A friend of my wifes is a lawyer. He loves to relate the story of how a colleague obtained an unbelievable settlement on patent infringement. Seems he was the only lawyer to turn off his Blackberry at the long drawn out negotiation meeting. The end result was a ridiculously generous royalty settlement for his client. None of the other lawyers were giving their full attention in light of all the interruptions.
IMO, some similar kind of distractions entered our NMFA negotiations. How the union could give away so many jobs, without making any provision for relocating them, is beyond me. I'm referring to the outsourcing of jobs in the NE US, CA around KC,MO. When I braced a union rep about a substandard white paper union contract they negotiated and endorsed, at a previous company I worked for, his response was well "If its so bad, don't vote for it. We'll go back and try again." That contract was ratified and many were upset with what they got from unknowns and imprecisions. The unknowns and imprecision of the NMFA we Teamsters ended up with, have left many Teamsters the feeling the same way about the NMFA. I keep hearing from guys all the time, "That wasn't in the contract I voted for."
The unions position seems to be simple. We give you something to vote on. If we give it to you to vote on, we endorse it. As long as it protects our employment, we don't have to care what it does for yours. Thats your problem and why you get to vote Yes or No.
If you vote Yes by a majority, live with it, we did our job and can't do anything the contract you voted for doesn't let us. Don't expect any better treatment from Tyson Johnson than we got in the NMFA. By the way, I was working almost every week until the NMFA took effect. I think I've worked 2 weeks since. My work was outsourced.
THE MORAL
MAKE SURE YOUR CONTRACT SPELLS OUT CLEARLY WHAT WILL BE GOING ON!!!