Reality Check Ep 037

The hosts discuss the issues faced by drivers in their company, including excessive workload and lack of concern for safety. They talk about compliance hearings and the importance of settling grievances. They emphasize the need for in-person meetings and the goal of reducing workload to ensure drivers can spend time with their families. They also mention the company's tendency to cut routes and lay off employees during hot weather. The hosts stress the importance of adherence to the 9-5 language and the need to address any issues with management and union representatives. They highlight the importance of safety and express concerns about past incidents. Teamster Power 767 Reality Check with Jeff Schenfeld and Garfield Hooper. How's it going today, Garfield? Pretty good, Jeff. How are you doing today? Fine, thanks. You know, just doing things around the house. Just doing things around the house, getting ready for the week. Yep. Yeah. So, but, so, today we're going to talk about the 9-5 issues. I mean, it's a company that doesn't seem to care, and then they want to, well, they don't say it, but you know they're coming after you. They're going after specifically people. Didn't you say that at the, can you mention that at the meeting yesterday, Garfield? Yes, in fact, we finally got it around to a few of our guys qualified for compliance hearings, and we had them last year. Yeah. Four of them, actually. Two of them went okay, and two of them were like very much like, oh, well, your performance numbers aren't up. So, like, you're over-allowed too much. So, clearly, you're not following the method. So, we've got to get on par with you. Both of these guys, this will be their third ride-along of the year, and to me, that says specifically that they're doing these ride-alongs just for performance basis. Because, you know, they're going over 9-5. You know, they're not reducing their load. All they're doing is, and now it's like, oh, well, we've got to go through and do another, do a ride with you and make sure you're doing everything correctly. And, you know, my stance on it was, you know, you've already had your ride-alongs. You know, you didn't, you coached them already. Like, now you want to have a third with them, you know, barely a month later. And so, to me, that says, oh, well, we're just going to harass this guy until he goes at the speed that we want him to and, you know, possibly gets hurt. You know, we're going into the summer months. You know, here in North Texas, we've already hit 90 degrees. I think one day this week, heat index was like 102, 103. It was up there, absolutely. Yeah. You know, what they did in my tent, they said, oh, well, it wasn't a full eight-hour day, so we've got to get back on the truck. And one of the drivers were like, nope, doesn't say that in the contract. You know, or the computer broke down, their computer. Not my problem, not my problem, you know. And, I mean, they'll try anything. But bottom line is, they're cutting routes, as always. They're putting more work on the trucks. What do you expect to happen? Exactly. What do you expect to happen? You know? I mean, it's just ridiculous. And, you know, they'll keep doing it. And, you know, after the second one, you file the grievance and you wait for the VA to have the hearing, not over the phone. Preferably. In person. Yeah. So, but. And another thing about the compliance hearings, like I want to push this too, is like if you've gotten to that point, you know, we were going over the language specifically before we started here. You know, and it says you have to be paid out for four grievances, four 9-5 grievances before you can qualify for the 9-5 compliance hearing. And when you get that, when you put that on your, essentially, your fifth or sixth, however long it takes you all to get these things settled, these grievances, like you want to have, you want to have an in-person meeting with your labor manager and your management and the VA. And the business agent, because, like, you know, you don't want to have these things over the phone. Like, they did this with a couple of our guys I don't necessarily agree with. They let them go and, you know, run their routes and said, hey, we're going to pull over and talk to you on the phone when we go over this stuff. I'm like, you know, you know, this stuff is coming. You've been known it was coming for a while. Like, either bring these guys in early to do this or, you know, keep them off the truck to do compliance hearing or whatever on top of this stuff, training or whatever, you know, do whatever you have to do. But, like, I feel like having those meetings in person is a necessity. I sat in on a couple of them. My drivers wanted me as a steward in there because I know what's going on in the building better than the VA does. So they wanted me in there as well. So I stayed back and talked to a couple of them and was in there on those meetings. But, you know, it's contractual language. You get to the point that, you know, if they're continually doing this, it's got to go to a compliance hearing and we talk about it. And that potentially lets you get quadruple time if the committee decides that, you know, it's a problem, it's a continuing issue. It is. But specifically, I want to talk about, you know, any driver who walks in the 95 list, the final grievance is the employer. Now, you need to listen to this. Everyone needs to listen to this. If the employer has continually worked the driver more than nine and a half hours per day for any three days in the work week, the company will not assign excessive overtime on the two remaining days within the work week in order to retaliate against the driver for opting on the 95 list. If this is found to have happened, then the remaining two days is a violation of this provision. The co-chair shall have the discretion to award the penalty. So it doesn't say Thursday and Friday, right? This is what we were talking about, the two remaining days. It's not specific to Thursday and Friday, and, you know, we were getting some calls on this. You know, it's just, I mean, if they wanted to make it Thursday or Friday, the remaining two days would have said Thursday and Friday, right? Yes. So. You know, and even, you know, they could have just as easily said, you know, the last two days in the week because we have two schedules now in package. You know, we have the Tuesday and Saturday. And, you know, we have a lot of drivers that go over on Saturdays, just like we have a lot of drivers that go over on Mondays because they cut routes. And this, that, and the other. But they could have made that language specific if they wanted it to be this specific. So to me, the remaining day says any two days in the week they work you over. They work you over and just purposely keep you under the other three. And I want to get this to come across. This has always been my stance on