Here is some things for you to sink your teeth into as you have requested.
I know some of the members have a few issues with the original poster of these messages but for most part I think they say it all.
I have just quoted some parts and provided links to the complete statement.
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...-oak-harbor-employees-letters.html#post214640
They want the union employees to give up their Teamster health and welfare plans, their Teamster pension plan. They want to eliminate our sick pay program and replace it with a miniscule raise. At $.15/hour, it would take an employee almost 1,100 hours to gain one eight-hour sick day! Currently, we earn one-half a sick day every month. And the cash-out they are offering is a joke. An employee with a full bank of twenty-four days would get less than five days at cash-out time.
The union healthcare plans offer retiree healthcare coverage; the Company plans do not, nor are they willing to do so. The union plans offer better benefits for most covered union employees than the Company plans do.
The pension is another point of contention. The Teamster pension offers early retirement with a full pension, guaranteed retirement benefits, and the stability of the number one private multi-employer pension trust in the world, with assets of over 39 billion dollars! Union employees are not interested in giving up all of that for the insecurity of a 401(k).
Do you understand just how easy it is to skew operating ratio numbers to fit their needs? If they start making a little too much money, all they have to do is buy a couple of trailers full of truck and trailer tires, or put in an expensive and overblown security system. Those kind of capital expenses goes directly against the bottom line, and so skews the numbers for a particular month, quarter, or year to meet the criteria they want.
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...-oak-harbor-employees-letters.html#post214641
Mismanagement is rampant at OHFL. Most of us see it and deal with it every day. The real question is should the employees of OHFL have to pay for such inefficiencies and mistakes by having our wages stagnate and our benefit levels reduced?
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...-oak-harbor-employees-letters.html#post214642
Medical insurance is the hot topic these days. The Company is clearly intent on moving all of their employees into their own self-funded medical insurance plan, and to have all employees paying for a portion of the insurance premium, which is new even to the non-union employees. This is unacceptable for the unionized employees to consider. The Company plan has lower benefits levels than either of the current union plans. The Company plan has no provisions for retiree healthcare, nor are they interested in offering such an option. By converting to a Company plan, the unionized employees lose any hope of controlling their benefit levels, their cost allocations, or plan options.
On the retiree issue alone, the unionized employees cannot in good conscience even consider a Company plan. Our retirees count on us to help subsidize their healthcare, and to keep the cost reasonable in a time of rapidly rising healthcare expenses. If we turn our backs on them now, we turn our backs on ourselves, for one day we all hope to be retired with a sense of security where our pensions and healthcare is concerned.
We recognize that the Company wants to free up operating capital by converting all us to their plan. They can accomplish this because their plan is self-funded, which means that they only pay the claims as they are generated; rather than paying a flat monthly premium into a trust fund as they currently do in the case of their union employees. In any given month, probably only twenty percent of employees actually use their health benefits, which results in an immediate cost savings... for the Company.
However, they are not required to keep a trust fund of money set aside to pay these claims, and if they ran short of operating capital, they might not be able to pay the claims as they come, which means that you the employee would then be liable for the cost of the claim. There is a question about medical privacy. Since they are handed a bill every month, they would know which employees went to which doctors, and might even have knowledge about what procedures were undertaken. Do you necessarily want your employer knowing such details about your medical conditions?
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...03-complete-committee-letters.html#post346987
If you are a non-union employee of OHFL, it is time you spend a little time thinking about what the future holds for you here. Now the door is opened, and your benefits have been reduced. What is to keep them from increasing your medical premium next year? What is to keep them from dropping their 401(k) matching benefit down a percent or two in the next year or two? How about that great deal on your sick pay cash-out? One day cashed-out for every forty you had built up in your bank; a bank that was built up so high because you didn’t take sick days, and now this is how they reward you?
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...03-complete-committee-letters.html#post346990
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...03-complete-committee-letters.html#post346992
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...-complete-committee-letters-2.html#post346995
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...-complete-committee-letters-2.html#post346997
Just read the four above links.
PS: Ed, the wooden shoes have dry rot.
