Should I re-file grievance another way?

[Overpaid Union Thug]

Our center recently filed a grievance on extra work being given to another building. This concerns feeder work but I won't go into any more details about the grievance itself because this might not be over yet but what I can say is that at the local hearing our BA and manager weren't able to come to a decision on the grievance. That tells me that in the local hearing our BA fought for us. So, it went to the next hearing out of state. Well, this time (according to the letter the local sent me) the BA (same one) and the labor manager attended and the results were "no article was violated." WTF?

The grievance was filed for article 48 (which is where seniority and feeder work are) and the grievance was perfectly clear on the wrong doings of the hub. Extra work originating in a center (in this case an extended center) should never be given to another whether it's a hub or not. What is friend*ed up is that all of the extended centers in the local are locked out of bidding into feeders in that hub but they are apparently allowed to do our work?

I was thinking of re-filing or pursuing an "unfair labor charge." But I obviously need to gather more information first. This extra work could easily be combined with other work (that isn't being stolen from us....yet) to create another full-time job for someone. Maybe even feeders. So, any help with this would be appreciated.

 

[Ouch]

I believe your referring to the building i was out of? I know we have been trying to get to feeders ever since they closed it to us. If your talking about yalls work it is really ups work. You are allowed contractually to follow your work. I know that a lot of the cpu pick ups are actually in our buildings delivery area. Not getting into a pissin contest but I heard the union and company have agreed to a one time bid into feeders to cover retirement routes and volume increase. I also heard that all means have been exhausted. Now with that being said our people were always allowed to bid into feeders until a few years ago when they cut it off. The contract also said if you home domicile didn't have feeders we shall be allowed to bid as long it was in a metropolitan area I believe in a 15 mile radius. I may be wrong about the mileage as i dont have my book with me right now. I have only heard bits and pieces about this and am really unsure of the facts. I had much rather see ups people get the premium jobs rather than go to hiring off the streets. I had filed the grievance every which way you could imagine trying to get feeders back open for us and always got a point of order with a no contract violation as my answer. I'm retired so it really doesn't affect me but that's just my take on it.

 

[TooTechie]

When you're filing grievances, you should be adding the line "and all others" or "and all others that apply" after you cite the article you're grieving under. Assuming you do/did this, your BA would have added any applicable article if you didn't cite the best one for the situation. If the BA dropped the grievance as no article violated one of two things happened. Either 1) he heard additional information which made him decide there wasn't enough merit in your grievance or no article was violated or 2) your grievance was dropped to gain traction on more pressing/important issues.

As with negotiating a contract it's a give and take and you sometimes have to give up some minor issues to win more important victories. As an example, last peak we had a pile of supervisor working grievances here and there over the holiday season. In order to get them paid we dropped a specific grievance where higher level management was out shuttling late air on Christmas Eve day (all union drivers were on the road including air drivers getting paid ground rate).

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

I believe your referring to the building i was out of? I know we have been trying to get to feeders ever since they closed it to us. If your talking about yalls work it is really ups work. You are allowed contractually to follow your work. I know that a lot of the cpu pick ups are actually in our buildings delivery area. Not getting into a pissin contest but I heard the union and company have agreed to a one time bid into feeders to cover retirement routes and volume increase. I also heard that all means have been exhausted. Now with that being said our people were always allowed to bid into feeders until a few years ago when they cut it off. The contract also said if you home domicile didn't have feeders we shall be allowed to bid as long it was in a metropolitan area I believe in a 15 mile radius. I may be wrong about the mileage as i dont have my book with me right now. I have only heard bits and pieces about this and am really unsure of the facts. I had much rather see ups people get the premium jobs rather than go to hiring off the streets. I had filed the grievance every which way you could imagine trying to get feeders back open for us and always got a point of order with a no contract violation as my answer. I'm retired so it really doesn't affect me but that's just my take on it.

The hub in question is the one you are talking about but the extended center I'm talking about isn't yours. But I know your building has been screwed in the past by that hub too. I also know that in the past your building one a grievance very similar to ours. The bottom line is that the hub definitely shouldn't be entitled to work that originates in the areas they have locked out. That is a clear double standard.

Another problem is that us extended centers are at the mercy of representatives in a local that know that the their own elections depend heavily on the votes in the hub. Gee I wonder who they will typically side with in situations like these? LOL

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[Ouch]

The hub in question is the one you are talking about but the extended center I'm talking about isn't yours. But I know your building has been screwed in the past by that hub too. I also know that in the past your building one a grievance very similar to ours. The bottom line is that the hub definitely shouldn't be entitled to work that originates in the areas they have locked out. That is a clear double standard.

