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TForce | One Line Seniority

There are many ways to implement seniority and some will be happy and some will be pi**ed in each way. Some say seniority only in job classification, others say company seniority. Heck, why not seniority as a Teamster so that if your own job shuts down you go to a new job with your Teamster seniority and don't start there at the bottom? Each way has advantages and disadvantages and not everyone will be happy.
 
Triplex said:
There are many ways to implement seniority and some will be happy and some will be pi**ed in each way. Some say seniority only in job classification, others say company seniority. Heck, why not seniority as a Teamster so that if your own job shuts down you go to a new job with your Teamster seniority and don't start there at the bottom? Each way has advantages and disadvantages and not everyone will be happy.
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Seniority sucks till you get some.....

I like the idea of teamster Seniority..... lol that would keep a lot of us old farts working. I never see it happening though.
 
Canadian_mester said:
Look, I was a road driver before the contract was ratified…I got shafted and I am for one line seniority.
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File a grievance. Its very clear in this and all previous contracts that there is 2 seniority boards 1 local and 1 road it also addresses dock workers gaining their CDL. If your terminal or local refuses to follow the contract file a NLRB charge with your local NLRB office. It's easy to do and cost you nothing but follow the contract. No one can change it it says so in the contract.
 
Toliet Paper said:
File a grievance. Its very clear in this and all previous contracts that there is 2 seniority boards 1 local and 1 road it also addresses dock workers gaining their CDL. If your terminal or local refuses to follow the contract file a NLRB charge with your local NLRB office. It's easy to do and cost you nothing but follow the contract. No one can change it it says so in the contract.
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Grievance committees change the contract every month.
COO's change work rules every time.
A multi conference COO committee in Chicago changed our seniority list from a single board to a yearly bid where anyone could bid any job, road or local but they were locked into either road or local until the next annual bid. Essentially splitting our board. We were the only terminal in JC 40 with that language. Not even other company terminals had that language.
 
Toliet Paper said:
File a grievance. Its very clear in this and all previous contracts that there is 2 seniority boards 1 local and 1 road it also addresses dock workers gaining their CDL. If your terminal or local refuses to follow the contract file a NLRB charge with your local NLRB office. It's easy to do and cost you nothing but follow the contract. No one can change it it says so in the contract.
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My BA says there’s nothing that can be done about it. That’s what I’ve been told for years. I was a road driver when we had the card check agreement. Everybody didn’t get to vote on the first contract, if I remember correctly it was Indianapolis that accepted it, everybody else signed the cards that we wanted representation. Our president and BA told us this isn’t a good contract, but it’s a start, we can build on it…not a lot has improved now that we are about to vote on the fourth one.
Anyway back to my classification, when my run was cut, I was forced to the city, and didn’t get to use my seniority because of classification change. Through the years, due to retirements, deaths and drivers quitting, I am back to within one spot of where I should be. That’s better than the bottom sure, but I’ve started from the bottom twice. It makes a difference when bidding and someone with less company time gets to pick ahead of you.
 
Razorblade said:
Grievance committees change the contract every month.
COO's change work rules every time.
A multi conference COO committee in Chicago changed our seniority list from a single board to a yearly bid where anyone could bid any job, road or local but they were locked into either road or local until the next annual bid. Essentially splitting our board. We were the only terminal in JC 40 with that language. Not even other company terminals had that language.
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We had similar language in the Carolinas.
Dock, local, or road could bump only if there was an opening in that classification.
You went to the bottom until bid time, and you then picked up your company (date of hire) seniority.
Our runs were bid every 6 months.
 
The rules are the rules . The sign says 50 mph, it's 50 mph. If it changes to 60 or to 40, the rules are the rules .
 
Some of you obviously don't work for T-force. Others simply refuse and have refused to demand the contract be enforced. The NLRB is there to help you the little guy, not your BA your local the IBt nor the company. Granted the it's not uncommon for the big guys to file charges against one another. The contract is quiet clear on how seniority works.
 
Toliet Paper said:
Some of you obviously don't work for T-force. Others simply refuse and have refused to demand the contract be enforced. The NLRB is there to help you the little guy, not your BA your local the IBt nor the company. Granted the it's not uncommon for the big guys to file charges against one another. The contract is quiet clear on how seniority works.
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The NLRB is an entity of the government! Good luck with getting any help from anybody with the government!
 
