First off no one ever wanted to strike, but we were prepared to strike to protect what we have. It was a long two month process with nothing getting done until the very early hours this morning. We accepted a handshake agreement before start time for our package car drivers so they could inform the customers that we reached an agreement. Load stand you can piss on out of here because you obviously had no idea what we were fighting for. Heres some of the agreements.
All ftime jobs created from 1997 through this agreement are protected from elimination,
Any feeder driver that gets laid off now can bump anywere in the 705 juristication (previously it was within district),
Any employee that gets laid off will maintain their current rate of pay,
any fulltimer can bid into any other ftime job up or down in pay,
No subcontracting of any work if we have union employees willing to do and available hours (this is huge),
We will regain the cross country feeder work,
triple time for 9.5 with no opt in or out list,
A letter of understanding in the contract detailing that air drivers cannot deliver or pick up grounds,
no 2 tier pay scales for anyone (everyone in the classification will make the same), no ptime package drivers (which was offered by the company),
expedited arbitration ( anyone that is disciplined and goes to panel will have an arbitrator sitting there and will make a decision if the two sides deadlock on the spot)
an additional week of vacation for 30 years of service and an extra optional day for all employees,
stronger swing driver language detailing seniority rights,
We retain our seniority language compared to the companies proposal,
All feeder drivers can now have c.b radios
no on call feeder drivers
We received the same economic proposal that the national received and improved on alot of our language protecting our jobs, work place rights, and contract enforcement. We also do not have act of god or emergency conditions language under article 3 section 7 for sups working, they are not allowed to work period.
As i have said it was never about the money, and i would like to thank those of you that have supported us through out these talks. I am spent and plan on spending some time with my family over the next few days. Also im very impressed with the solidarity of all of my fellow brothers and sisters in 705 that supported all of us on the negotiating committee and i only hope that you understand that we addressed alot of issues without giving up anything! No jobs were traded away, no one was sold out as in the 2 tier pay scales and we as 705 upsers can stand proud. I hope that we on the committee represented you and all of your concerns. Now lets go out there and get some sales leads and help make more money for the next contract. Red