You are correct, YRC is wanting concessions and apparently the new NMFA has some in it.
I haven't read the whole thing but there raises will average .40 a year over the contract.
If you haven't been to the yellow boards most of them say they will strike before they vote to approve a contract on par with the indy contract.
YRC is claiming the contract that ups and the teamsters came to an agreement on is so weak it puts UPS at an advantage.
That is true, but one must understand the truth in the statement, STRENGTH IN #'S, Indy went at it alone, let's be practical, what bargaining chip did they have, except themselves?.
Now if the whole company goes in the union direction, this makes the difference, as you have stated in your paragraph the greivance process is a joke currently, and I have seen where the greivance process for the teamsters resembles pretty much the same on a few occasions, but that does not mean we should give up.
The funny thing here is we all have something to say about the union and being non union, MGNT has conferance calls on a regular basis, they know what exactly they must do to keep a ship afloat, or try, most of them know eachother and they all work together, and all speak amongst themselves to not only better themselves but the company as a whole when dealing with us.
Now one must understand that the Teamsters do exactly the same thing, they too have conferance calls on a regular basis, they too know eachother, and they too talk amongst themselves for the sake of not only themselves, but the so called benifit of us.
On the other hand, we the truck drivers put blinding faith into the sprokets of this fine system and walk around with blinders on in the effect that someone will take care of us, if a TM is in good with the shop stewart, and you people do nothing to correct the problem, then shame on you, after all it took ratical people in society to give us things just like the union and thier negotiating power, and if most allow it too fall by the way side, shame on you. Shame on us.
This is a hard road to go down based on the fact that it has alot of weight placed on the shoulders of so many people and the accrued , and welfare state of all of thier famalies. Taking advice from management at this point involves someone who is not secure in making decisions that best suits thier needs, and should have more faith in some one who is looking out for themselves and has security enough in thier decisions to do it.
We are not economists, granted, but communication is the key, and we have the tools to do it, the New England states will be bargaining next from what I have been told, we use communication, and we will continue too communicate above and beyond the Teamsters, this is OUR contract, and we will not rest until we are treated with a degree of respect, this is all we ask and I hope the people in this negotiation feel the same way. It is not a cureall, but better then what we have currently, and one must rememeber, if "O" \ UPSF would have done things differently, we would not be making this move, unfortunatley they do not care, why should we, most TM'S now will have to document everything, and instead of making malitious statements, condescending remarks, ambiguous statement, lieing, everything must be in black and white, and if you have a boatload of intelligance, Know your contract, and can form a legitamite argument, you too can basque in the fruits of our labor, that is better then we have now.
A contract is like fine wine, it gets better with age!!!!!!!!!! Our's will too, you cannot nail all the corners the first time around, all these changes we see currently, are changes we would have seen anyway wether we were going union or not, UPS know how to make money and you cannot make money by throwing money everywhere and being nice to everyone, there will be more changes in the near future we will not like I am sure of it, the question is what are we going to do about it.