a union dilema

One side effect of the downsizing on my building is that we lost a center. We had 4 centers—each covering a different city or area, and to cut management costs, they decided to merge them into 3 centers. For the union, this means we need to have new steward elections.

I’ve only been driving for 4½ years, but I’m fairly active in the union. I ran last time we had steward elections and got my ass kicked. Winning wasn’t my objective though. I just wanted to put myself out there as a union activist.

This time around, the nomination sheets haven’t even been posted and I’m being courted by three drivers.

The first one to ask for my support is someone who is critical of the union bureaucracy and was steward before I started working there, so I don’t know first hand how he works, but from rumors, he has a good record. I thought he would be the person I supported, but in consequent conversations, he has been dismissive of my arguments around rank and file power to take on both the union and company. He keeps talking about how no one got fired when he was steward and his record filing grievances. Those things are important, but what I’ve tried to impress on him and my other co-workers is that in this economic crisis, the company will be coming down hard on us, and we need to shove back whether or not we have official approval from the Local leadership. We need to look beyond just the grievance procedure.

The other two have been more open to the idea that this is a new period requiring new tactics from us. Eventually, the company will want to re-open the contract, and when that happens, we can’t rely on the International to fight with the tenacity we need to resist concessions. We need to be ready to take action.

The next driver who asked for my support actually requested I be his alternate steward. We would run as a slate. Since I don’t feel confident to run for steward myself (the company would know I am inexperienced and walk all over me), learning the ropes as an alternate makes sense. At first though, I didn’t want to support this driver because he doesn’t come to work all that often. He was the alternate before, and he was gone on injury a lot. He also was on the safety committee which allowed him to sit in the office while the rest of us broke our backs delivering packages. The union has set a rule saying you have to be steward to be on safety committee. Could it be he just wants to be steward to remain on safety committee?

But when he was around, he was actually the steward I wanted to talk to. He was more responsive than the head steward and even though he didn’t actually file the grievances (because the head steward wanted to control them), he would confront management for me much more readily. And, I like some of the ideas he has of using the morning meetings to announce union stuff. He also agrees with me that we don’t have to wait for our business agent to call a driver meeting.

Plus, he was flattering when he asked me to run with him. He likes what I bring to the table, knows I go to the meetings and am active in the union, I think outside the box and have a lot to offer. Plus, I’m a woman. I bring a different dynamic and perspective that will be important for the members. These are all things he said. Which makes me believe he is sincere. So I agreed.

But that was when I thought there were only two people in the running. A third driver’s hat is in the ring. He was the steward from the other center we merged with. I originally was told he was not going to run again because he was going to start working with the International. Apparently, that was just rumor. He has a good track record and is respected by his drivers. He also has a broader vision of the labor movement. Not only does he agree that we need a driver meeting and that we don’t need to wait for the BA to call it, he knows we need to ask the drivers about what their issues are and come up with a good agenda so that we actually accomplish something at the meeting. He’s been active in organizing drives with the Local. The philosophy he espoused to me is that he can’t be steward by himself. He needs a team of people, like me, who will be active and support him. My support would be welcome because he knows he wouldn’t have to pull teeth to get me to meetings and such. He, too, seems sincere.

What the hell do I do?

Lay offs

Last Saturday, I ran into a man from our Business Development (BD) department. BD is responsible for finding and keeping new customers. They have created “project lead” to encourage drivers to talk to customers who currently ship with the competition about switching to Big Brown. If we submit info from a company that starts to ship with us, we get a monetary bonus—the more they ship, the more we get for 3 months.

After BD guy and I exchanged pleasantries, he said, “So drivers are being laid off. Do you think you all will be more motivated to find new sales leads and grow the business?”

“No.”

He looked surprised and disappointed. “Why not? Why wouldn’t drivers want to secure their jobs by finding new business?”

“One, because there aren’t a lot of new opportunities cropping up. And two, because it won’t make a difference. Drivers are still over dispatched. We think the best way to prevent more layoffs is by stopping the over dispatching, and putting more trucks on the road. I mean, last Wednesday I got a call from my sup asking if I wanted the day off. I said no, and later that afternoon I was asked if I wanted to help someone who couldn’t finish their route. Why send drivers home when others have so much work they can’t even finish?”

“Well,” he said in an apologetic tone, “It’s all about the numbers. The company wants us to run numbers that will help us stay profitable. We have to answer to the investors.”

He rattled off that answer thinking I would see the common sense in it. Instead, I challenged him. “Why are you more worried about investors than the workers? We’re the ones who produce the profit in the first place.”

He nodded in an unsettled manner. Finally, he decided a change of topic was in order, he reached for the flyer I had been handing out to people, “So what’s this event your advertising? Who is Howard Zinn?”

Oh, the logic of Wall Street. When he says “stay profitable” he means fewer trucks equals less gas and maintenance, and fewer drivers means less benefits to pay. It’s cheaper to pay overtime. So some drivers must be overworked, so that others can be laid off.

There are many backwards aspects about Capitalism, the most glaring being the prioritization of profits above all else. The current crisis has exposed this fact in no uncertain terms.

But here’s the twisted thing, Big Brown has stayed profitable so far. In 2008, revenue was up 3.6%, and they raked in $829 million in the 4th quarter alone. To be fair, volume has fallen dramatically, so profits have declined causing stock prices to decrease also. So share holders want to know what the company is doing to minimize profit loss. What they are doing is violating the contract by eliminating full time jobs (forcing people into part time work only), and laying off drivers. This makes sound business sense, but is a disaster for the families affected.

