Eam Dispute

[Fredless]

Our full timers won that greivance back in summer 2006.

All of the EAM work is now done by 22.3's and full time package car drivers. What the company used to do prior to summer 2007 was allow the high seniority drivers to continue to have their "cake" routes and get the EAM work.

Summer 2007 on when the routes were re-bid, the company said if you want the EAM work you HAVE to bid to the routes that work flows to regularly. A lot of drivers that had ressi's all day got routes in industrial and downtown. Surprisingly, everyone of the guys except one took those "hard" routes based on principle because they felt that work was their right.

 

[Braveheart]

The EAM work in our center was done by full timers for about 10 years without a problem but in the last year all but one of the 8 full timers doing the work have been replaced by air drivers. there is a grievance in the works and has been tentatively scheduled for arbitration in July '08. I am told by my BA that there is a similar case going to arbitration in California in March or April. Does anyone have any info on the CA case or anything else?

We have been waiting for years on that same EAM problem. JUst waiting for us to get shafted on that as Hoffa rolls over again. We lost all new delivery ares but were lucky to keep the couple that we originally had.

 

[MD Dan]

Sounds like you are in my district. Metro DC. The 5 Punch rule. Not in contract and if you can prove that a less senior full timer got work that the co. said you were ineligible for because you worked 5 days you WILL win the grievance. Good Luck.

 

[ol'browneye]

Some 22.3 and some part-time. The company states that they are cheaper and that when doing EAM's we were exceeding the company imposed 9.5 hour limit. Yes, our start times have been pushed from 7:30 AM to 8:35 AM. And yes, it has cut into my OT-- I made $3,000 less in '07 than '06.

Shouldn't you get a selective bump since they changed your start time by more than an hour? That's the way it is here. Bump to a route that has an earlier start. I would love an 8:30 start. Mine is 9:45!

 

[MD Dan]

The start time in my building(Gaithersburg) is 8:30 and the commit time for EAM's is 8:30. There are no different start times in our building...maybe one.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

Part-timers have always run our EAMs until recently. Now full-time drivers on layoff will work preload then run air to get their 8 hours. But that's only one or two days a week though. Sometimes none.

 

[MD Dan]

I am told that there is finally going to be a ruling on the dispute in the Sacramento area. Has anybody heard anything?

 

[FREE-B]

The early am grievance involving two local's in NorCal is currently in front of an arbitrator. The case obviously has national implication and is scheduled for final hearing at the end of October. It will probably be several months after that date before a decision in the case is known.

 

[639OldTimer]

I contacted the BA at 639 and he told me that this case is being arbitrated out of Local 150 in Sacramento, Ca. by the IBT. He said that he spoke with the attorneys handling the case and that they told him that at least one and possibly two more days of hearings are scheduled for mid October and the first of November. He was told that hall who is the director of the Package Division at the IBT is scheduled to testify.

He said he remembers the member coming out to San Diego last October to testify. He feels that the 639 case is a real good case. He told me that in 1987 when Article 40 was created that the Company assured the Union that no package drivers would lose any work to part time air drivers. He did say that there is a practice of using 22.3 combo employees to do the EAM work. The Gaithersburg building is different in the Company has not created any combo jobs to include morning air. They do have P.M. Air & car wash combo positions.

The BA has always been a straight shooter with me and I trust his judgement. He told me that while he is somewhat familiar with the California case he believes the Gaithersburg case is very strong. However since the California case was before the Gaithersburg case he has to wait for the hearings to finish and for the arbitrator to make a decision. He said he would be very optimistic that a decision is made before the end of the year.

Lets hope we get a good decision on this case.

 

[MD Dan]

Thanks OldTimer. It's been very difficult to get any Info on this and I appreciate your taking the time to track this down.

 

[FREE-B]

Actually the case involves Locals 439 and 137. The dispute was created when UPS expanded the early am service in the zip codes surrounding the Sacramento, Stockton, and Chico areas. Local 150 is not party to the arbitration. In the Locals of 439 and 137, part-timers never delivered early am packages since the inception of the early am service. When the company decided to expand in July of 2006, they informed the local unions that they were no longer going to use full-time employees to deliver early am packages, but instead hire part-timers early am drivers as permanent employees replacing the work that was previously performed by the full-time employees.

There has been two days of testimony so far and should be completed in late October where hall is scheduled to testify.

 

[MD Dan]

And Thanks to You as well Free-B.

 

[sortaisle]

Spokane has gotten rid of almost all eam drivers and pm air drivers. They've worked the routes out to where a driver has the routes in part of his dispatch. This creative dispatching sucks in lots of ways, but there's no way around it. We have strong stewards and a strong BA and nothings changed. It seems like am drivers are sol untill the economy picks back up and there's too much work to do for the drivers to have the air routes in there dispatch. Don't get me wrong, we still have a few air drivers, but it's only like 4 of them in the entire building, and we put out about 115 routes.

 

[MR_Vengeance]

The way I see it is that the fact that the company has gotten away with violating the contract most of the time and at most of the places does not mean that they can do it all places all of the time. The EAM work is clearly reserved for regular package drivers and the company may not violate the contract for economic reasons or because it is convenient for management.

but it did state in the national air contract that an air driver can do EAM packages.