Thursday, October 29, 2015

It's coming!!! Dashboard cameras to a tractor near you. Will this be as bad as the scorecard or worse? The Pilot program is in effect currently. Cameras will be outward facing forward to capture your driving. Who is it to protect or put blame on?
Currently you are not allowed to have your own personal dash cam with you. Why? Because it's your video. Control needs to be with the company. Cameras will be on all the time. Every triggered event will require a review of the footage.
Outward facing cameras now but we all can see the future. Is there a plan to have a camera mounted facing the driver also? We see this as a way to remove all liability off the company and onto the driver. Accidents , incidents and hard braking will be reviewed. How many reviews before suspension, critical or termination?
Even the best drivers will trigger a review as a 4 wheeler cuts in front of them and hard braking is applied. This could easily be reviewed as tailgating. Language in a contract to protect you, sounds pretty good right about now. Don't you think? Do something about it before it's too late. Sign a card and get involved. Protect your livelihood !!!

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Fedex reaches tentative agreement with pilots

Fedex reaches tentative agreement with pilots

Reuters Aug 20, 2015 6:39 PM

Aug 20 (Reuters) - FedEx pilots tentatively agreed with the package delivery company on an amended collective bargaining agreement, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said.

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Fedex and its pilots have been negotiating on employment conditions since 2011. FedEx management filed for a mediation process with the National Mediation Board in October 2014.

The terms of the agreement are not being released pending approval by the union's executive council, ALPA said on Thursday.

The contract would become amendable in 2021 if the tentative agreement is ratified by more than 4,000 FedEx pilots, ALPA said.

FedEx was not immediately available for a comment.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru)

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Joe Brock Seen At GAR and SLG

Who is Joe Brock?

Rebecca Smith and Joe Brock: Who Are These People?

In the last two weeks, many of us at Jimmy John's have had to sit through mandatory meetings with Rebecca Smith and Joe Brock. Rebecca Smith and Joe Brock claim that they just want to give us information so we can decide for ourselves if we want to form a union. The truth is that they are from Labor Relations Institute, Inc., a third-party anti-union company hired by Mike and Rob Mulligan. LRI promises employers that if they are hired, workers will be unable to form a union, or your money back. Their standard fee is $3000 per day, $375 an hour. Do you think the Mulligans pay these people hundreds of dollar an hour to be a neutral voice? Since September 15, we estimate they have been paid $45,000 by the Mulligans, or enough to give every Jimmy Johns worker $200 cash. In a recent campaign against workers organizing a union at Soaring Eagle Casino, LRI made $1.5 million total for their work. Rebecca Smith and Joe Brock have a financial interest in convincing you to vote no. They have a history of using misrepresentations, lies, and subtle threats to divide and conquer workers. Do they deserve our trust? No!
Here is more information about this pair that they have been hiding.
Rebecca Smith
  • Claims to have worked as a union organizer. We contacted the Teamster union local she worked for when she lived near Pahrump, NV. They said she never worked as an organizer. She ran a program that taught people things like asbestos safety and forklift driving. That means she's lying to us.
  • Claims she voluntarily quit her paid position in the Teamsters union. The truth is her own coworkers petitioned to have her removed from union office because of her gross incompetence.
  • Was paid $103,031 for her work in a union-busting campaign at Soaring Eagle Casinos in Michigan in 2007. What did you get paid in 2007? Rebecca Smith gets a fat salary for union-busting, she doesn't know and doesn't care about what our lives are like.
  • Kicked out of her own union, Rebecca Smith now travels around the country making misleading and manipulative statements about unions for employers.
Joe Brock
  • Claims he was a union organizer. The truth is he was a highly paid official, not an organizer.
  • Was happy to earn more than $80,000 per year from the Teamsters, then took a pay raise to attack the union members who gave him such a comfortable life style.
  • Claims to be a Teamster who left because of problems in the labor movement. He doesn't tell us that he lost an election for office and then sued over losing. The Department of Labor ruled Brock’s claims against his local were baseless. So he quit and became a professional union buster.
  • Claims his job as an anti-union consultant lets him help workers improve their lives on the job. Do you really think the Mulligans all of a sudden decided bring Brock here for $3,000 per day to improve conditions? Brock is not here to improve workers’ lives. He is here to earn a buck preventing us from having more input into how this place is run.
These are the facts. Decide for yourself, who do you trust? Highly paid outsiders like Rebecca Smith and Joe Brock, or your own co-workers who want all Jimmy John’s employees to have more voice on the job?
All of the information in this note is based on research gathered from US Department of Labor reports and given to us by unions that Rebecca Smith and Joe Brock worked for or were members of. If you'd like to see the documentation, we'd be happy to show it to you. Contact us here.

