Unions don't drive people out of work
as long as a company treats you fairly a union is a waste of money. as long as the employees come to work to work a union is a waste of money. have heard that carrier handles inside deliveries all day long. a constant and forever whining issue for th teamster boys.have spoken with many nemf drivers union and non and they are all appreciative for what they have and understand that spending or wasting money on people they dont need is irresponsible. so a few people suffer for alittle while so the company can stay strong.... seems very responsible to the masses of workers still working doesnt it. they will eventually come back hopefully to a stronger company
as far as unions go see cf,united airlines,uaw
driving their people out of work.5000 people have good jobs at nemf
You heard that Carrier handles inside deliveries all day long? I'll tell you what Carrier Industries was when it started and what it is now.
Originally, NEMF had a good long-term relationship with GAP/OLD NAVY and they were picking up trailerloads for distribution from the Gap's DC's. Also, the Gap was loading trailerloads of distribution at a DC in Kentucky and shipping it directly to our Buffalo NY Terminal, where the orders would be assembled and loaded into NEMF outbound Trailers, going to other Terminals for local deliveries. The deliveries were all going to stores, many of which were located inside shopping malls. It was a rather labor intensive struggle to make many of these deliveries and to further complicate matters, many of these stores wanted the deliveries performed in the evening, because they didn't want deliveries to interfere with the operation of the store. Six or seven years ago, NEMF decided that they wanted to protect this business but felt that they needed to handle it more economically, so they approached the Gap with a proposal to create a third-party logistics company called
Carrier Industries. The Gap opened a new DC in Fishkill NY (10 miles east of the Hudson River and right off I-84) and Carrier Industries provided a fleet of tractors and trailers for the delivery work. All the drivers were hired by Carrier Industries and told (up-front) that the work was mostly nights, delivering to the Gap Stores. Since that time,
the original Contract with the Gap for this activity was renewed (with a reduction in the service area) and Carrier now is still doing the Gap work. Because the Company wants to expand this operation to do other business, they are holding their drivers by sending them to do NEMF Line Haul and P & D
whenever they feel that there is excess work at NEMF. The problem that the Line Haul Drivers have with this is that we are made to wait in terminals for next-day loads (sometimes for an hour or more), while a Carrier driver will come into the Terminal and be dispatched with a load of Appointment freight that was all ready to go. They don't let the Carrier drivers wait because they are on the clock (earning between 18.50 and 21.00/hr with time and 1/2 after 8), but the NEMF drivers get 10/hr after 45 min free for waiting, so it's cheaper for the Company to
let the NEMF drivers wait. City drivers at NEMF are being denied the overtime they could make, by coming back the the Terminal to pickup another delivery-load. Also, in terms of actual work, when it's busy, management looks for opportunities to put work aside (the easy skid loads) for Carrier,
in order to control the amount of overtime that the NEMF drivers make.
Of course all of this comes under the heading of the Company's right to Manage their business, so we understand why it's being done. That doesn't mean that we have to like it!
Regarding your statement that Unions
drive people out of work.
CF was deliberately and intentionally destroyed by the parent company CNF, when they made a decision to open up CON-WAY.
Systematically, the sales force at Con_Way was directed to go to all of the good accounts that CF had and offer them a cheaper deal. It took about 4 years, but CNF succeeded in destroying what was once the number 2 LTL carrier in the USA.
United Airline was a victim of multiple negative factors, high cost of Unionized workers was one of them, but they also were very much affected by the crash of the Airline Industry after the WTC disaster and an influx of budget non-union carriers into the Insudstry (many of which have since gone out of business also)
UAW- There continues to be a trend in this country to buy foreign cars, particularly Japanese cars, because they are cheaper
and percieved to be better-made. As long as no protectionist Import Tariffs are put in place by our government, our auto industry will continue to decline, but don't blame the presence of Unions for this. Unions enabled many people to achieve middle-class status,
own their own homes and send their children to college. If we vaporize our middle class
after we eliminate the Unions, then we can compete with Japanese imports (while we all live in apartment buildings, pay rent and try to use a bicycle to get to work every day
(because you can't afford a car )
Finally, the remark that you spoke to many Union NEMF drivers is doubtful. If you are out of the Chicago (Elk Grove Village) terminal, I can't see how you had any contact with any Union drivers, other than this website. I will say that I wish you well on your honeymoon with your new job. Just remember, things change and nothing is permanent. If all is as promised right now, I hope that it stays that way for you. Good Luck!
IAM Shop Steward and proud of it!
:USA:
