Pardon me while I go puke

[1989]

Originally Posted by soberups

I will be more than happy to get in the game and fix it. All I need...is authorization from the appropriate manager, and I will personally order the necessary parts to retrofit all the older trucks with 3 point seat belts. Are you that manager, Tieguy? Will you sign your name on the dotted line? Or will we just keep passing the buck around some more?

That's great, but you are only talking about probably less than 1% of all injuries...What would you do about the other 99+% of the injuries? The everyday back, knee, ankle, even the driver headcases are the injuries you find in the real world.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by New Englander

Griff...care to reply if you have filed a grievance against your Steward? Have you asked he no longer be the Steward for not following the contract you so openly defend here?

Or is there some excuse as to why you have not?

I've requested many times for our steward to be removed. Not only to fellow coworkers, but to our BA several times. The fish stinks from the head so to speak, we need to get rid of the filth down at the hall that is in bed with management. I have grieved the lunch issue, but never list specific union members in a grievance. While you can grieve anything under the sun, it's not savvy to engage in workplace cannibalism. I go after management for allowing and encouraging this practice and its the only area where I cannot seem to get results. I stopped grieving the lunch issue since the California lawsuit because of a position our local has taken on it. I no longer have any legs to stand on because the company doesn't steal the hour from the employee anymore (so im told). I certainly still disagree with people skipping their lunch and break, I will continue to bad mouth those who do it. I've reached a breaking point with my local and the only thing left to do is put up or shut up and I fully intend to run come election time.

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Originally Posted by Griff

I've reached a breaking point with my local and the only thing left to do is put up or shut up and I fully intend to run come election time.

May I suggest that, if your campaign is not successful, that you consider forming your own local? You can save on office furniture by stacking your 2 paper boxes full of filed grievances as a desk and you can use you new avatar (solidarity?) on your office letterhead. The only problem that I foresee would be the meetings as the membership (you) would spend so much time arguing with the BA (also you) that nothing would get done.

[New Englander]

Originally Posted by Griff

I've requested many times for our steward to be removed. Not only to fellow coworkers, but to our BA several times. The fish stinks from the head so to speak, we need to get rid of the filth down at the hall that is in bed with management. I have grieved the lunch issue, but never list specific union members in a grievance. While you can grieve anything under the sun, it's not savvy to engage in workplace cannibalism. I go after management for allowing and encouraging this practice and its the only area where I cannot seem to get results. I stopped grieving the lunch issue since the California lawsuit because of a position our local has taken on it. I no longer have any legs to stand on because the company doesn't steal the hour from the employee anymore (so im told). I certainly still disagree with people skipping their lunch and break, I will continue to bad mouth those who do it. I've reached a breaking point with my local and the only thing left to do is put up or shut up and I fully intend to run come election time.

Why not use your incredible energy and go beyond your BA?

[Griff]

Originally Posted by UpstateNYUPSer

May I suggest that, if your campaign is not successful, that you consider forming your own local? You can save on office furniture by stacking your 2 paper boxes full of filed grievances as a desk and you can use you new avatar (solidarity?) on your office letterhead. The only problem that I foresee would be the meetings as the membership (you) would spend so much time arguing with the BA (also you) that nothing would get done.

Coming from a guy who has turned a blindeye for 19 years. You're going to mock me and somehow boost yourself up by cutting me down here? I don't think so, why don't you go do what you do best -- turn another cheek while the contract gets trampled. Hope you didn't raise your children to be cowards and sellouts like good old dad.

[soberups]

Originally Posted by 1989

That's great, but you are only talking about probably less than 1% of all injuries...What would you do about the other 99+% of the injuries? The everyday back, knee, ankle, even the driver headcases are the injuries you find in the real world.

Well if it were up to me I would have all vehicles without power steering and low steps taken out of service permanently, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. The seat belts, on the other hand, are both a life-and-death issue, and a cheap and easy fix.