What's the Law?

Employees




The law protects the right of employees to engage in protected concerted activities-group action to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions and to engage in union activities and support a union. You also have a right to not engage in protected concerted or union activities.\n\nThe statements contained in this smart phone application are intended for users' general information. This application may not be cited as legal authority. Particular statements may be subject to unstated exceptions, qualifications, and/or limitations, and may even be rendered unreliable without prior notice by changes in the law. In addition, although we have sought to provide broad general guidance, we do not claim completeness. In other words, you may be subject to prohibitions under the National Labor Relations Act that are not set forth here. The National Labor Relations Board expressly disclaims any purpose or intent to furnish legal advice. You may contact your nearest regional Board office and/or an attorney to discuss your specific situation or to learn more about your rights and obligations under the NLRA.

Your Right to Form a Union


Not represented by a union, but want to be?
If a majority of workers wants to form a union, they can select a union in one of two ways: If at least 30% of workers sign cards or a petition saying they want a union, the NLRB will conduct an election. If a majority of those who vote choose the union, the NLRB will certify the union as your representative for collective bargaining. An election is not the only way a union can become your representative. Your employer may voluntarily recognize a union based on evidence - typically signed union-authorization cards - that a majority of employees want it to represent them. Once a union has been certified or recognized, the employer is required to bargain over your terms and conditions of employment with your union representative. Special rules apply in the construction industry.

Your Rights during Union Organizing


You have the right to form, join or assist a union.
You have the right to organize a union to negotiate with your employer over your terms and conditions of employment. This includes your right to distribute union literature, wear union buttons t-shirts, or other insignia (except in unusual "special circumstances"), solicit coworkers to sign union authorization cards, and discuss the union with coworkers. Supervisors and managers cannot spy on you (or make it appear that they are doing so), coercively question you, threaten you or bribe you regarding your union activity or the union activities of your co-workers. You can't be fired, disciplined, demoted, or penalized in any way for engaging in these activities.
Working time is for work, so your employer may maintain and enforce non-discriminatory rules limiting solicitation and distribution, except that your employer cannot prohibit you from talking about or soliciting for a union during non-work time, such as before or after work or during break times; or from distributing union literature during non-work time, in non-work areas, such as parking lots or break rooms. Also, restrictions on your efforts to communicate with co-workers cannot be discriminatory. For example, your employer cannot prohibit you from talking about the union during working time if it permits you to talk about other non-work-related matters during working time.

How to Enforce Your Rights


If you believe your rights or the rights of others have been violated, you should contact the National Labor Relations Board promptly to protect your rights, generally within six months of the unlawful activity. You may make inquiries of the NLRB without your employer or a union, or anyone else being informed of the inquiry. A charge against an employer or union must be filed to initiate an investigation; charges may be filed by any person and need not be filed by the employee directly affected by the violations. Employees should seek assistance from the nearest Regional NLRB office, which can be found by clicking "Contact NLRB" above. It is illegal for an employer or union to retaliate against employees for filing charges or participating in NLRB investigation or proceedings.
If the NLRB determines that your rights have been violated by an employer or a union, you may be awarded appropriate remedial relief. For example, if an employer has unlawfully fired an employee, the NLRB may order the employer to rehire the employee and to pay the employee lost wages and benefits. Likewise, if a union's unlawful conduct has caused an employee to lose a job, the NLRB may order the union to seek the employee's reinstatement and to make the employee whole financially. In all cases, the NLRB seeks to undo as much as possible the effects of whatever unlawful conduct has occurred, including by ordering the employer or union to stop violating the law and to post a remedial notice informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Concerted activity


Federal law protects employees engaged in union activity, but that's only part of the story. Even if you're not represented by a union - even if you have zero interest in having a union - the National Labor Relations Act protects your right to band together with coworkers to improve your lives at work.
You have the right to act with coworkers to address work-related issues in many ways. Examples include: talking with one or more co-workers about your wages and benefits or other working conditions, circulating a petition asking for better hours, participating in a concerted refusal to work in unsafe conditions, and joining with coworkers to talk directly to your employer, to a government agency, or to the media about problems in your workplace. Your employer cannot discharge, discipline, or threaten you for, or coercively question you about, this "protected concerted" activity. However, you can lose protection by saying things about your employer that are egregiously offensive or knowingly and maliciously false, or by publicly disparaging your employer's products or services without relating your complaints to any labor controversy.

