Snackbar is chillin'....at Shaffer

Have you seen how many trucking companies have gone under? Including big Teamster union LTL companies like Roadway/Yellow. Did the Teamsters help when the thousands of Yellow/Roadway drivers suddenly lost their jobs? The economy has cooled off from the post Covid rush, that's why pay is stagnating, not because of greedy corporations. During the pandemic, pay shot up faster than I have ever seen it. And right now, no major trucking company is making record profits, union or not. And only 1099 and small mom-n-pop companies don't usually offer benefits primarily because of how much it costs(which is a result of Obamacare requirements causing premiums to skyrocket, not corporate greed). The company I work for had a premium increase for their health benefits this time, but instead of passing that increase on to the employees, they absorbed the cost of the increase. And every company I checked out when I was preparing to leave SPD offered health insurance In my early days of being an O/O, I was allowed to see just how little per mile the average trucking company actually profits. After all expenses (including labor costs), most non-LTL trucking corporations make less than $0.10/mi profit.

The reason I brought up UPS is that you said they don't post here, which is correct. But, it was done to show how the Teamsters were taking care of their union membership, which they're not. I bet if you asked the average LTL T-force(UPS) driver, they're understandably nervous about their jobs because they see their hubs being closed and fellow drivers terminated...and the Teamsters, that you brought up, aren't protecting their members. And if they're not taking care of the big company's members, you can darn sure bet they're not taking care of the smaller company's membership.

The reason I posted part of that story about TFI (which owns T-force aka UPS) expanding with non-union acquisitions is because it clearly shows how damaging unions are to corporations and their profits. Profits are how companies grow and become stronger, without profits, pay stagnates, and when profits shrink and the freight market goes into a long period of recession, without those record profits during the busy times, companies don't have the adequate resources to stay in business and they close their doors. You act like these corporations are taking their profits and blowing it on unnecessary b.s. Most corporations bank their record profit money, just like we truckers should do, and use the profits above a certain level to expand, then when the market tanks, they still have resources to survive until the next upswing in business.

 

Agreed. Instead of working for a union, I have always tried to make myself a more valuable employee by giving the company I work for a good day's work for a good day's pay and learning to be flexible and also learning to adjust my skills so that I had options. My 1st job out of school was a temp job at a tuxedo plant. I chose to learn how to do everyone elses job so I could be a valuable addition to the company. They hired me full time, and since I learned how to do any job in the place, I was able to keep working without any layoff, and during the busy season, I could go help in any department in the company. At 21 yrs old, I was in a position to even fill in for the plant managers when they were at a new location working with the construction contractors getting a new plant built. None of the other department leaders would step up and do it, but I took it on as my duty. Even the owner of the company had no issues with this kid running his multi-million dollar facility in their absence. Consequently, when the economy dropped, I was concerned that, since I was low on the seniority totem pole, that I would be layed off before the others. The owner assured me, because I was so adaptable, that I would be one of the last to ever be layed off. It wasn't because I had a union to protect my job, it was because of my work ethic I had a job. I have carried that same work ethic to every job I have taken, and never once depended on anyone else to fight for me. And I have never had a problem finding work.