Hannaford Transportation Union Vote

There is the letter of the law and then there is the spirit of the law. Guidance documents tend to walk inbetween them, and have no force of law.

If one of those drivers got in an accident, and I was representing the other party, I would be arguing that these phone calls are a planned, required work activity. As such, it would invalidate the rest break, making the driver/company liable. The argument is in strict accordance to the regulations and contrary to fmcsa guidelines, which means the judge will probably let me put it in front of the jury.

How many juries do you think will side with "phone calls in the middle of the night are acceptable business practices"?

 

What is the Base Salary for a Hannaford truck driver?

 

Considering how commonplace being on call is in both blue and white collar roles, I would say that phone calls in the middle of the night are not only acceptable but are to be expected in many job fields.

 

Expected, yes. Enjoyed? Nope. In this particular case, not particularly legal. Not illegal either. It's just a solid "in" for plaintiffs to bring action.

 

How is that an "in" for plaintiffs to bring action if it's not illegal?

 

If the drivers have "had enough" then why don't they find a better job. If enough drivers leave the company will suffer and possibly change. Either way if I wasn't happy with my job I'd be looking for a better one I wouldn't be trying to change a company to what I wanted it to be. If the employees are successful at getting a union in do you really think things between management and driving will be better, I think management will be looking for retaliation. Just me thinking out loud I don't have a dog in this fight.

 

Having worked at a place that was non-union and went to being unionized because of the working conditions; being in a union was better. The job was still absolutely terrible but at least there was some level of protection against incredibly illegal ####. Lots of illegal #### still went on, but it got better.

Also, upper management and corporate hate unions. Middle management don't really care in my experience, they just have to do a little more paperwork to get someone fired. You can also still be fired at a union job for being a ####up.

Also, we all know trash level companies that bring in foreigners and 21 year old kids left and right and scam them. Companies that treat people like #### will always have more cannon fodder. This notion of voting with your feet is absurd. Truth is, the only way to get ahead in the trucking world at this point is to get lucky or be well connected. I had both and got an in to the LTL world making the big bucks. If I didn't know someone there and skate through a handful of bad situations years ago unscathed I would never be here. Even to that end, LTL sucks the life out of you just like every form of trucking. It just compensates you decently for signing your life away. I have no friends, family, kids, pets, hobbies, or romantic interests. I lay in bed trying to sleep waiting on a call from a half dozen people to jump up and drive into work. 6 days a week. 70 hours a week. Sometimes more hours and 7 days a week. "If you have hours, you run driver." Only now I drive an hour into the yard and an hour back instead of the 5 seconds to climb into the sleeper. Plus all the bills of domestic life and not being a homeless trucker. But that six figures a year are golden handcuffs. I wish I weren't so greedy.

Mr. Hughes, when will you have enough money?

"I just need a little bit more."

 

Imagine an incident where the car is 90% at fault and the truck is 10% at fault. In the resulting lawsuit, the car's lawyers argue that fatigue was a contributory factor because of the erratic work schedule "required the driver to interrupt their rest period". It may not be a good argument, but it is sufficient to get the lawsuit past summary judgement and into discovery.