Social media


Even if you are not represented by a union, federal law gives you the right to band together with coworkers to improve your lives at work - including joining together in cyberspace, such as on Facebook.
Using social media can be a form of "protected concerted" activity. You have the right to address work-related issues and share information about pay, benefits, and working conditions with coworkers on Facebook, YouTube, and other social media. But just individually griping about some aspect of work is not "concerted activity": what you say must have some relation to group action, or seek to initiate, induce, or prepare for group action, or bring a group complaint to the attention of management.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

The chairman, president, and CEO of FedEx Corp. lashed out yesterday

TRANSPORTATION
 October 8, 2015

FedEx chief rails against states' efforts to restrict use of independent contractors
At conference, Smith calls for federal pre-emption of state labor laws.

By Mark B. Solomon

The chairman, president, and CEO of FedEx Corp. lashed out yesterday at legislative and judicial attempts to penalize business' use of independent contractors, saying they interfere with interstate commerce and threaten to undermine the responsiveness and efficiency of the supply chain.
Keynoting an industry conference in his company's hometown of Memphis, Tenn., Frederick W. Smith said the U.S. and world economies have flourished over the past 40 years because transport deregulation allowed companies to be flexible in managing changes in a cyclical industry. Attempts by legislative and judicial bodies to restrict those freedoms are a "profound" change that bodes well for no one, Smith said.
"The more rigidity you put in the supply chain, the less responsive and efficient it will be in the marketplace," Smith said.
FedEx's fast-growing ground-parcel division, FedEx Ground, is staffed by independent-contractor drivers, a model FedEx inherited from the old Roadway Package System Inc., whose Caliber System Inc. parent was acquired by FedEx in 1998. With its nonunion operations as leverage, RPS competed effectively against the then-dominant parcel carrier, UPS Inc. Since FedEx acquired Caliber, it has made significant inroads into UPS' once-unassailable share of the U.S. ground-parcel market.
However, the model has come under assault in recent years in state legislatures and in the courts, with opponents arguing that FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery drivers essentially operate as company employees but are denied the benefits and job protections that come with being an employee. The most visible battle took place in California, where 2,300 FedEx Ground and Home Delivery drivers sued the unit claiming it improperly classified them as independent contractors and not company employees while they worked there from 2000 to 2007. After an appellate court panel in California ruled in August 2014 that the drivers were company employees under state law, FedEx Ground in July paid $228 million to settle the drivers' claims.
Smith today called for federal pre-emption of state labor laws that effectively block the free flow of interstate commerce, and intrude on a legally binding contractual relationship between company and contractor. "There is a steady drip, drip, drip of restrictive laws at the state level ... into what should be a contractual relationship between consenting adults," he said.
Smith was not upbeat about the outlook for the global economy, saying it is suffering from "low growth" as a result of government policies that are "business-agnostic at best, and anti-business in many cases." Smith added that there are no visible catalysts for improvement unless pro-growth policies are developed and implemented. He added that tepid economic demand will trigger a surge in merger and acquisition activity as companies facing a slow-growth environment look to expand by buying and building scale.
One of the few bright spots is the continued growth of e-commerce, Smith said. He noted, however, that e-commerce shipments, which at one time were made up exclusively of small, lightweight shipments, are getting bigger. This trend is putting pressure on traditional package-sortation systems that are not designed to process such heavier, outsized commodities as kayaks that are ordered online, he said.

Friday, October 9, 2015

THE 4 UNION CENTERS GET THE RAISE

THE 4 UNION CENTERS GET THE RAISE

OK so the perception that was conveyed through this company over the last two months was that the Union centers weren't getting the raise. Well another myth has now be proven wrong. Doesn't the un-informed people who hung these anti hand outs in CLT break rooms a month ago look uneducated now !!! All 4 centers who voted for the union are getting it. They have gotten everything you have this entire time.

Every minuscule policy change, the bonus, the raise, no increase in weekly medical for 2016. If you got it, they got it. But the company wants you to believe that they weren't going to get it so you would be afraid to join them. So you would be afraid to exercise your rights to form a union.

When the appeals in court by this company end. Our 4 centers have one thing you don't have. It's called a seat at the table. So as you enjoy your raise. Know that there will be talks in the future that only 4 centers take part in to negotiate pay , benefits , retirement , work rules in writing that will only be for their centers . Not yours. And here's a news flash for you . Our 4 YES centers don't pay dues. We will not ever have to pay until we get and ratify a contract. The Teamsters are working for free. "Yes free". Get involved. Make a call. Sign a card. Have a voice and Vote "YES"