I raised the same issue at my barn. I told my brother on the ue run at the time to fight it, that it would suck working Friday night's all summer. He didn't fight it, he told me it was great because of all the money he was going to make. Last summer he got sick of the overtime and took a lot of fridays off. Then when we bid he got off it. Junior man got stuck on it The junior man is very happy it is going back to four days.
This 4-10’s thing, IMO, isn’t a bad idea. Running the UE takes a special breed of person. Some love it, some hate it. Such is life. It boils down to what you like. Being the low man at the time the current guy dropped his UE bid, I was forced onto it. I was in my 50’s at the time, and wasn’t the slightest bit amused, or prepared physically to tackle that position. Thankfully, it wasn’t for very long.
Exactly my point. Every terminal has guys who are quite happy to spend their entire life...working.....60 hours isn't enough. The UE guy at my terminal complained that he should be able to use the 70 hour/8 day log,...instead of the 60 hour/7 day log....
We nipped that one in the bud quickly......
Then,...he wanted to see if he could use the 34 hour re-start to take off a Wednesday, and run road runs on the weekend. We were trying to use extra road work to make up time for bottom-of-the-list guys who did not get 40 hours that week....
We..."nipped" that one, too......
And,....when I tried to explain to him, during the 5/8 change,....that conditions accepted would...go with the BID,...not the GUY.....
....he did not care......
The UE provision forcing the bottom man to cover the bid.....is a very dangerous provision, and could undermine barn working conditions.....I've seen it create division......between top of the board, and bottom of the board.....
Seniority,..is NOT rank.......everyone pays the same amount of dues money.....
Needless to say,....the guy who wanted every hour of overtime he could get,...and bid the UE position purely for the money....
.....was on his second marriage, and deeply in debt for his various..."toys"..that he had no time to use....