Teamsters

Union companies are horrible. More backstabbing from your "teamster brothers" than you can imagine.
The Teamsters pension fund is bankrupt due to corruption and pensions and benefits are being cut. More information about this on Central States Pension Fund website.
You can plan for the future much better with a 401K or something similar.
All this is not just something I "heard at a truckstop", I experienced it and bailed out to work for real trucking companies instead of dealing with dispatchers and terminal managers that are too busy running an adult daycare center to focus on running a trucking company.

 

I have never joined the union but have several friends who have union driving jobs. Good wages and benefits including a pension, you are more like a contract driver, so pay raises and promotions are based on seniority and not productivity. I know union guys who work just as hard as I do, only difference is they don’t have to, lol.

 

Teamsters are their own worst enemy

 

I was a full member, not a contract driver. I just couldn't deal with the daily soap opera drama. I could see the writing on the wall with the pension fund, so didn't want to waste my time there and moved on.

 

Yup, Im a not a drama guy either. I mainly never pursued the union side because there are many other non union places that give promotions and pay raises to the people who earn them with there hard work and dedication! And I agree, the 401k is probably a lot safer!

 

As far as corruption and incompetent employees you will find none better. There are different parts of the teamsters. Mine is not bad. But it is in who you know. Aholes, brothers and relatives. Then there are top hands that get their work that way.

 

All my experience too. Hooked up with the Teamsters twice in my career, Once not my choice. Completely defied everything I learned about trucking. The carrier was crippled and couldn't function. I was amazed that anything got done at all. Dock hands even stole a Harley in the crate and a load of computers. Never got caught while I was there and never saw anything in paper.

Chase the wage if you want as long as you get the work but any thoughts of a future should be zero.

Buster Brown exempt from this opinion , future possible there assuming your about 22. Really want to be a union hand? Longshoremen! Very strong but under threat from automation. Get in and head for yard mules and RTG's. Can't automate those yet. Reefer mechanic another good one. As a pup take every hour offered to build seniority. You have to get into the upper 50% in your halls roster to get protection from economic slow downs. ( never completely safe though )

Ask your wife about Wisconsin and the teachers union..........

JME

 

If you want to drive union, as per above, drive UPS ( buster brown ) and get on night line haul. Out of sight, out of mind, out of drama. Other then that, I concur with all the above negativity about the 'union' NAMELY teamsters. I too was a teamster twice. 1st time in the 90's, then 20 years later. Separate companies. Once as a broker, once as a driver. Lessons learned. Never again. Canada, or US, doesn't matter. The teamsters are so totally messed up, it's pathetic. Like Chinatown says, the daily soap operas in ALL their shops just sucks the morale AND the $$ out of you. Pension ? Benefits ? bbbzzzzttttt ! Wrong. Maybe in the 60's and 70's. The days of the union are done. Any union. Unions were put in place to help the workers. That was good !! Then there was OHSA, then there was Fed, State, Prov, and Local regulations governing worker rights and safety, so the unions turned to corruption to keep their office folks in Cadillac's. JMHO - But I lived it - twice.

 

Better Benefits, Overtime, Pension, Higher pay, Protection from the company turning on you, more paid holidays, etc. I'm not saying it can't be abused by SOME but that's not everybody.