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bubbadog121

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They say "back in the day" when the
Freight Teamsters said jump, the National said, How high?

Fast forward to 2008.
I was wondering if anyone knew exactly what percentage of overall Teamsters were actually from the freight division?

It seems, with good reason, that the Teamsters have become more diversified.Making it nearly impossible for any one segment to controll the majority.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?
 
Yeah they and everyone else have forgot who made this union. A lot of retired and older brothers have sacrificed alot 4 us and we are letting it slip away. Big companies and the union have sold the freight section of the union down the river.
 
Please don't take me wrong, this is not directed at anyone personally in this thread, but could someone please give me some examples of what the Teamsters is not doing for us. We are the best paid freight workers in the industry. There are people with 4 year degrees that do not make what we do. The benefit package with a pension and 100% paid medical and dental is unheard of anywhere. You also would have to be a real screw-up to ever lose your job. Could someone please tell me what more is it you want them to do.
 
Some want job security for LIFE, more money, come to work when you want and not have to do anything. I think that about sums it up!
 
bubbadog121 said:
They say "back in the day" when the
Freight Teamsters said jump, the National said, How high?

Fast forward to 2008.
I was wondering if anyone knew exactly what percentage of overall Teamsters were actually from the freight division?

It seems, with good reason, that the Teamsters have become more diversified.Making it nearly impossible for any one segment to controll the majority.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

"Back in the day" when the companies did something to one of us, they did it to all of us. Now, when something happens to somebody else its not everyones problem any longer. How many times in recent years have you heard somebody say, "Oh well thats his problem not mine", but when it happens to them they ask "Why doesn't anybody care that this happened to me?" Many people think to themselves, "He didn't care about me and now I'm not going to care about him either." To many men think that it can't happen to them or they don't want to draw attention to themselves from the bosses. They're afraid that they won't be on the bosses good side any longer and they might have to be like everybody else, do their job all day or night long without getting the gravy work, every time.

The UPS Teamsters, are now working for the largest employer of Teamsters overall. With UPS doing so well financially and having the cash on hand to make deals that only they can afford to make, its not hard to understand why we don't have the clout that we once did, "Back in the day."

Freight Teamsters used to be a majority and have all the power in the IBT but now, I'm sad to say, we're in the minority and are just memories from, "Back in the day."
 
bubbadog121 said:
Fast forward to 2008.
I was wondering if anyone knew exactly what percentage of overall Teamsters were actually from the freight division?

It seems, with good reason, that the Teamsters have become more diversified.Making it nearly impossible for any one segment to controll the majority.
Click to expand...
Hey bubbadog.........From what I could find we have a total of 1.4 million members. The Freight Division represents more than 80,000 Teamsters members from approximately 238 local unions.

Our history came from drivers and moving freight. Throughout the years organizing we have become a well diversified union. I think depending what part of the county you are from is how diverse your local union is.

391 started out as a "truck drivers" local. Our first members were tank haul drivers. But now we have industrial, freight, package, brewery, public sector, airline, film and a couple of more that may slip my mind right now. :1036316054: DS.
 
bubbadog121 said:
Fast forward to 2008.
I was wondering if anyone knew exactly what percentage of overall Teamsters were actually from the freight division?
Click to expand...

Using Docksteward's figures, your answer would be less than 6% out of the total IBT are Freight Teamsters.

1,400,000 x .05714 = 79996
 
Freight Teamsters

Hey D.S. and Benny,
Thanks for the thoughtful responses:1036316054:

I guess I came up with about 17.5% of Teamsters are Freight Teamsters from the numbers that D.S. provided.

I guess my main point was that even though we represent a large chunk we don't have the clout to move the National like we once did!

Bad for us/good for the National's leadership job security:hide:
 
In my local we have about 450 freight people.about 1300 ups ,out of 4500 members.One plant has 800 production people ,that is more then all the freight.30 yrs ago when freight people spoke the locals jumped now they laugh at you.
 
Last election I looked over the vote pattern from afew locals and come to the conclusion that Hoffa won by a large margin in places dominated by nurses and railroad employees. It was not a scientific undertaking on my part and l may have read what I wanted to read in it. But I came away feeling they did'nt know any better and were voting a name. So I feel nobody (Hoffa) gives a rats what truckdrivers think or want, we will get what they give us. Again it was a quick look and I seen no way to tell how drivers voted vs nurses,rail,cops,ect. Someone with more time and knowlege could prove me wrong. :shrug:
 
There are not many organized freight companies left. Men, power comes in numbers and freight just does not have the numbers.
 
Good point!

wolf said:
Last election I looked over the vote pattern from afew locals and come to the conclusion that Hoffa won by a large margin in places dominated by nurses and railroad employees. It was not a scientific undertaking on my part and l may have read what I wanted to read in it. But I came away feeling they did'nt know any better and were voting a name. So I feel nobody (Hoffa) gives a rats what truckdrivers think or want, we will get what they give us. Again it was a quick look and I seen no way to tell how drivers voted vs nurses,rail,cops,ect. Someone with more time and knowlege could prove me wrong. :shrug:
Click to expand...

Good point Wolf!

I think we should have the ability to at least elect the head of the Freight division! But that will happen when you know where freezes over!
 
slowsmoke said:
There are not many organized freight companies left. Men, power comes in numbers and freight just does not have the numbers.
Click to expand...

Well said brother.I think that the union should be out trying to organize other freight company's but all they care about is UPS with over 240,000 contract employees in one company.(Just my opinion)
 
i agree krimler, we were traded for the ups members now all the teamster officers are in solid standing come election time
 
Don't forget the "school bus drivers" they are growing in numbers. I remember back in the days when the general membership meeting was standing room only with freight. The E-Board was majority from freight and now most of the members in different industries couldn't even tell what freight carrier is union.
 
The Numbers

krimler said:
Well said brother.I think that the union should be out trying to organize other freight company's but all they care about is UPS with over 240,000 contract employees in one company.(Just my opinion)
Click to expand...

Ok, so even if we add the 240,000 from UPS to the 80,000 in the freight division that is 320,000.
Take that into the 1,400,000 that D.S. came up with and you have approximately 22%...Yikes!!!!:hide:

I also wanted to correct myself.
Benny correctly had the Freight Teamsters at approximately 6% and I, erroneously, came up with 17%.My bad:chairshot:
 
bubbadog121 said:
Ok, so even if we add the 240,000 from UPS to the 80,000 in the freight division that is 320,000.
Take that into the 1,400,000 that D.S. came up with and you have approximately 22%...Yikes!!!!:hide:

I also wanted to correct myself.
Benny correctly had the Freight Teamsters at approximately 6% and I, erroneously, came up with 17%.My bad:chairshot:
Click to expand...

On the money, we want to be the top dog but we are the minority. Also if you look at the history you will find that many non-union companies were built by former teamsters, most of the starting workers at con-way came from union companies that went down or were fired. If you read the r & l forum you will read about lower paid workers being used to "support the higher paid full timers." Why would they keep those higher paid people? Yet with a huge threat like that the most vocal response is don't vote union, we want to wait till we are replaced fully before gaining a voice in how the company does business. In the mean time many that would fight to go union are quitting and finding other jobs. Those that are left are unlikely to undertake the huge job of going union.
 
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