ABF | Attention Fed Ex and Conway

For the last 16 years I have been employed with a company governed by a collective bargaining agreement. It doesn’t get any better than that. I have not paid 1 dime for medical premiums each week, after taxes. I will have a pension later on. Will it be less than promised? Yes, it will, but I will still have an exclusively employer funded pension. Not a pension where I had to contribute my own money, after taxes. I have some protection under a CBA from un-just termination. If you steal, caught in a lie or fight, you are done for & the Union can’t help you. But that is true in any non-union job. There are many things I don’t like or agree with in the IBT Union. But that said I would not change anything. My company pays 35,000.00 per year per employee for retirement & health benefits before the first dime in wages. I know of no non-union company that forks over their profits for the welfare of their workers with that sum of money. My dues are 62.00 each month. How much does a non-union employee pay each week for family medical coverage that comes close to the Central States C-6 plan benefits? Am I pro union? Yes. Even with the decline of Unions in the last 30 years, & the ongoing problems @ the IBT, a Collective Bargaining Agreement is still the best deal in town. von.
 
For the last 16 years I have been employed with a company governed by a collective bargaining agreement. It doesn’t get any better than that. I have not paid 1 dime for medical premiums each week, after taxes. I will have a pension later on. Will it be less than promised? Yes, it will, but I will still have an exclusively employer funded pension. Not a pension where I had to contribute my own money, after taxes. I have some protection under a CBA from un-just termination. If you steal, caught in a lie or fight, you are done for & the Union can’t help you. But that is true in any non-union job. There are many things I don’t like or agree with in the IBT Union. But that said I would not change anything. My company pays 35,000.00 per year per employee for retirement & health benefits before the first dime in wages. I know of no non-union company that forks over their profits for the welfare of their workers with that sum of money. My dues are 62.00 each month. How much does a non-union employee pay each week for family medical coverage that comes close to the Central States C-6 plan benefits? Am I pro union? Yes. Even with the decline of Unions in the last 30 years, & the ongoing problems @ the IBT, a Collective Bargaining Agreement is still the best deal in town. von.
I have a long list of reasons why it is better to work at Conway. Just let me think awhile.
 
I've often heard that door swings both ways. Maybe the horror stories I've heard over the years about Union members using extreme measures to garner a "yes" vote when trying to occupy new territory are not true. I also understand the Union is opposed to the secret ballot because it protects the anonymity (and safety) of the "no" voter.

I'm not trying to instigate anything here, only pointing out a long held perception held by many that doesn't help promote trust in an organization that wants to become a major player in one's livelihood.
As you've said, Brother,........it's a long-held perception. You've got to ask yourself who would gain over promotion of that perception. In 1996, the Teamsters tried to organize Overnite,.......The effort collapsed after two years,.......But not before the NLRB,....mind you, not the Teamsters,......filed more than a thousand Unfair Labor Practice charges against management across the nation at Overnite. The Teamsters had less than ten filed against them. Of course, those charges were never answered, and went away when Overnite was absorbed into UPS,.....But they were still pending prior to Ovenite's sale to UPS. These charges ranged from subtle coercion to outright physical violence against picketers. The few charges against the Teamsters seemed to be retaliatory, because they were always filed in response to a NLRB charge. Extreme measures, indeed.
 
As you've said, Brother,........it's a long-held perception. You've got to ask yourself who would gain over promotion of that perception. In 1996, the Teamsters tried to organize Overnite,.......The effort collapsed after two years,.......But not before the NLRB,....mind you, not the Teamsters,......filed more than a thousand Unfair Labor Practice charges against management across the nation at Overnite. The Teamsters had less than ten filed against them. Of course, those charges were never answered, and went away when Overnite was absorbed into UPS,.....But they were still pending prior to Ovenite's sale to UPS. These charges ranged from subtle coercion to outright physical violence against picketers. The few charges against the Teamsters seemed to be retaliatory, because they were always filed in response to a NLRB charge. Extreme measures, indeed.
I remember that well. There were reportedly concrete blocks dropped from overpasses on Overnite trucks on I-240. The knee jerk reaction at the time was to blame Teamster thugs, but looking back on it that seems foolish to think that would help their agenda; or as they said in Nam, the winning of hearts and minds.