This brings me to the question of what do I work for? Of course I work because otherwise I would be starving and homeless (Capitalism is a system that withholds everything unless you pay money for it, otherwise no profit could be made). But I do not work for me and my family. If that were the case, I would deliver at least 100 fewer packages a day and never work a minute over 8 hours, no, make that 7 hours, a day. Nor do I work for you. The service I provide is secondary to the main goal. I work so other people can get rich—the bosses, the shareholders, they all benefit from paying me less money than my labor produces. That is why I work, that is why you work, that is why we get laid off even when there is plenty of work that could be done. If our labor isn’t making a profit, what is our labor good for?

Unfortunately, the Union also accepts this logic. At the threat of layoffs, they sent around a handout for advice. They didn’t call us all into a meeting to address the problem and come up with a solution. They wrote up a flyer. Advice point number one? Accept a layoff. Two? Get on the 9.5 grievance. The 9.5 grievance still allows them to work us past 9.5 hours two days a week, so technically they could force 12.5 hours of overtime on a driver in a week without paying penalties. The last point? We have seniority over inside jobs, so we can take one of those. I wonder what the union’s advice was for the loaders.

Of course, BD guy’s advice is to find more sales leads, but that just sounds like more work for me when I already have more than I can handle.

My solution? Well, short of the advice given by Marx in the Communist Manifesto, there are still actions we could take to alleviate some of the impact today. Work-to-rule tactics can be tried. Solidarity rallies can be held with other unions to embarrass and pressure the employers. Anything that involves rank and file militancy to shift the balance of power from the bosses to the workers. If you have any concrete ideas, I’d love to hear them.

http://makeupsdeliver.org/news.php?extend.205

http://socialistworker.org/2009/02/16/return-of-marx

It's 30 seconds of your life, get over it

So, having failed at getting management to remove the residential stops from my truck, I’m forced to be in people’s neighborhoods from about 5 to 7 in the evening. This unfortunate timing means I am a giant obstacle for people getting home. Nothing is more annoying than almost being at your doorstep after work and not quite being able to reach it, I admit. But I still have to do my job.

When I can, I always leave space for cars to get by, and the incident I’m writing about is no exception. But the street was so narrow that only a compact car could squeeze through. So when cranky guy in a large pick-up pulled up, he was not happy. As I opened my bulk-head door to grab the package, he honked.

Lesson one: Honking is ok, there are actually times I don’t notice you and there may be a way to alleviate your anxiety by moving. However, one short beep will do it, and if I don’t move after that, you’re out of luck. Any subsequent honking will be ignored, and serve only the purpose of pissing everyone else off as you blow off steam.

This particular honk I ignored because in order to move out of his way, I would have had to drive halfway down the block which was too far from my delivery point.

As I exited my vehicle, he exited his.

“You can’t do that. You can’t block the street.”

“I didn’t, Sir, there’s space there for cars to get by.”

“There sure isn’t.” He pulled out his cell phone and started taking pictures. By this time, I had already placed the package on the customer’s porch and was halfway back to my truck.

“Taking pictures of the space I left?”

“I’m getting proof. I have your license plate number, too, and I will talk to your supervisor.”

“Go right ahead sir,” I told him as I stepped in.

“Oh, I will.”

The entire stop lasted maybe—maybe—a minute, but probably, more like 45 seconds.

Lesson 2: I didn’t park here just to piss you off, in fact, I never knew you existed.

If that 45 seconds of inconvenience is worth another 15 minutes of listening to recordings and being on hold with the customer service department only find out the company has no way for him to download his photos, nor does he get to speak directly with my supervisor, who am I to judge. Just about all he can do with those photos now is post them on his blog so that someone out there knows just what kind of injustice he has to put up with in the world.

His friends will rally around him and express indignation and outrage on his behalf, and I have another silly story about a petty motorist who has no appreciation for the job I do. So clearly, the benefits are mutual and seemingly endless, but this is not why I blocked the road. If I never double parked, I would never finish my day. It’s 30 seconds, get over it.

Lesson 3: You don’t fool me.

This wronged man was probably bluffing. He’ll realize it’s not worth his time to actually complain. I’ve seen it before. I once had a guy act like he was calling Big Brown right then and there to complain. After five seconds on the phone he started yelling into his phone, “Your driver is blocking the street and says she’ll stay there as long as she wants!”

Here, even though I knew he couldn’t be talking with a live person so quickly unless he actually had my supervisor’s cell phone on speed dial, I had to correct him, “No sir, I said I would be here as long as it takes, not as long as I want.” Then he gave up the pretext of complaining to the company to scream at me some more.

The point is, I know 99% of people who threaten to call, won’t

Lesson 4: You don’t scare me.

The following is what happens when someone calls in a complaint:
i) Angry person talks to a customer service rep who pretends to care.
ii) Customer service rep types out concern on computer, and sends it to appropriate management team
iii) Management team prints out concern and either calls me into the office and says, “Did this happen?” and I say, “I don’t recall.” And they say, “Well we just wanted to bring it to your attention.” And I say, “Ok.” Or, they simply place the concern on my clip, I read it, and then throw it out.

So, be my guest and call.