With the unanimous rejection of the contract proposal here in St. Paul it seems that the Teamsters decided that it was time for a change.  Louis Miller our long time Business Agent, and a member of the National Negotiating Committee has unexpectedly retired effective Sept. 1.

I find it convenient that after the contract was rejected that Louis just all of a sudden retired.  What’s even more troubling is who our new Business Agent is………..

Brad Slawson Sr is the new carhaul BA here in St. Paul.  Yes this is the same Brad Slawson that negotiated the freight contract last year that was unanimously rejected nationwide because of to many concessions.  Brad has a reputation of being a bully, and I think that reputation will follow him and he will try to bully the younger newer carhaulers when the next contract comes out.

In my opinion it seems that the union seems to think that maybe putting someone in as BA that will try and intimidate people to vote the way the union wants will be to their benefit when the next proposal comes along.  It will be up to the senior drivers here to help the newer drivers to understand what is really going on.

Once again the union leadership shows us what their real intentions are…….I can already see the writing on the walls.

CONTINUED IN FORUM YOU MUST RE REGISTER FOR FORUM

I just saw the posting on the union website “Carhaul Members Voice Strong Support for Tentative Agreement”, and Loius Miller who is our BA and the local Vice President at Local 120 saying, “About 75 carhaulers attended meetings July 8 and 9 at Local 120 in St. Paul, Minnesota.”

“The members had lots of questions and concerns, but I think that after hearing the answers, they were very positive,”

I don’t know what meeting Louis was at but I can tell that things at these meetings were not very positive, in fact it was a total joke the way he is trying to sell this contract using the excuse that times are hard and this is the best we can do. He even tried to sell to us that this is the biggest raise that has been negotiated in a long time, around $2.70 over the three year term…..the catch……you won’t see it in your pocket, it all goes to the health and welfare fund. Let me just say the health and welfare fund doesn’t pay my bills or put gas in my car or food on the table, so if this is a raise then I’m Santa Claus.

The union committe at my terminal is 100% against this contract, they are encouraging everyone to vote no and send the union back to the bargaining table. In no way shape or form were things positive after the meetings as the union wants you to beleive.

If the negotiating committee seems to think this is the best they can get us and they need to apologise for their lack of understanding of our needs then maybe they should all step aside and let someone else negotiate a new contract instead of bending over backward to try and kiss the carriers rear ends.

All the changes that have been proposed completely gut our contract and take away rights that prior brothers and sisters fought hard to get. The negotiating committee wants us to agree to a two tier pay system, they obviously don’t remember 1985 when this was a main factor in the strike back then. They also want to redo Article 22, why??? So the carriers can take our hard earned freight, throw it on rail for a year, and then get it back at cut rate which will reduce our wages. And Article 48???? The way Loius described this to us is that basically the company can now force you to go out and be gone all the time…..AWAY FROM YOUR FAMILY AND LOVED ONES. The description was that we could show up for work on Monday and run a turnable load, and do the same on Tuesday, then say Wednesday you go to Kansas City, well for the 5 tours that they are trying to sell Wednesday would be considered your first tour, so your fifth tour, when you need to be back home, you are either in a hotel waiting for a reset without pay, or you just do whatever the company says…..but he says he’ll fight for us if they abuse it….YEAH RIGHT, I’ve heard that before and taken it up the tail pipe because they don’t want to fight the good fight. There is other language that is disturbing, and yes it WILL ultimately cost us jobs if this goes through.

We here in the Twin Cities of Minnesota can see right through all this junk and the overwhelming majority are against this. We need to send a message and get the committee back to the bargaining table. I don’t know about you but I’m sick and tired of giving back, lately it’s been give, give, give and we get nothing in return, and now they want us to give more. I just can’t do it, for the sake of my family and all my union brothers and sisters I WILL VOTE NO!!!!!!