An analogy would be the clusterfk nationwide trucker strike in 1982. A Standard driver was shot and killed by a sniper in NC. It came out later the driver had been banging that guys wife. The guy knew the drivers route and nailed him, figuring it would be written off as strike violence.

On the PA TPK a concrete block was dropped from an overpass onto the hood of a truck. It bounced through the glass of a passing station wagon with a family on vacation and killed an eleven year old girl. Reported much later it was stupid teenagers.

There were others but the point being the public tends to believe what is initially reported even if it isn't logical and the media is slow to self correct, if ever, but by then it rarely helps those whose reputations were affected.
 
I've often heard that door swings both ways. Maybe the horror stories I've heard over the years about Union members using extreme measures to garner a "yes" vote when trying to occupy new territory are not true. I also understand the Union is opposed to the secret ballot because it protects the anonymity (and safety) of the "no" voter.

I'm not trying to instigate anything here, only pointing out a long held perception held by many that doesn't help promote trust in an organization that wants to become a major player in one's livelihood.
To rid you of the ballot issue that you ponder we Teamsters have all our votes as secret ballots when we vote on union matters. I am a Teamster by CHOICE not because the union strong armed me into it.

Why don't you take the time to have a union driver take you to a meeting or to the hall just to see we have no torture devices and there are no PITCH FORKS there.

It is time we all let the true facts be known. If anyone thinks that the company they work for is going to give them anything they don't have to is crazy. They are in business and that means putting as much money in their pockets as they can.

Your job is to make as much as you can for your families.
 
To rid you of the ballot issue that you ponder we Teamsters have all our votes as secret ballots when we vote on union matters. I am a Teamster by CHOICE not because the union strong armed me into it.

Why don't you take the time to have a union driver take you to a meeting or to the hall just to see we have no torture devices and there are no PITCH FORKS there.

It is time we all let the true facts be known. If anyone thinks that the company they work for is going to give them anything they don't have to is crazy. They are in business and that means putting as much money in their pockets as they can.

Your job is to make as much as you can for your families.
I was afraid his would happen. Way to go bud, respond with hostility when I pose a question in a conversational manner. I bet you didn't bother to read my response to canary or you did and couldn't comprehend it.

They should make you the poster boy for recruitment.
 
In Bro. Muler's defense,.....He is a passionate man, and in my opinion, a very intelligent one, too. He's been arguing these same points,.....as many of us have,.....for the last 20,...or even longer,...years. Please keep this in context when you re-read his post,......there sometimes is a little frustration in all of us, especially when we have to go over and over the same points that are so obvious to us,.........and therefore we think should be just as obvious to anyone else in trucking. After 40 years in trucking, I sometimes have to stop and realize that most drivers nowadays, are "post-de-regulation" drivers,.......that doesn't denigrate their experience, or their skills,.....I just have to take into account that I've seen a totally different era of trucking,...one that most of the arguments about non-Union vs. Union were proven, in a time-frame when 80% of drivers were Union,....and therefore really didn't exist as points in a discussion. Us older guys have to realize that the dialogue has started over again,....not through the actions of the current workforce,...but more through the actions of the companies and politicians. We feel we've gone backwards 30, 40, or even 50 years,.....and therefore,....sometimes,...a sense of frustration kind of bleeds into the conversation. Give Bro. Muler a Break!.....I like him,.....and I hardly like anyone else,....curmudgeon that I am.......By the way,....the PA TPK concrete block issue you refer to happened a few miles from my parent's home outside of Monroeville, Pa. I can still recall the shrill editorials castigating the troglodyte Teamsters,.....the knuckle-dragging, I.Q. of 60, brutal Union rank-and-file thugs willing to risk the motoring public's life, to threaten the (saintly) employers into a coercive contract...............About 3 months after the incident, the State Police released the name of the 18 year old, but not the names of the two juveniles, who had thrown the block off the bridge. .............Very quietly, in the back pages of the paper..................
 
