lower your car insurance weekly? Well, that sort of competition should be in healthcare, at least if we're going to be insurance based.

But the biggest lobbyists against Obama care are the insurance companies, and........... our employers....

You would think that the Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and ALEC would be leading the charge to get business out of the healthcare business. The complete opposite is true. Large employers love having that control over the Labor force.

And then there's the money issue..... When businesses hand money back and forth ..... (aka: weekly deductible).... between each other, there's always a kickback somewhere. We're in trucking.....
Freight "discounts" of 90%? .......C'mon! There's definitely a kickback going on....... and they're certainly applying that tactic to "healthcare"........

Many employees are paying a weekly fee...... adjustable at the employer's whim...... to maintain their healthcare plans....... so to speak.....

Now you see where all the screaming and lobbying against allowing competition in health insurance comes from? Insurers and employers got a sweet deal..... don't want no change.

 

[Deleted member 5115]

Regardless of whether you should be paying toward your insurance, don't forget that you gave up 7% of your pay (with some help from YRC), and the company turned around and purchased another company rather than investing in you guys. They had more freight than drivers and equipment, so they brought in purchased transportation.

After all that, how valued do you feel? Probably not much, since you're considering kicking in on your insurance.

He doesn't work for ABF...

 

[BradBear]

I'm curious to some of the older drivers that have been here for many contracts. Do they start saying and acting like company's broke every time contract comes up? Which I notice now they've "lost" money and the stock took a nose dive. Is this all just smoke and mirrors by the company and we shouldn't be alarmed?

 

[BradBear]

Seems like freight levels are down for us but old dominion is rolling. I know Judy and all her cronies are deceitful. I wonder if they are running more Paid Trans to try to get us worried so we will vote yes on whatever they propose and just be glad to have a job

 

[canaryinthemine]

Absolutely........ Always, the year before a contract, the doom'n'gloom, the quaking knees and hushed voices from middle management with their marching orders........the tactic is as old as the hills, they are just counting on a new and gullible audience for their dog and pony show.

Right about now the company trolls will start appearing all through social media, claiming to "know" how badly ABF is doing..Watch and see. Years ago it used to be on the CB and in the breakroom.

 

[BradBear]

Yeah. I've notice already. They have the quarterly report posted at every terminal I have been to since Friday. Usually only see it at maybe 1 or 2 terminals. Glad to have brothers like yourself to educate us newbies. Not new to trucking but new to the union side. Only 3 years, but I know for a fact to vote no, as they will come back with a better offer

 

[canaryinthemine]

Yeah. I've notice already. They have the quarterly report posted at every terminal I have been to since Friday. Usually only see it at maybe 1 or 2 terminals. Glad to have brothers like yourself to educate us newbies. Not new to trucking but new to the union side. Only 3 years, but I know for a fact to vote no, as they will come back with a better offer

That's right, Brother. Negotiations 101.

 

[vongrimmenstein]

Youre missing my point, for the system we have now to change, health insurance should be a system similar to car insurance. You don't file a claim on your car insurance if the battery quits or you need an oil change. Only for damage that is more expensive or for catastrophic events. And even then you have to pay a deductible. Health insurance should be the same, only for catastrophic events that would otherwise bankrupt an individual or family. The only problem is that most everything in the healthcare marketplace is so expensive that everything's catastrophic. Therein lies the problem, which leaves us with what we have now.

‘The only problem is that most everything in the healthcare marketplace is so expensive that everything's catastrophic’.

That sentence of yours is the reason I think paying insurance like car insurance won't work. I like the idea of a free market place. So the people who receive medical care or pay little towards it have their bills paid by the working middle class. There are so many special interest groups from drug companies to medical equipment manufactures that have a financial interest how this all shakes out. Come across the border in southern CAL & get free medical for the next 20 years. Someone has to pay for that. Trump says pre conditions are covered on the election circuit. Now he has done an about face, & I voted for him. If he doesn't change his approach, he will be a 1 term president who got very little passed. The masses will rise up & bounce him out of office. He needs to cover the pre existing conditions like he promised, with NO stipulations. Someone said in a post the other day in 7 years there will be a single payer system for medical & the employers won’t offer medical. You pay it out of your earnings. Who knows, I know I don’t. But the one thing I believe that has to happen is everybody has to be put on a level playing field. And Congress making them exempt from what they pass for the rest of the country won’t work. The average age of America is getting older by the minute. In 10 years the most powerful lobbying group won’t be the NRA, it will be AARP. And they will be able to influence legislation for many laws that will affect seniors in this country.