Another problem is that us extended centers are at the mercy of representatives in a local that know that the their own elections depend heavily on the votes in the hub. Gee I wonder who they will typically side with in situations like these? LOL

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I feel your pain. Although not coming from an extended center, their were several that had brought that up. The larger building facing the smaller building, and being fair about the way things were handled. I would have a one on one with the ba and XpressMusic your concerns and ask him how he would like your grievance worded since he will be the one taking to the panel. I filed a feeder grievance about 50 times and worded it differently each time I wrote it. I finally sat down with the ba and wrote it exactly how he wanted it and still came back point of order. Best of luck to you and I hope it works out for the best for you guys as everyone should be able to bid the premium jobs as that is the best job imo in the company. Good luck and keep me informed as to how yalls outcome works out.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

I feel your pain. Although not coming from an extended center, their were several that had brought that up. The larger building facing the smaller building, and being fair about the way things were handled. I would have a one on one with the ba and XpressMusic your concerns and ask him how he would like your grievance worded since he will be the one taking to the panel. I filed a feeder grievance about 50 times and worded it differently each time I wrote it. I finally sat down with the ba and wrote it exactly how he wanted it and still came back point of order. Best of luck to you and I hope it works out for the best for you guys as everyone should be able to bid the premium jobs as that is the best job imo in the company. Good luck and keep me informed as to how yalls outcome works out.

That is why I'm thinking that maybe someone (maybe even my center) should take this to the NLRB. It's been done before in our local and was won. I know people in our center are fed up with being treated as dogs begging for scraps by that hub. I will keep you posted.

 

[PiedmontSteward]

If the grievance panel returned your grievance as "no article violated", you don't have much recourse via the NLRB or otherwise unless you can actually prove some sort of union/company collusion.. and even then, that's a tough sell.

If your BA took the grievance to panel and that was the result, then he more than likely did his job as your union representative. Typically, panel decisions are final and binding. At the very least, you should try to meet with him 1-on-1 and get an in-depth explanation as to what happened with your grievance before you file labor charges.

While I'm not that familiar with feeder work being assigned/moved to other hubs, I do know that present feeder drivers are allowed to follow their work under a change of operations. Additionally, while the union and the company generally need to meet regarding a change of operations, the union typically has little recourse if it's justifiable.

 

[Ouch]

I talked to the nlrb as well. After about my 25th grievance on this. Good luck with that one. Got no where with that one. I got the feeling they didn't want to get involved. As much as i hate to tell you this, you may be out of luck. I hate saying that but I spent more time on this than I could even begin to tell you and got zero from it. I was exactly like you. I kept looking for different ways to write it, talked.to lawyers.about it and the nlrb. Nothing could be done. With that being said, I'm not telling you to give up. Fight the good fight for what you believe in and what the contract allows. Just don't want you to be disappointed when you come up empty. If you would like pm me and I can give you my number. I would be more than happy to explain what courses I took and the people i talked to and some contact info on who you may contact. I will look and see if i have mygrievances here that I filed on. I would have loved to gone to feeders cause I ended up injured and forced to retire at 42. Good luck and feel free to contact me.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

If the grievance panel returned your grievance as "no article violated", you don't have much recourse via the NLRB or otherwise unless you can actually prove some sort of union/company collusion.. and even then, that's a tough sell.

If your BA took the grievance to panel and that was the result, then he more than likely did his job as your union representative. Typically, panel decisions are final and binding. At the very least, you should try to meet with him 1-on-1 and get an in-depth explanation as to what happened with your grievance before you file labor charges.

While I'm not that familiar with feeder work being assigned/moved to other hubs, I do know that present feeder drivers are allowed to follow their work under a change of operations. Additionally, while the union and the company generally need to meet regarding a change of operations, the union typically has little recourse if it's justifiable.

The grievance I'm talking about wasn't for work that was moved to another building. Some of it is extra work in excess of what the package drivers in those areas can't get and some of it is work that is loaded on a pup that is picked up and swapped with an empty by feeders from that hub. There is more than enough of this type of work in our area to at least create one CPU job. But instead it's given to the hub. I guarantee if our center were to make pickups in that hub's area there would be hell to pay.

The main issue here is that the hub has not only locked all of the rest of us out of feeders (which is what Ouch has fought in the past) but are doing feeder work in the areas of the centers they have locked out. If that isn't an unfair labor practice than I don't know what is.

