Wow!!
Let me try to start this with the positives of the tentative agreement. The pension. Nice start.. Now that I'm done with the positive lets move on to everything else.
In regards to the pension, granted the IAM NPF will be a more effective way to invest our weekly contributions and will yield a much better payout than the severance package currently, HOWEVER has anybody realized that currently NEMF contributes 2.00/hr for every hour worked and the new contract pays only $1.50. That is .50 less out of the company's pocket per hour per employee. Where is that money going?
Maybe better medical? Wrong. $20 per week starting next year through the rest of the contract but only for current employees. Medical for new employees will be $32.50 per week in 2012 for new hires and you can guarantee all of our rates on next contract will be more than that since we will already be conditioned. Oh and as far as medical try twice the co-pay at a doctor’s office. That’s right it will now be $20 per visit instead of ten. Hmmm?? Prescriptions? Nope no help there they will now carry a co-pay of between $10-$35 per script. Well I guess we can't be too upset since everybody now days has to pay for medical right. After all we are being told we are getting a good deal
So back to the .50 less per hour retirement contribution. Maybe it’s being made up in the form of a raise. WRONG no raises for top rate employees. If you’re not at top rate you are entitled to the same treatment as a new person now getting hired. That’s right.... the "4 year progression period" 1 year %75, 2 years %85, 3 years %95, & yes finally after 4 years you get top rate. This must be industry standard for union companies if so many are willing to agree. Nope... unions typically go to top rate in half that time.
So I have to ask. Why is the company not offering top rate at their signing as in previous contracts. Why is the company offering no raise this year and only a total of roughly %17 throughout the end of the contract when cost of living is expected to raise at least %22 over that same time frame. That means what you can afford now, by the end of the contract you won't be able to afford because our raises don’t keep up with cost of living. Why is the company willing to give nothing, pass more costs onto us, & pocket more of our retirement money? (Maybe it’s because of fuel or maybe not since fuel surcharges are passed onto the expense of the shipper and through trickle-down economics right back to the customer who with our ever increasingly smaller paycheck, will be us).
So my final question is why do we all hear everyone complaining at every terminal yet have so many union employees willing to say yes to an agreement that is substandard to the expectations of a union job. Is everybody really that happy and just ***** for the sake of hearing their voice? Are all senior drivers willing to remain content to cruise through the remainder of their time and negotiate better private deals (etc. equipment, runs). Or is everybody simply bamboozled by this pension propaganda and afraid that the deal is either this or nothing. We all have to share a common goal remember everybody started at the same place. If we fight to preserve these opportunities, we will all end up in the same place. Don't be scared into voting yes for this sub-adequate agreement. If you are afraid to stick up for your right, & afraid to say NO, Then the very thing you fear will happen, will happen even sooner than if you fight. Then when we are all looking for jobs elsewhere there will be no good union jobs left because employees elsewhere may have also feared their company and resigned to their company's will. Let’s not resign what unions have fought many years to create and preserve. We are not being greedy, but just asking for a fair deal in which everybody benefits by the honorable, professional service that we provide everyday.
Thank You & God Bless.
P.S. Teamsters striked in 1997 and UPS quickly settled their next 2 contracts. UPSers now earn $8.00 more per hour in my local than NEMFers plus free medical, no co-pays & twice the pension. I realize they are a much larger beast but let this be an example of the strength in numbers. If we except this deal we can only complain at ourselves.
