Return of ATT to Springfield and Garland

I'll believe it when I hear more from other sources. ATT recently requested that the current 'give back' contract with the IAM be reopened despite the fact the current contract expires this year. The various JHT Holdings divisions only compete with each other - the creation of ITL was completely transparent.

Truck Hauler pay and work rules have degraded seriously under IAM representation while benefits have remained reasonably stable, and improved in many cases. We don't want to be reduced to 'homeless trucker' and/or 'gay trucker' status where the paycheck is not a primary concern.

 

So how are things going with ATT these days? Volume good?

 

Kinda dead and gloomy at the moment. Thinking we'll all go to work for Unimark and conduct a mass suicide like 'Jonestown'!

 

Been with ATT since Jul 05, love the job, just been laid off so much getting hard to hang on. Never had trouble with pay. Hope we do get more work. Beats the hell out of bumping docks. Yea I want to make enough to live and when working I do, but being able to roll out of bed and walk around the corner to take a shower in the morning beats the hell out of sleeping in a truck and walking across truck stop lot to shower after some nasty trucker. Been all over the US and Canada, seen more that most people from WV. Go eers!!!!!!

 

i hear you on that; i've been so many different places i never even knew existed. One thing about Auto-truck is they deliver everywhere. Also, i've probably been to almost every major (and some minor) airport in north america.

My strategy back then was to take as many 2-way booms as possible---back-to-back (not hard to do at cleveland). If i was to go back to ATT i think what i would do is i would try to take the longest possible run on the sheet i could get.

 

With unemployment over nine percent, I'd make some concessions if I could get some security. Still would make more than freighthaulers with better benefits.

 

Granting concessions is a loosing proposition, just ask the IBT. We are under a 'give back' contract with a ridiculous 'no strike' clause at present - the one no one voted for. I say shut'em down with pickets - block the gates and confront the cops who will most assuredly be used to break the strike. Truck Haulers have been sliding downhill ever since Troha created ATT and 'invited' in the IAM as a 'partner in crime'. I would ask for IBT representation in a heartbeat.

 

Well, it's funny because i was there during the first(?) attempt of the teamsters to get into to ATT for representation and the subsequent voting---i think this was around spring 06 or something.

Now i admit i was ignorant back then(and still am) about representation----this was one of the very few unionized jobs i had. And my feelings back then was any union representation was better than nothing and i felt whatever the majority of drivers wanted was what i would have gone along with. i felt back then that the IAM was pretty good---of course not really ever being a teamster i had nothing to compare with. For the record, i did not vote at all during the election.

However, one of the things my steward was saying was that if the teamsters did get in, we would be going to what's known as "hog board dispatch." Can you explain this one to me?

 

LOL!!! The 'steward' (company plant) was referring to 'seniority dispatch', which is invariably more fair. This requires that everyone be present and no phone dispatch allowed. Guess what? ATT switched to 'seniority dispatch' about 2 years back, largely due to the overwhelming element sympathetic to the IBT.

During the union selection election, 'company plants' also broadcast the following misinformation that if the IBT was selected to represent ATT employees:


Most current ATT employees would loose their jobs

The remaining ATT employees would loose their IAM health care plan which would not be replaced

ATT employees would loose their IAM retirement, even if vested and wouldn't be replaced

The IBT had already filed for bankruptcy or was about to

'Teamster Thugs' would be stationed at all ATT facilities and would pay periodic 'visit's to members at their homes to 'insure 'fedelity'

Diamler Trucks - Volvo - Navistar - Ford would immediately 'lock out' ATT from decking and delivering their trucks


The list was endless. The same 'company plants' are now being circulated between ATT, ITL and Unimark in order to achieve JHT goals of removing professional representation and imposing a J.B. Hunt style 'you will think what we tell you to think' mentality.