CALLING CON-WAY FREIGHT DRIVERS: LLA {Con-Way Freight} Teamster Vote 9/12/14

It is also important to realize where the bulk of GE's profits really came from. We think of GE and aircraft engines and appliances. But during Welch's tenure GE became a huge credit and credit card company just as the government lifted the usury laws. Big banks and credit card companies lured poor credit borrowers into putting seconds on their homes, refinancing their credit card debt with tantalizing 'come on' rates all buttressed with monstrous penalties for missing a single payment.

Rates jumped from 9% to 33% on the entire balance of revolving loans (credit cards, seconds) in many cases, making it nearly impossible for folks--good folks--to keep up.

Miss a payment, lose your home--eventually.

Banking fees were a national shame and had to be legislated away and was only partly done. Your bank could hit you with a $30 NSF fee, day-after-day-after-day and mail you the notice so that you were already $100 or more bucks in before you knew what happened. It was legal thievery. It might be a $3 overdraft that you fixed the next day, but now it was negative $27 because of the $30 fee and spiraled and snowballed from there.

Banks were allowed to deduct your biggest item first, hoping to trigger an NSF and each item after that triggered a new $30 fee. One $3 item could cascade into huge fees literally over night.

And that wasn't enough to staunch their greed. They packaged loans into bulk instruments, sold those to towns, pensions and charities and it all came tumbling down in the Great Recession that brought us to the brink of a full-scale economic winter.

Isn't knee jerk deregulation wonderful??

 

gee, you arent alluding to the surface transportation act, are you? why that saved us all from ourselves, look at the huge savings all these poor company owners were able to reap? those poor gaineys, werners, mourons, sure have rewarded us for all that help, huh?

 

And here I thought the great recession started when subprime borrowers began defaulting on said loans -- loans banks never would have made if not for Government anti-discrimination quotas.

Isn't short-sighted feel-good regulation wonderful?

 

The only way that happens is if the economy tanks. If that happens, how will the union protect me? I was laid off from my previous union job. I asked the union hall for help with a new job, and was basically told sorry.

Pay is within a few cents. What is UPSF paying for health care? The pension is addressed below.

The main factor for raising health care is the health care act that was backed by the unions. A lot of my co workers think the current plan is bad because they're used to free health care and low deductibles. Those days are gone. I've talked to other union and non union drivers, and it sounds like we have comparable plans.

I didn't work for Con-Way when they offered the pension. I understand why guys are upset, but the fact is legacy cost of a pension will kill a company. Why do you think UPS paid a lump sum in the billions to get out of the pension business? I can make a list a mile long of union workers that had guaranteed pensions that have nothing now. How can the union guarantee a pension that is multpile millions of dollars in debt? A pension is not a guaranteed retirement plan anymore, so I don't see how that's a better benefit.

Again, how can the union guarantee my pension? Safety was mentioned as a union benefit. I'd rather have new safer trucks that will pass a DOT inspection and not cost me time and money over a pension that won't be there when I retire.

A local union company told the workers they would no longer get health care. The workers went on strike. That was over a year ago, and nothing has been settled. Have those drivers on strike got more? A friend of mine works there, and I tried to get him to join Con-Way, but he said he wanted to stick it out. He has since received foreclosure notices..... Is he getting more?
What happens if the union and Con-Way can't agree? Do we strike? How long will we strike? Does the union pay my bills while on strike?

I'll ask agian, how will the union make my work place better?

 

Whip, you make some great points. Gotta hand it to you.

Not that I agree, but your points are well-presented points. Both sides are capable of over-reach and mis-representation, raising false, unreasonable expectations that can only come crashing down around us. We need a better human condition; it's in too short supply on both sides.

I'm reading a coffee table history of Con-way right now. (Author, Jeffrey Rodengen and forward by Raymond O'Brien, former chairman of the board.) There is, I think, a between the lines subtext in all the twists and turns that whispers a secret, but obvious intention, "How we pulled a non-union rabbit out of the hat by really, really, really trying."

And guess what? They're back because some drivers think it's needed. To protect their jobs.

 

I've had multiple conversations with union guys. I've asked the same questions to them. I'm not against the union, but I don't see any reason to change something unless it's going to fix a problem. I've asked how is the union better, and so far, nobody has been able to answer. Is Con-Way perfect? No, but what company is?

 

ill say it again, the pension and benefits. they arent too costly, they never had problems paying them before.

 

Too may people on here that have no idea what the are talking about. Teamsters guaranteeing a pension. There is no such animal. If you want to know the facts concerning such issues Google the term vested pensions and who holds the guarantee. Then you will be some what qualified to participated in that discussion.