Docksteward
Teamsters Local 71
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Hey Apo,
You are right, the Teamsters labor union started with horse and wagons in the early 1900's, literally the "hay" days. It was Teamster President Tobin that first started the push to organize outside of transportation. We have come a long way since then.
You are also correct to say that if every trucker in the freight industry voted against Hoffa, it wouldn't amount to a large percent. The number is around 3 1/2 percent. We also must stick to the facts when discussing why the numbers are what they are.
The number one reason was deregulation, which actually got it's beginning in 1962. President Kennedy asked Congress to reduce the number of regulations to surface freight transportation. The Motor Carrier Act of 1980 was the end result of years of trying to deregulate the trucking industry.
Until that point, there were literally hundreds of union carriers employing tens of thousands of Teamsters. What shippers gained in lower shipping costs, a current estimate of 25 to 40 percent, the unionized freight workers lost in pay and jobs.
To make a short story long, trying to blame the current Teamster leadership for the shrinking the unionized freight industry is absurd. You know first hand of the decades long struggle it was to finally organize Overnite, now UPS Freight.
The only way to grow the numbers in freight is to organize the unorganized. We all know who these companies are, we see and talk to them every day.
To be brutally honest, the only message that I read anymore here on the boards is about how terrible it is to be a union driver. If I worked for FedEx, Con-Way, Old Dominion, Estes, etc....why would I want to be union, it must be the worst thing in the world.
Just my two cents,
DS.
You are right, the Teamsters labor union started with horse and wagons in the early 1900's, literally the "hay" days. It was Teamster President Tobin that first started the push to organize outside of transportation. We have come a long way since then.
You are also correct to say that if every trucker in the freight industry voted against Hoffa, it wouldn't amount to a large percent. The number is around 3 1/2 percent. We also must stick to the facts when discussing why the numbers are what they are.
The number one reason was deregulation, which actually got it's beginning in 1962. President Kennedy asked Congress to reduce the number of regulations to surface freight transportation. The Motor Carrier Act of 1980 was the end result of years of trying to deregulate the trucking industry.
Until that point, there were literally hundreds of union carriers employing tens of thousands of Teamsters. What shippers gained in lower shipping costs, a current estimate of 25 to 40 percent, the unionized freight workers lost in pay and jobs.
To make a short story long, trying to blame the current Teamster leadership for the shrinking the unionized freight industry is absurd. You know first hand of the decades long struggle it was to finally organize Overnite, now UPS Freight.
The only way to grow the numbers in freight is to organize the unorganized. We all know who these companies are, we see and talk to them every day.
To be brutally honest, the only message that I read anymore here on the boards is about how terrible it is to be a union driver. If I worked for FedEx, Con-Way, Old Dominion, Estes, etc....why would I want to be union, it must be the worst thing in the world.
Just my two cents,
DS.
