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BNA Daily Labor Report: Deal Covering 9,500 Carhaul Members Rejected

The Teamsters for a Democratic Union, which worked to defeat the proposed agreement, said it was rejected because it contained a “massive list of concessions, which would have gutted decades of hard-won contract protections.”

According to TDU Organizer Ken Paff, the biggest single objection by members to the proposed contract was the elimination of language that called for equalization of loads, which spread work among drivers from different locations. With the elimination of this provision, he said, locals will be played against one another for work.

According to a TDU flyer, the agreement would have required that when work is slow, drivers could be relocated to any other terminal with no option to take a layoff instead. If the driver were to decline, he would be out of work but not laid off.

Another provision would allow locals to negotiate lower mileage rates than provided in the contract, Paff said, allowing one local to negotiate a lower rate to gain work at one terminal at the expense of the other local

Another concession would have required drivers to be on five “tours” before returning home, Paff said. Proposed language would have provided that when an employee is dispatched from his home terminal he may be required to pull trips away from his home terminal but will be dispatched so he returns to his home terminal no later than the completion of a fifth tour. Paff said a driver who picked up a load in Michigan and took it to Missouri could then be routed to Dallas before going back to Missouri and then to Michigan, putting that driver on the road for at least a week.

By Michelle Amber

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Contract, TDU. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.