the 9-5 language. It's there to reduce your work. It's not there for you to make extra money. And I know a lot of people use it that way. And if the company wants to continue to pay those things out, that's the company's problem. You know, they want to pay, keep paying the triple time. They obviously, they paid out a buttload during COVID because everybody was working jillions of hours a week all, you know, every week when COVID was going on. And if they want to continue that practice, you know, that's on them. Yeah, but like to me, the compliance hearings and this quadruple time and stuff is there specifically to keep your workload down so you can get it home to your family. And that's my goal when I'm on the 9-5 list is to get home at a decent time. And I think that should be everybody's goal. Because to me, if everybody's getting home at a decent time, that means they're having to put in more routes. And that means there's more people on the clock. That means there's more people driving. That means more people have to work. And we've got more Teamsters. Absolutely. I think that's the ultimate goal as a Teamster. Yeah. And they've already, you know, we, I think it was a couple of weeks ago, you know, one of the on-road suits was like, well, you know, we're, you know, things are going to change. We're going to start, you know, laying off some more people. So as it gets hotter, we're going to lay off more people. I mean, it's crazy. I mean, it's absolutely crazy. Every single year. And, you know, they wonder why people fall out, you know, and are having these issues. And, again, like you said, you know, the 9-5 was to reduce time, not, you know, to get the, you know, the extra money and whatnot. And I just, and they, you know, for a while, years ago, they wouldn't even pay it. That was like pulling teeth. Now it's a lot easier. Yeah. You know, because they're doing that. But it's, and it's important, again, I just want to repeat this. If you want your meeting, it's after four settled grievances. Okay? Because I've had people come up to me and say, no, it's four settled grievances. I mean, it's, I mean, that is what it is. It's the language. And, you know, we just have to go by it. You know, and that's the thing, too, is if your stewards in your building are not settling those 9-5s and stuff like that, they should be. Like, those are, that's real simple stuff to do. You know, you've got the weekending. The management can pull up your hours. We can get the exact times. Settle those grievances. Get them out of the way. And if they're, if for some reason management is refusing to settle, let your business agent know. Let the president know. Because they're supposed to be meeting to settle that stuff with you once a week. So, contractually. So, like, if you've got four 9-5 grievances in and none of them have been settled, and that's preventing you from getting a compliance hearing, then, you know, that's a problem that you need to address to your business agent and your president. To make sure that stuff is getting done so that you can get the compliance hearing. And then so we can, so you can get the relief you need, especially going into the summer months. Yeah. Yeah. And we don't, I mean, you know, we, I know you guys up there. It was a tough time, you know, last year because, you know, one of the drivers, one of your friends passed away. And we don't want that. I mean, we want everyone to be okay. And the company, you know, they say all these safety things, safety. It's always thrown out the window. We really got to, I mean, really get on that case. I mean, really. I mean, we can't even have these, we can't have these issues. We can't go through this again. You guys can't go through this again. No one can go through this again. And we've got to do something. We've got to take this as high as we can go. We've got to push. And, you know, people, we all have to stick together no matter what. And that's the thing, you know. That's how it is. People want to do this thing, want to do that thing. No, we all have to stick together. Hey, listen, we're all affected by this. The heat affects us. And, oh, yeah, by the way, where are those ACs? Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, but, I mean, that's obviously another thing. But, you know, what we're going to get out of this is we want everyone to make sure they file the 9-5. You need to get paid for them doing this to you. But we're hoping that we can, you know, maybe things will be different. Maybe we can push harder on every level, you know, I mean, all the way up to the IBT. And we can get them to, you know, I mean, we have to push. The company is just going to do what they want. We have to push. But we've got to get the support from our local and from, you know, the IBT as well. Yeah, well, and we were just discussing the language in there. And it even goes so far as to say that if enough of these go through, you know, that the idea of extra, of not having enough people in the center will be brought up at panels when they hear these things. So keep that in mind when you're filing 9-5 grievances to get your routes reduced so you can get home and do that stuff. Ultimately, you know, if everybody in your center is filing and everybody in your center is on these compliance hearings and, you know, especially after all this happens and you're going and you're getting paid out for quadruple time and it keeps happening, keeps happening, keeps happening, keeps happening. That's the staffing issue is going to be brought up at the national level for these things. So and that's that supports your brothers and sisters. Like I said, that gets more teamsters on the roads. That gives you that, you know, to me, having appropriate staffing is better for the company as a whole. I know the company doesn't think that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And besides the monetary settlement, you know, the employee vice president and the union chair, they will have the discretion to adjust the driver's work schedule. I mean, that's I mean, we got to get them to do that for every one of them. I mean, we really do. I mean, it's so bad. I mean, it's just so bad. I mean, it's but we just got to keep pushing. So that's it right there. You know, we never stop. We keep pushing. Yeah. And everyone follow your nine fives. You know, you wrote it and that's it. But for myself and Garfield, thank you for listening and have a good day. We all deal with national language. But on this podcast, when it comes to supplemental language, we deal mostly with the southern region. And as always, it's best to get advice from your local stewards or business agents. If you would like to reach out to us with any questions, we have an email address. 767 reality check at gmail.com. That's 767 reality check at gmail.com. And remember, strong people stand up for themselves, but the strongest people stand up for others.