I have spent about half of my driving carrier working for non-union companies. Most of the companies were good companies but I had so little say in the work rules that I always felt worried that if I did not do exactly what management wanted I would be punished for it. I do not feel that way working for ABF. I cannot say with absolute certainty that being in a union is responsible for my feelings of security but I am almost positive it is! The talk seems to always turn to money and benefits and that does makes up a lot of life's securities, but not having to worry about pleasing management makes my life more secure and stable. And besides, I do not make less money or benefits to obtain that security! Consider the bottom line on paychecks; with the company paying for our benefits the only non-union drivers that due better at non-union companies are those that are single and have company paid insurance. If you have a family, then you are paying a premium for your insurance. Oh, the bottom line is how much money you bring home for the work you do.
 
I have spent about half of my driving carrier working for non-union companies. Most of the companies were good companies but I had so little say in the work rules that I always felt worried that if I did not do exactly what management wanted I would be punished for it. I do not feel that way working for ABF. I cannot say with absolute certainty that being in a union is responsible for my feelings of security but I am almost positive it is! The talk seems to always turn to money and benefits and that does makes up a lot of life's securities, but not having to worry about pleasing management makes my life more secure and stable. And besides, I do not make less money or benefits to obtain that security! Consider the bottom line on paychecks; with the company paying for our benefits the only non-union drivers that due better at non-union companies are those that are single and have company paid insurance. If you have a family, then you are paying a premium for your insurance. Oh, the bottom line is how much money you bring home for the work you do.
I will guarantee that your sense of security comes from membership in the Teamsters. I'm the Steward in our little barn,.....and a bigger pain-in-the-companies'-butt I couldn't be. I'm arrogant, I'm old, I'm grouchy, I'm short-tempered with the new terminal manager,....I nit-pick the contract,....I have guys who don't want to file a grievance,...so I file it in my name on their behalf,......I had an escalating argument with the former labor guy,....to the point where he threatened a lawsuit with the Local,......I'm having a grievance problem,....several, in fact with the new labor guy,....he probably doesn't like me, either,......I've button-holed a couple of the V.P.s when they came through here touring our HVXP,.....and made a pest of myself with a litany of problems and insufficiencies.....I make caustic and cryptic remarks on management's abilities,......and refuse to explain the word "caustic".......In short,....if I worked at a non-Union barn, they'd've given me the bum's rush out the front door in a hurry, first time I smarted off to one of their wet-behind-the-ears dispatchers,........Since we have a Union, they have to take my problems and grievances seriously,.........They don't have to love me,.....just respect me. I'm happy with that........
 
I have been busy. Have been off since Christmas eve day. Might need a little more time to think.
Family time is always important Bro. Pltjack,..........And, may I remind you that Unions are responsible for the daily formula of: "8 hours for work, 8 hours for family, 8 hours for sleep."......And weekends off,.......and Holiday pay,.......and a 40 hour work week,..........And,....if you are under a contract in trucking, overtime after 40 and 8 hours,....of course, if you aren't under a contract, trucking is not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938,...and they DON'T have to pay you overtime,...or even work you 8 hours a day,....or recognize seniority.....as some of our brothers and sisters at FedEx, OD, Estes, Ward, and a few other companies have found...... I am waiting with bated breath to hear of the marvelous things Con-Way does for their employees,....I mean the things they do out of the goodness of their hearts, and concern for the welfare of their employees,..........not the things they're forced by law to do...
 
Family time is always important Bro. Pltjack,..........And, may I remind you that Unions are responsible for the daily formula of: "8 hours for work, 8 hours for family, 8 hours for sleep."......And weekends off,.......and Holiday pay,.......and a 40 hour work week,..........And,....if you are under a contract in trucking, overtime after 40 and 8 hours,....of course, if you aren't under a contract, trucking is not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938,...and they DON'T have to pay you overtime,...or even work you 8 hours a day,....or recognize seniority.....as some of our brothers and sisters at FedEx, OD, Estes, Ward, and a few other companies have found...... I am waiting with bated breath to hear of the marvelous things Con-Way does for their employees,....I mean the things they do out of the goodness of their hearts, and concern for the welfare of their employees,..........not the things they're forced by law to do...
ABF has the wost vacation policy in the industry. Family time.
 
I have been busy. Have been off since Christmas eve day. Might need a little more time to think.
The wages & benefits you have are due in a large part to the Teamsters collective bargaining agreements in the past. If there was no threat for organizing Conway the company would pay you less. I wish you the best & hope you are content with your job.
 
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