Quick route bid question.

New Englander

Well-Known Member
How often can you be forced off of your bid to cover something else by management and what is our recourse via grievance when they exceed that?

Is there any penalty to them?
 
I jut had this discussion with my home package car driver today. If you are a senior driver who won the bid on your route and they pull you off to cover another route because they don`t want to train the junior cover driver you should grieve it each and every time. Mgmt is being lazy,stand your ground.
 

New Englander

Well-Known Member
I jut had this discussion with my home package car driver today. If you are a senior driver who won the bid on your route and they pull you off to cover another route because they don`t want to train the junior cover driver you should grieve it each and every time. Mgmt is being lazy,stand your ground.

I spent my lunch reading my union book but I can't find where it is in the book and what to grieve it under and for what penalty to them.

I do have a voice mail left to my BA but he can be notoriously slow in responding sometime and our Steward honestly needs to be replaced.
 
I spent my lunch reading my union book but I can't find where it is in the book and what to grieve it under and for what penalty to them.

I do have a voice mail left to my BA but he can be notoriously slow in responding sometime and our Steward honestly needs to be replaced.

Maybe you should PM 705Red. I know we`re under different locals but he`s in package so he`s probably more up to date. I remember from time to time when I finally got my own route they would try and get me to come off it to swing for some junior swing driver who couldn`t cut the mustard. I would basically tell them no. I would offer to help the guy set up the truck and sit down with them and a map to point out the route but thats as far as it went. Of course this was 16 years ago.
 

outta hours

Well-Known Member
You can NEVER be forced off of your bid area to cover another. If you agree to do it they will let you. The key is not to agree to do it. You are not a cover driver,TCD,or unassigned driver are you? If your answer is no then they cannot make you leave your bid route. If you answered yes then they can move you when they want to. However your seniority will be considered when making work assignments.

In the Southern Region Supplement it is under article 48 Seniority sec. 6. Now if it's a route you just bid on, like Cachsux said that's a different story. Even then the bid sheet should have had a start date for the new route to become effective. Go by that date. If they can't train you who cares go out cold on it and teach yourself.

You can use another steward from another center in your bldg. if yours is not being a good advocate for you.
 
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gded

Well-Known Member
You must obtain a union book and read it thick and through. Our local states you only bid on start times but in the supplement part of the contract it states routes go by area preference in seniorioty order.If u get pulled from your route go to another for the day and file a grievence ASAP
 

MonavieLeaker

Bringin Teh_Lulz
You must obtain a union book and read it thick and through. Our local states you only bid on start times but in the supplement part of the contract it states routes go by area preference in seniorioty order.If u get pulled from your route go to another for the day and file a grievence ASAP

He looked in the contract and said he couldn't find it :wink2:
 

New Englander

Well-Known Member
I have my own bid. I was forced "to work as directed" today and forced off of it due to the simple fact that our management team can't seem to find time to train people on routes.

They were upset when I got my bid as there is only 3 routes run out of our center that I do not know.

I will go through the NE supplement again.
 

drewed

Shankman
In another thread it was brought up with 22.3 employees being moved off bid to cover for a limited amount of time (two weeks i believe) would there be anything similar in package?
 

705red

Browncafe Steward
How often can you be forced off of your bid to cover something else by management and what is our recourse via grievance when they exceed that?

Is there any penalty to them?
Here when we bid a route it is our route to we either move on to another route, go feeder or retire, we do not bid annually for package car routes.

I do not have my contract on me, its in the truck, but i believe its covered under article 44, seniority under bidding, possibly section 7, at least with my contract.

I have had drivers that voluntarily came off to help, and i have had drivers forced off, which we have filed on. There is no monetary pay, unless of course your route was worth more for that day than i would file for difference in paid day.
 

Cementups

Box Monkey
This is where situations like mine come in handy. We are a dual center HUB. I used to be inthe other center and I knew close to 20 routes +/-. I sgined a bid in the other center to get away from that. I did know 2 other routes inteh center I am in now but they changed so much after we rerouted everything that I no longer know them. so now I only know one and haven't run anything else in 6 years
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
You won't find language explicitly forbidding the company to "force you off your bid", instead look up the description of a cover driver's work responsibility. It should say that the job of a cover driver is to cover absences and vacations (or words to that effect, I'm under the Atlantic Area). It won't say anything about them having to be trained on the route first. If cover drivers are available, then they cover the open routes, period. Next time they tell you to WAD, tell them no. If they threaten to fire you, tell them to go ahead. Then they will have two routes to cover.
 

cosmo1

Perhaps.
Staff member
This is where situations like mine come in handy. We are a dual center HUB. I used to be inthe other center and I knew close to 20 routes +/-. I sgined a bid in the other center to get away from that. I did know 2 other routes inteh center I am in now but they changed so much after we rerouted everything that I no longer know them. so now I only know one and haven't run anything else in 6 years

A perfect example of being "selectively dumb.":happy-very:

I've forgotten almost everything.
 

Bubblehead

My Senior Picture
My bet is the language you need to find is indeed in one of your supplementary agreements. Either regional or locally. In my part of the country it states they can only do it in an "emergency". A little vague there for sure.

My advise would be to file for sure if it's contractually viable. But over and above that I would make it my mission for the management team to regret each and every time they pulled me from my route against my will. Follow the methods to the tee and your sure to be way over allowed. Call in for bargaining unit help on any over 70's. Get sick. You get the point and so will they.

"You can only turn the other cheek once without taking your pants off."
 

old brown shoe

30 year driver
Do them a favor once and you can plan on covering their tail everytime they are short handed. Always work as instructed and fight it later. We have the same proublem with pulling bid drivers to cover other routes. It is just from poor planning not training non bid drivers on other routes.If they ask me I just say naa I have my own route.
 

tourists24

Well-Known Member
If you have your own bid route New England then they cannot contractually pull you off of it. Like Jones, I am in the Atlantic Supplement and here we bid on routes by seniority once a year. If you were awarded a route then you are entitled to run it every day. Zero is the number of days they can make you run something else. There is no monetary penalty but they have no right to pull you off your bid (unless something in your supplement says so). My advice would be for you to tell them "no, I have my own route". If they fight you hard and tell you that you have no choice, then immediately get the best steward you can find and address it with mgt again. If your best steward doesnt cant get it done, immediately tell the boss you're calling your BA. If you cant get hold of your BA, you have a decision to make. You can buck up and refuse but that could get you into trouble (depends on how far they are willing to fight). Or you can go out on the cover route and let them know you are filing on it; but you must follow through. Let us know how it goes.....
 

dilligaf

IN VINO VERITAS
I can tell you that here (western conf) they can't force us off a bidded rte be it as a regular driver or a utility driver. If I take possesion of my bid on mon, I am on that bid all week. I have had to file on this and have won this several times over.

Regular rtes, once bidded don't change until the driver chooses to drop the rte.
 
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