I talked to the nlrb as well. After about my 25th grievance on this. Good luck with that one. Got no where with that one. I got the feeling they didn't want to get involved. As much as i hate to tell you this, you may be out of luck. I hate saying that but I spent more time on this than I could even begin to tell you and got zero from it. I was exactly like you. I kept looking for different ways to write it, talked.to lawyers.about it and the nlrb. Nothing could be done. With that being said, I'm not telling you to give up. Fight the good fight for what you believe in and what the contract allows. Just don't want you to be disappointed when you come up empty. If you would like pm me and I can give you my number. I would be more than happy to explain what courses I took and the people i talked to and some contact info on who you may contact. I will look and see if i have mygrievances here that I filed on. I would have loved to gone to feeders cause I ended up injured and forced to retire at 42. Good luck and feel free to contact me.

The issue of being locked out of feeders is a complicated and touchy issue. I can kind of see where those guys were coming from back then. But it never should have happened. It could have been avoided with a combined seniority list for the local (like in other areas) and things would have been fair for everyone without a lockout. But they let jealousy get the best of them and now not only are we locked out (and still will be after the rumored upcoming one time open bid for extended centers) but have to watch them come to our area and do our feeder work. That is what our grievance was for. A grievance for being locked out has been mentioned as well but was never pursued.

 

[GrayGhost]

Is this about Massan, Whites Creek? If so 5 feeder runs just went up for bid at Whites Creek that will be moving to Massman. I guess any Whites Creek driver that wants to follow that work will the opportunity.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

Is this about Massan, Whites Creek? If so 5 feeder runs just went up for bid at Whites Creek that will be moving to Massman. I guess any Whites Creek driver that wants to follow that work will the opportunity.

No. If there were 5 feeder runs up for bid in any of the other buildings that are covered in that local the people working in those buildings would probably think hell had just frozen over. That or Whites Creek had closed down.

 

[gorilla75jdw]

I am also a whites creek union brother and just seen the 5 bid sheets up for our drivers to sign to follow our (creek) work to Mass man . Also a manager in the h.r. department at the creek told me today that a part time employee who was hired on June 2nd is going to feeders next week to be trained.
I'm not trying to throw this in you guys faces , just passing info. along . I know the history on this issue with our feeder department and massmans plight to come here and drive . Like I said before , after we exhaust all our people at the creek , then we should reach out to every extended center for help. You guys at mass man know that we can't bid to package car over there and that issue alone got alot of us passed up in seniority until the grievance was filed and one . OUCH , we have had this conversation before so I know you can maybe elaborate on the how's and why's if you would like .

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[Overpaid Union Thug]

......... You guys at mass man know that we can't bid to package car over there and that issue alone got alot of us passed up in seniority until the grievance was filed and one . OUCH , we have had this conversation before so I know you can maybe elaborate on the how's and why's if you would like .

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That was the problem that started all this mess with Whites Creek and surrounding extended centers. Had their been a combined seniority list for the local once all of the extended centers started being opened then seniority never would have been an issue. I've already discussed it with OUCH offline and he filled me in on this Whites Creek/Massman grievance. And some others as well. The grievance filed by my center (Not Massman) was for something other than bidding into feeders at WC but loosely related to the grievance you referred to that locked extended centers out of WC feeders. Basically....there are some double standards at play here and are completely unfair.

 

[Ouch]

We had several drivers go to feeders some 10 years ago maybe and qualified. They got sent back to mass man after that grievance was won. They had to fight to stay there at the creek and won it. I feel the full time drivers from surrounding buildings should go before part timers. If they have exhausted the package dept for feeders then the part timers should bid to package. One year safe driving as it stated in the contract would not be able to be met by a loader or sorter etc etc. I will tell Iit like I was told. We always talk about our work when in fact it is ups work. I fought that battle with about 50 grievances worded every different way I could. Locals wouldn't hear them and panel always called point of order and shot it down right there. Feeders would be considered a premium job and should be bid by the qualifying employees imo. I was told that they were going to let me work till I'm 62. Yiiippeeee, I don'tkknow of too many people that could do package at 62. I feel if I were able to bid feeders I would still be working and not retired due to an on the job injury. Their has to be a compromise somewhere. What happens in5 years when you have a mass exodus of drivers retire from feeders and they ccan't fill the empty spots from package at the creek. Are they going to hire off the street? That really doesn't seem fair to the drivers that are busting their hump everyday. I was told this will be a one time bid, never to happen again. Who knows, you can never make everybody happy at once but a compromise would benefit everybody imo.