Memories From The '97' Strike........

[menotyou]

If they did, I would be very skeptical of them and wonder what their ulterior motives are.

Something like this, ""?

 

[badpal]

We had no one cross in 97 but a few whining about paying the bills. You would have thought 2 weeks without pay was the end of the world. save much?

Yeah thats a thing i remember. The shocking part was some guys had no idea of thier financial situation. Just let thier wives run it totally.

 

[Catatonic]

Something like this, ""?

Very skeptical since I do have a few mirrors in my house.

 

[over9five]

I remember the Strike Force coming to help out at the CHEMA picket line. I don't know where they get them, but if you look up "Union thugs", you will see their picture.
We had gypsies pulling in and out of CHEMA thru our lines, and we'd make it hard for them, but THESE guys would hop right up on their tractors and cut brake lines.
One of them started tossing nails in the driveway when the police weren't looking. Several sups with flats that day.
One idiot sup in his personal truck tries pulling a dolly thru the line. He drops his plow like he's going to plow thru. Big mistake. The cops got him thru, but only after the Strike Team did some damage.

 

[Covemastah]

Boston cops brought us pizza during their details and told us to Behave !!

 

[OVERBOARD]

The Strike was a gold mine for the Cops, all those details. I know the bluiding im at now had a cop on detail 24 hrs. Ups must of paid a good chuck of change for all those cops.

 

[OptimusPrime]

Having read that striking was possible from this site got me thinking. Having grown up in a Union household, I was told at a young age to NEVER cross a picket line. IIRC, was some meat cutters that went on strike from a local grocery store. Per my fathers request, my mother no longer shopped there. How would you handle or have handled delivering to a business on strike? My gut says I should never cross a picket line to deliver something, but I'm assuming management would never honor that.

 

[Anonymous 10]

Having read that striking was possible from this site got me thinking. Having grown up in a Union household, I was told at a young age to NEVER cross a picket line. IIRC, was some meat cutters that went on strike from a local grocery store. Per my fathers request, my mother no longer shopped there. How would you handle or have handled delivering to a business on strike? My gut says I should never cross a picket line to deliver something, but I'm assuming management would never honor that.

It's covered in the contract. No driver will be forced to cross any picket line.

 

[OVERBOARD]

Having read that striking was possible from this site got me thinking. Having grown up in a Union household, I was told at a young age to NEVER cross a picket line. IIRC, was some meat cutters that went on strike from a local grocery store. Per my fathers request, my mother no longer shopped there. How would you handle or have handled delivering to a business on strike? My gut says I should never cross a picket line to deliver something, but I'm assuming management would never honor that.

Where have you been. Being in a union means we dont cross any pickets lines and mangement knows this. You just sheet the pkgs and tell your sup you cant del there. In the northeast there is at least one strike a year, In my building they know not to load the pkgs on the car, the pkgs are left in the building for someone to pick up or the strike is over. BTW I do suspect management might del the pkgs, but have no proof of this.

 

[bigblu 2 you]

here is what i remember from the 97 strike.horseshoes,free food,lot's of local support,and some real-life lessons that only one on the inside can learn.i learned a lot about co-workers,management and people in general.my heart will always be on the side of labor but my mind will always weigh out a positive decision.

 

[bumped]

Having read that striking was possible from this site got me thinking. Having grown up in a Union household, I was told at a young age to NEVER cross a picket line. IIRC, was some meat cutters that went on strike from a local grocery store. Per my fathers request, my mother no longer shopped there. How would you handle or have handled delivering to a business on strike? My gut says I should never cross a picket line to deliver something, but I'm assuming management would never honor that.

non delivery....big arrow down.....strike

 

[rod]

Boston cops brought us pizza during their details and told us to Behave !!

Our local police are Teamster members so that might have had something to do with why the few feeders we did have arrive during the strike were stopped and checked over to make sure the driver was quailfied and logs were up to date. I don't even know if the local cops knew what to look for but they did a good job of acting official anyway. For the most part our inside spy (every center has one ) told us that they were empty anyway and it was just a show to try to make us believe that stuff was still going through.

