- Credits
- 538
Ballot Count 2009
OK…. When I went to the YRCW ballot count that Tuesday in DC…this is what went on…KK
We arrived at the place the ballots were to be opened and counted in Maryland. There were IBT employees from the Freight Division and other employees of the IBT. There were about 3 members from L107…2 from 384 (nice guys by the way) and another good brother from Delaware and myself. A company by the name of Election Unlimited supervised the whole process. They had a meeting with us and told us what the process was, and what our job as observers were too. NOBODY from the IBT and/or the observers could touch the ballots or interfere with the process of counting.
After that meeting several observers went to the Post Office with the Election admin. to observe them getting all ballot trays picked up and returned them to the building in Maryland. They then counted and sorted all ballots in the trays…removed the duplicates (pink envelopes) from the blue envelopes. Sorted them by Locals in baskets (that along took all of Tuesday) and the room was secured for the night. I went home.
As told earlier…ballots were to be sent out to members in good standing from November 2003 to the present time. If you were laid off and got a withdrawal card from your Local Union, you too were mailed a ballot.
Unfortunately, ballots were mailed out to those as far back as November 1999 and it was discovered by the IBT. Those ballots had to be pulled from the 30,000 plus that they had, as they could not be counted. Some TITAN lists did not have the exact codes for all members in good standing. I will use my own Local as an example. The lists for Business Agents (who were eligible to vote), the Stewards (We pay our Stewards dues) and members who pay cash dues each month were not on the 1st mail out. This too was discovered and over 813 requests for duplicate ballots were mailed out….I never got mine, along with several others in our Local. My Local voted 83% to take the cut….585 Yes and 116 No.
Meanwhile during Tuesday when we made an attempt to tell you on this website what we could tell you what was going on….i.e.; the number of ballots coming in, etc, etc…. we could not tell you the count, as MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY phone calls were coming into the IBT concerning the info that was posted on truckingboards.com (hey, when you want to know what is going on, right?) it was brought to my attention as soon as they found out who KK was.
Herein was the problem…. the stock had gone up $1.20 that day. In my opinion, when WACHOVIA upgraded YRCW, that was when the price went up. We were afraid that some may take the postings on Trucking Boards as accurate ballots counts (which we never reported) and misinterpret them as official information. This could have driven the price up, or it could have driven the price down.
We were not about to do battle with the SEC over insider trading and/or stock manipulation over unofficial information on the website. Also, this could have affected the stock warrants that the employees were to receive after the official ballot count was made to the public. There was no malicious attempt made to do this…. but I did not want there to be even a minuet idea that this was trying to be done…. So, Benny Hill was called and we pulled the post to be fair to all. I do not own even a share of YRCW stock by the way.
I will say the amount of ballots in that room was mind boggling, and I knew there was no way this would be done in 1 day, not even 2 days.
The Company that handled the whole process was the most professional bunch of folks I had ever seen do a ballot count…. and in my 21 years as a Teamster, I have seen many of them.
Those on here that claimed it was a “done deal”, “it was fixed” or it was rigged, have no clue as to what this process is all about. The outcome of this was to help save our jobs and to keep this company going. I don’t give a damn about your personal gripes with some TM or other supervisors…. this was all about saving us…the freight teamster….if you cannot accept that, then go work somewhere else. I was very disappointed in how some on here have acted in their postings and PMs to me…. I respect your right to post your thoughts…. but as it has been said on here many times…”we can all disagree, without being disagreeable.” To my astonishment, some have been very sarcastic in the way this was being posted…. but, I intend to be very forthcoming and accurate in what I report, and for those who know me and understand I thank you for being part of Truckingboards.
Now lets try to make this work for us all, as this is the only show in town!….KK
OK…. When I went to the YRCW ballot count that Tuesday in DC…this is what went on…KK
We arrived at the place the ballots were to be opened and counted in Maryland. There were IBT employees from the Freight Division and other employees of the IBT. There were about 3 members from L107…2 from 384 (nice guys by the way) and another good brother from Delaware and myself. A company by the name of Election Unlimited supervised the whole process. They had a meeting with us and told us what the process was, and what our job as observers were too. NOBODY from the IBT and/or the observers could touch the ballots or interfere with the process of counting.
After that meeting several observers went to the Post Office with the Election admin. to observe them getting all ballot trays picked up and returned them to the building in Maryland. They then counted and sorted all ballots in the trays…removed the duplicates (pink envelopes) from the blue envelopes. Sorted them by Locals in baskets (that along took all of Tuesday) and the room was secured for the night. I went home.
As told earlier…ballots were to be sent out to members in good standing from November 2003 to the present time. If you were laid off and got a withdrawal card from your Local Union, you too were mailed a ballot.
Unfortunately, ballots were mailed out to those as far back as November 1999 and it was discovered by the IBT. Those ballots had to be pulled from the 30,000 plus that they had, as they could not be counted. Some TITAN lists did not have the exact codes for all members in good standing. I will use my own Local as an example. The lists for Business Agents (who were eligible to vote), the Stewards (We pay our Stewards dues) and members who pay cash dues each month were not on the 1st mail out. This too was discovered and over 813 requests for duplicate ballots were mailed out….I never got mine, along with several others in our Local. My Local voted 83% to take the cut….585 Yes and 116 No.
Meanwhile during Tuesday when we made an attempt to tell you on this website what we could tell you what was going on….i.e.; the number of ballots coming in, etc, etc…. we could not tell you the count, as MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY phone calls were coming into the IBT concerning the info that was posted on truckingboards.com (hey, when you want to know what is going on, right?) it was brought to my attention as soon as they found out who KK was.
Herein was the problem…. the stock had gone up $1.20 that day. In my opinion, when WACHOVIA upgraded YRCW, that was when the price went up. We were afraid that some may take the postings on Trucking Boards as accurate ballots counts (which we never reported) and misinterpret them as official information. This could have driven the price up, or it could have driven the price down.
We were not about to do battle with the SEC over insider trading and/or stock manipulation over unofficial information on the website. Also, this could have affected the stock warrants that the employees were to receive after the official ballot count was made to the public. There was no malicious attempt made to do this…. but I did not want there to be even a minuet idea that this was trying to be done…. So, Benny Hill was called and we pulled the post to be fair to all. I do not own even a share of YRCW stock by the way.
I will say the amount of ballots in that room was mind boggling, and I knew there was no way this would be done in 1 day, not even 2 days.
The Company that handled the whole process was the most professional bunch of folks I had ever seen do a ballot count…. and in my 21 years as a Teamster, I have seen many of them.
Those on here that claimed it was a “done deal”, “it was fixed” or it was rigged, have no clue as to what this process is all about. The outcome of this was to help save our jobs and to keep this company going. I don’t give a damn about your personal gripes with some TM or other supervisors…. this was all about saving us…the freight teamster….if you cannot accept that, then go work somewhere else. I was very disappointed in how some on here have acted in their postings and PMs to me…. I respect your right to post your thoughts…. but as it has been said on here many times…”we can all disagree, without being disagreeable.” To my astonishment, some have been very sarcastic in the way this was being posted…. but, I intend to be very forthcoming and accurate in what I report, and for those who know me and understand I thank you for being part of Truckingboards.
Now lets try to make this work for us all, as this is the only show in town!….KK