Canadian_mester said:
That’s exactly what happened to me. Started out in city, Bid to road, then two years my road run got cut…I could either bump the bottom city driver and work the dock mostly, take a permanent layoff, or bid back to the city. After 18 years, there’s one driver with 14 months less company seniority than me, but he bids before me. How is that fair? I didn’t choose to go back to city like some do, because they can’t sleep during the day…I was forced back to city and lost my seniority.
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Seniority should prevail across all jobs within the company, even if it requires training!
 
inspector200 said:
Yeah.. I hated it at 1st because I was new.. we had 2 guy’s that would switch from city to road every year! Now that I have seniority I like it! It’s peace of mind knowing if it gets too slow that I always will be able to work!
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There is nothing wrong with one line seniority if it was that way from the beginning. But to change the rules that people have been playing by (some for 10, 20 or even 30 years) is dishonest, unfair and dirty. Grandfather in everyone’s job classification seniority as it currently stands (in many places) and go to one line seniority for all new hires. That would be fair. It seems that the only people who aren’t opposed to one line seniority are where it already exists (like in New England). I know that’s where O’Brien is from. But please think about this long and hard Mr. O’Brien before you destroy peoples moral with a decision like this! If someone has been working for 10, 20 or 30 years within a specific classification, for the union to come along and take that away puts the union in a position where some people may not want to support it anymore. Think about that.
 
FreightDriver said:
There is nothing wrong with one line seniority if it was that way from the beginning. But to change the rules that people have been playing by (some for 10, 20 or even 30 years) is dishonest, unfair and dirty. Grandfather in everyone’s job classification seniority as it currently stands (in many places) and go to one line seniority for all new hires. That would be fair. It seems that the only people who aren’t opposed to one line seniority are where it already exists (like in New England). I know that’s where O’Brien is from. But please think about this long and hard Mr. O’Brien before you destroy peoples moral with a decision like this! If someone has been working for 10, 20 or 30 years within a specific classification, for the union to come along and take that away puts the union in a position where some people may not want to support it anymore. Think about that.
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Ok, now that you made it clearer, then if the majority at the terminal want 2 line senority, then that's fine, i suppose......

My points were:
1) If a guy came in at 1am every night and froze for the past 20 years, while i stayed in my comfy, cozy, warm bed while i was on mars or wherever. And then one day he decides to get his CDL, then as far as i'm concerned he DESERVES to go to the top of the list. Wouldn't bother me one bit if he bumped me. Dockers have the most difficult job in the company followed by city drivers.....



2) If a road driver drove road for the past 20 years (and you and i both know road driving is basically sitting on your azz the whole night listening to music and podcasts) and then all of a sudden wants to switch to the dock (i guess there are reasons), do you think it's fair that he be able to choose his start time over the guys who've worked the dock for many years?
a) Note: In this example the road driver started with the company as a road driver and then after 20 years decided he would like to switch to dock. He had never worked the dock previous to this.

Maybe we should start a poll here, and then company-wide we should vote on it? i think you know where i stand.
 
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maxicoze said:
Ok, now that you made it clearer, then if the majority at the terminal want 2 line senority, then that's fine, i suppose......

My points were:
1) If a guy came in at 1am every night and froze for the past 20 years, while i stayed in my comfy, cozy, warm bed while i was on mars or wherever. And then one day he decides to get his CDL, then as far as i'm concerned he DESERVES to go to the top of the list. Wouldn't bother me one bit if he bumped me. Dockers have the most difficult job in the company followed by city drivers.....



2) If a road driver drove road for the past 20 years (and you and i both know road driving is basically sitting on your azz the whole night listening to music and podcasts) and then all of a sudden wants to switch to the dock (i guess there are reasons), do you think it's fair that he be able to choose his start time over the guys who've worked the dock for many years?
a) Note: In this example the road driver started with the company as a road driver and then after 20 years decided he would like to switch to dock. He had never worked the dock previous to this.

Maybe we should start a poll here, and then company-wide we should vote on it? i think you know where i stand.
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I don’t think anyone should be able to bump someone in another classification permanently. I don’t care if someone worked the dock for twenty years and then decides they want to become a road driver and vice Vera. I’ve worked dock for 6, City for 2 and road for nearly 20. I don’t think it’s right when someone has been building their time under the current classification rules only to be rug pulled.

It’s like cutting in line at the grocery store. Just because you were in the store before me doesn’t give you the right to cut in front of me in line at the checkout because now you decide you’re ready to checkout. I had my place in line before you.
 
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Now you are fighting each other. The carriers must love it.
You should probably demand that only linehaul drivers ger to vote on the line haul section of the contract and local cartage on their portion.
Good work!
 
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