[tieguy]

Originally Posted by Griff

No he won't sign anything. He will do what he normally does, deflect the blame and spotlight on the hourly and crawl back into his office. Once you really put him on the hot seat, like I do regularly, he will refuse to respond any longer. I'm still waiting for him to put an end to all my useless anti-company propaganda about automatic transmissions. I'll be waiting until the day that I die just like most issues that I've brought to the forefront only to have him redirect the spotlight like the coward he is. He is my personal whipping boy on this site and the only difference in real life would be that he'd have a tough time explaining to the division manager why a uneducated, thief, liar, lazy driver gets the best of him all the time.

goon rule 12B. When getting your but whipped thoroughly by management claim you have been winning. Griff is master of these denial concepts.

[trplnkl]

Originally Posted by tieguy

goon rule 12B. When getting your but whipped thoroughly by management claim you have been winning. Griff is master of these denial concepts.

You never answered Sober's question. Will YOU sign off on the paper work to get the problem fixed? Or will you just put the ball in someone else's court?

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Originally Posted by Griff

Coming from a guy who has turned a blindeye for 19 years. You're going to mock me and somehow boost yourself up by cutting me down here? I don't think so, why don't you go do what you do best -- turn another cheek while the contract gets trampled. Hope you didn't raise your children to be cowards and sellouts like good old dad.

No, I actually taught them to pick their battles as spending each and every day fighting "the man" is futile, which is something you should have learned from your last 7 years.

Griff, lighten up--you will enjoy life a whole lot more.

[tieguy]

Originally Posted by trplnkl

You never answered Sober's question. Will YOU sign off on the paper work to get the problem fixed? Or will you just put the ball in someone else's court?

Kind of a dumb question don't you think since I'm not in his center to sign of on anything he proposes?
I have no problem signing off on something our safety committee proposes of this type and have done so in the past.
There have been times when i did not get support from local automotive and bumped our proposals past them all together through region level contacts.
So while I obviously can't sign off on anything in soberups center I have done similar things in my own.

[Mike Hawk]

Have you, or would you sign off on retrofiting older cars with 3 point seat belts if it was proposed at your center?

[dannyboy]

Mike

I know that Tie would if he had the ability to. But at his level of management, it would be something that would have to go to the national level. And I do know for a fact (though private conversations with Tie) that he would back something like that to the fullest.

Now, my question to Griff et al that think the union is the answer for all ills.

Why has the union not stepped in on this issue. Why was it not an issue in the contract this time around? Dont they care about the welfare of the drivers? After all, they "won" the language that got power steering and lower first steps in all new package cars, didnt they? So why not something really important like the 3 point belts??????

The only way this thing will get solved is that

1 The union makes it a top priority and lets the company
know that it is a top priority and it is serious about it.
There have been grievances filed on the issue, but so far
no action from either side. So I see the union an
obstruction more than a facilitator to the issue.

2 The safety committees find a way to get together nation
wide to work on this issue. There is real power when
the employees work together to make things happen.

The only problem I see with #2, believe it or not, is the union itself. Mainly because if #2 happens, then the workforce will come face to face with the fact that the union is nothing more than a neutered bull in the field of cows. When the union begins to realize that, then they will get back to issues involving the rank and file, not off on their own ajenda.

d

[dilligaf]

Originally Posted by dannyboy

Mike


The only problem I see with #2, believe it or not, is the union itself. Mainly because if #2 happens, then the workforce will come face to face with the fact that the union is nothing more than a neutered bull in the field of cows. When the union begins to realize that, then they will get back to issues involving the rank and file, not off on their own ajenda.

d

And the downside to this is?????????
The union needs to get off their own agenda and start remembering who pays for their a$$e$s to sit in those comfy chairs they have.
I'm tired of my BA not being here but once in 6 months. I'm tired of my grievances falling upon deaf ears (company and union ears). I'm tired of...... I could go on and on.