Now looking back at 97, do you think Carey should have done anything differently in dealing with the company???
YES!
1. This strike was more of a pi$$ing match between Carey and Kelly, and our futures should never hang in the balance between egos.
2. We pay the Teamsters to negotiate for us... so negotiate! Keep negotiating! Negotiate some more!
3. A strike should always be a last resort. Intermittent walkouts, job actions, "informational" picket lines- lots of tools in the toolbox before an actual hard strike should ever even be considered.
4. We could have worked under the old contract, indefinitely! Same as we have recently under Hoffa. There was never a need to strike at all. The contract 'ends' on August 1st but we can keep working under the old agreement. Take a break, go at it in the ring a few times then get back to the table.
5. If it's not looking great, negotiate a shorter contract and try again later like in 1990.
6. NEVER STRIKE IN AUGUST, especially in Arizona! If we're going out it should be in November just before Thanksgiving when we have maximum power and people can walk picket lines without dying in the heat. We can engineer a strike to happen when it's most beneficial if necessary.
7. We got lucky with the Pilots honoring our lines (some even left their planes in Europe) and Feeders stood strong 100% here, even the non-members. We'd be fools to think that would happen again, especially with the pervasive use of contractors (Thanks to James Wright) and the autonomous truck technology just waiting for an opening.
8. I would have kept the 2/3 rule, and I would make it mandatory that all members vote in a strike authorization vote, not just the ones that come down to the hall. It's ridiculous that either has to be mandated, but as we just saw in the IBT election- people don't vote. I don't want the "Never take the first offer!" numbskulls taking us out on strike. It's the negotiating team's job to get us the best offer and insulting for us to not give it fair consideration.
No one wins in a strike. A Feeder driver on the line told me that and it has stuck with me ever since because he was 100% right. I can argue all day long how superior the contract we won was to the "Last, Best, and Final Offer" but I can't say it didn't change the Company culture for the worse. I can't say we didn't lose many Sisters and Brothers afterward due to management retribution. I can't say it helped our business as so many shippers refuse to put all their packages in the UPS basket. I can't say a large portion of the country didn't end up with the exact pension plan offered by the Company in 1997. I can't say it made us stronger as a Union. I was in my 20's when that strike happened and now I'm wiser and more jaded. I was a normal happy productive driver before the strike and it turned me into a militant and started my career as a Steward, something I'm sure many a manager wishes had never happened. I don't have anything to lose now as I could walk away from this job today and do just fine, and I plan to do just that before the next contract. Too many of my Sisters and Brothers are not in the same position and we owe it to them to not take striking lightly and make them choose between crossing and putting their families on the street.
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