 

[brownIEman]

Our local police are Teamster members so that might have had something to do with why the few feeders we did have arrive during the strike were stopped and checked over to make sure the driver was quailfied and logs were up to date. I don't even know if the local cops knew what to look for but they did a good job of acting official anyway. For the most part our inside spy (every center has one ) told us that they were empty anyway and it was just a show to try to make us believe that stuff was still going through.

The strikers in my area said the same thing, that management was moving empty package cars and feeders around to make it look like volume was being moved. Having been one of the people loading those feeders and package cars, I can attest non of that nonsense took place at least where I was. I have a hard time buying that it happened anywhere. The same greedy management that was trying to steal the pension and keep cheap part time labor the norm was spending massive amounts of money to move vehicles with no revenue in them just to thumb their noses at picket walkers? Silly.

 

[Coldworld]

Well, for starters almost 4 millon packages per day are now moving via FedEx Ground.

Those packages are moving with non-union employees. What is that worth to you?

How many more Teamsters would exist if we didn't lose those packages? What would that do to pensions, strength, etc.....

UPS had to know that fedex was very interested into getting into the ground market...was that ever discussed along with the fact that a strike could happen and give FedEx an in ....for a company that says it plaNs for things years down the road...seems like a major fail

 

[BrownArmy]

LOL...

I'm in the Boston area. When Verizon was recently striking, I sheeted about 300+ packages as 'Non-Delivery/Strike' (or whatever the option in the DIAD is....probably 110 NDA undelivered).

Got a vicious talking-to by my immediate sup-of-the-quarter, as well as my center manager, and later, the DM.

I walked over the sup.

With the center manager, I patiently explained that I simply wouldn't cross a picket line (didn't go over well, but I stood my ground).

With the DM, I went 'diagonal' (thanks Dracula), and got into a lengthy conversation about non-delivery options in the DIAD, as in, 'I simply could not deliver these 300+ packages since the POLICE were waving me away from the only entrance to the (company on strike's) delivery point, and why is there a non-delivery/Strike option in the DIAD anyway?", etc.

I continued parrying with inane questions: DM dismissed me.

I only have 5 years in with the company...I simply can't imagine what a strike now would look like.

I'd just get another job, I'm not super-attached to this one.

 

[TechGrrl]

I don't think those words sit well with anyone....

But, I understand that those words had to be used due to labor relations laws.....

You are correct, sir. That phrase is actually part of the labor law we work under, and has a very specific meaning under that law. Unfortunate that so many took it personally.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

It is my understanding that UPS was pretending to move around volume as more of a publicity/ media spin, to make the company appear "moving forward" despite the work action. It wasn't to thumb-nose strikers.

 

[soberups]

The strikers in my area said the same thing, that management was moving empty package cars and feeders around to make it look like volume was being moved. Having been one of the people loading those feeders and package cars, I can attest non of that nonsense took place at least where I was. I have a hard time buying that it happened anywhere. The same greedy management that was trying to steal the pension and keep cheap part time labor the norm was spending massive amounts of money to move vehicles with no revenue in them just to thumb their noses at picket walkers? Silly.

You guys do stupid sh%t like that every single day.

If Corporate sent out a memo telling every management person to walk around in a chicken suit and sing "kumbayah" for the morning PCM...you guys would do it.

 

[soberups]

I mainly remember walking a picket line in 100 degree heat.

Our Business Agent got some of us temporary jobs at local beverage distributors, loading beer and pop into trucks. I also worked for a few days for a moving company.

I took a 6-month AA sobriety coin while on strike. It was a tough time; I had a family to support, I was young, and trying to stay clean and sober during a very stressful time. Hard to believe it was 15 years ago!

 

[brownIEman]

You guys do stupid sh%t like that every single day.

If Corporate sent out a memo telling every management person to walk around in a chicken suit and sing "kumbayah" for the morning PCM...you guys would do it.

no. We do not do stupid sh%t like moving empty trailers around just to make a point every day. If we did stupid sh%t like THAT every single day, we would not be making any money.

Not saying we don't do stupid sh%t every day, but not like that. By the way, if we are going to generalize, you guys do stupid sh%t every single day as well. Just saying.

The real lesson here is that we probably should neither of us over generalize.