I know some of the members have a few issues with the original poster of these messages but for most part I think they say it all.
I have just quoted some parts and provided links to the complete statement.
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...-oak-harbor-employees-letters.html#post214640
They want the union employees to give up their Teamster health and welfare plans, their Teamster pension plan. They want to eliminate our sick pay program and replace it with a miniscule raise. At $.15/hour, it would take an employee almost 1,100 hours to gain one eight-hour sick day! Currently, we earn one-half a sick day every month. And the cash-out they are offering is a joke. An employee with a full bank of twenty-four days would get less than five days at cash-out time.
The union healthcare plans offer retiree healthcare coverage; the Company plans do not, nor are they willing to do so. The union plans offer better benefits for most covered union employees than the Company plans do.
The pension is another point of contention. The Teamster pension offers early retirement with a full pension, guaranteed retirement benefits, and the stability of the number one private multi-employer pension trust in the world, with assets of over 39 billion dollars! Union employees are not interested in giving up all of that for the insecurity of a 401(k).
Do you understand just how easy it is to skew operating ratio numbers to fit their needs? If they start making a little too much money, all they have to do is buy a couple of trailers full of truck and trailer tires, or put in an expensive and overblown security system. Those kind of capital expenses goes directly against the bottom line, and so skews the numbers for a particular month, quarter, or year to meet the criteria they want.
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...-oak-harbor-employees-letters.html#post214641
Mismanagement is rampant at OHFL. Most of us see it and deal with it every day. The real question is should the employees of OHFL have to pay for such inefficiencies and mistakes by having our wages stagnate and our benefit levels reduced?
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...-oak-harbor-employees-letters.html#post214642
Medical insurance is the hot topic these days. The Company is clearly intent on moving all of their employees into their own self-funded medical insurance plan, and to have all employees paying for a portion of the insurance premium, which is new even to the non-union employees. This is unacceptable for the unionized employees to consider. The Company plan has lower benefits levels than either of the current union plans. The Company plan has no provisions for retiree healthcare, nor are they interested in offering such an option. By converting to a Company plan, the unionized employees lose any hope of controlling their benefit levels, their cost allocations, or plan options.
On the retiree issue alone, the unionized employees cannot in good conscience even consider a Company plan. Our retirees count on us to help subsidize their healthcare, and to keep the cost reasonable in a time of rapidly rising healthcare expenses. If we turn our backs on them now, we turn our backs on ourselves, for one day we all hope to be retired with a sense of security where our pensions and healthcare is concerned.
We recognize that the Company wants to free up operating capital by converting all us to their plan. They can accomplish this because their plan is self-funded, which means that they only pay the claims as they are generated; rather than paying a flat monthly premium into a trust fund as they currently do in the case of their union employees. In any given month, probably only twenty percent of employees actually use their health benefits, which results in an immediate cost savings... for the Company.
However, they are not required to keep a trust fund of money set aside to pay these claims, and if they ran short of operating capital, they might not be able to pay the claims as they come, which means that you the employee would then be liable for the cost of the claim. There is a question about medical privacy. Since they are handed a bill every month, they would know which employees went to which doctors, and might even have knowledge about what procedures were undertaken. Do you necessarily want your employer knowing such details about your medical conditions?
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...03-complete-committee-letters.html#post346987
If you are a non-union employee of OHFL, it is time you spend a little time thinking about what the future holds for you here. Now the door is opened, and your benefits have been reduced. What is to keep them from increasing your medical premium next year? What is to keep them from dropping their 401(k) matching benefit down a percent or two in the next year or two? How about that great deal on your sick pay cash-out? One day cashed-out for every forty you had built up in your bank; a bank that was built up so high because you didn’t take sick days, and now this is how they reward you?
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...03-complete-committee-letters.html#post346990
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...03-complete-committee-letters.html#post346992
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...-complete-committee-letters-2.html#post346995
http://www.truckingboards.com/truck...-complete-committee-letters-2.html#post346997
Just read the four above links.
PS: Ed, the wooden shoes have dry rot.