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News and information on local Union matters, from Mike Parker.
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Saturday Evening Update . News and information on local Union matters, from Mike Parker. . |
October 17, 2009
Saturday Evening Update:
Today Chrysler and GM dealers were handbilled in every Local Union in the
Country with Teamster Members in the Carhaul Industry. The campaign is designed
to notify the Public of the fact that both Chrysler and GM have begun a
concerted program to directly attack Teamster Union Carhaulers and give their
jobs to non Union drivers.
Over the past ten to fifteen years the Teamsters have been losing market share
in the Industry. New Car business which once was 100% Teamster Member work is
now down to about 60% of the market Teamster and forty percent non-Union. There
has been a steady effort on the part of the carmakers to support the Non-Union
carriers for some time now. Their latest efforts are much more overt with an in
your face full court press approach.
This all comes on the heels of the U.S. taxpayer funded bailouts. G.M.
received $54 billion dollars from our hard earned and paid tax dollars, Chrysler
another $16 billion. Now they are using that and the fact of their
restructuring/bankruptcy issue to try and break the Union carhaul drivers and
their employers out of the business entirely and go with a smaller independent
owner operator model.
The job of a carhaul driver is much more difficult and complicated that most of
us believe. During each trip they could be hauling up to $500,000 dollars or
more worth of cars or trucks. Some days they run up to seven or eight trips a
day away from the plant. Each one must be carefully loaded and tied down to the
trailer. This may sound easy believe me it ain’t. The drivers drive the cars
onto ramps that are barely wider than the wheels, often in reverse, up onto a
deck that is 12 feet above ground. When the car goes up the ramps the attitude
of it makes it so the driver cannot see anything but the sky in front of him.
Then the driver gets out of the vehicle walking on what is left of the deck to
climb down to the ground to load the next unit. Depending on the width of the
car or truck he may have as little as four inches of deck left to walk on with
little or nothing to hold onto.
Tying the cars down lowering the decks to avoid hitting bridges, making the load
legal for height, length, and weight per the D.O.T. laws; and arriving safely,
sometimes in rush hour traffic, through City’s like New York and Chicago; and
delivering the load, again reversing the loading procedure on the same narrow
walk ways all without putting one scratch on your brand new car is a lot more
difficult than I could explain in this letter. These Union carhaul drivers are
highly skilled and I am thankful for that when I think of my wife and kids
sharing the road with them.
The Non-Union carhaulers are nowhere near as well trained. Some of them are
small enough company’s where the Trucks and their Drivers do not have the same
scrutiny from the D.O.T. as what our drivers and trucks do. Some of them are
former Teamsters who could not avoid hitting bridges and or pass some of the
D.O.T. requirements that the Union Drivers are required to pass. Their damage
and accidents rates are high.
However, our fight is not with these drivers. We would like them to join the
Union and help us all maintain a standard and middle class life. The non-Union
drivers make half of what we do. They have no seniority benefits, no pension,
little or no health care benefits, and obviously no grievance procedure to
defend these rights. They are totally at will employees without many of the
things that we as Union Members take for granted. WE NEED TO ORGANIZE THEM.
The Manufacturers charge each new car buyer the same delivery fees whether they
have a low wage driver or a Union driver deliver them. Our tax dollars were
given to them with the promise of preserving good paying jobs. Now those tax
dollars are being used to break us out of the middle class as they go toward low
paid carhaulers. All carhaulers, indeed all Teamsters, need to get involved in
this fight. We can still turn this around and with a concerted effort on our
all parts we will succeed. Call the Local Union and get involved.
There are many other issues being dealt with by the Local Union as always. The
City, 54-A District Court, and the Red Cross contract negotiations slog on with
little positive progress. Negotiations with the new vending and food service
companies that purchased Canteen’s assets are also continuing. We have another
problem with a job at the Lansing Board of Water and Light that has gone to
non-union construction drivers. This job would provide two years worth of work
to our members if we can get it. We have recently ratified contracts at Waverly
and Webberville Schools. The Aunt Millies Drivers are reporting that things
have settled back down to normal after the strike there.
The City of Lansing’s Mayoral and City Council races are drawing to a close. We
need more volunteers to help with our endorsed Candidate Carol Wood’s campaign.
We look forward to her inauguration on January 1, 2010. With Membership
involvement and efforts we will be successful in our efforts. Without You we
are not an effective Union. Get involved, there is nothing more important than
your time.
The Local Union Executive Board began its new three year term with an
unchallenged slate in October. We thank you for allowing us to serve you in
this capacity.
Fraternally,
Mike Parker
Secretary Treasurer/Principal Officer.