Reality Check Ep 038

The hosts discuss their concerns about extra contract agreements, particularly regarding lunches. They read Article 6, Section 1 which states that the employer cannot enter into agreements or contracts that conflict with the current agreement. They mention instances where the company has tried to implement extra contractual agreements, such as clocking out for lunch and signing documents. They emphasize the importance of filing grievances and standing up against these agreements. They also mention the stress and pressure that management puts on employees. The hosts encourage everyone to read Article 6, Section 1 for more information. Teamster Power 767 Reality Check with Jeff Schoenfeld and Garfield Hooper. How's it going today, Garfield? It's going pretty good. Real rainy day outside. Really put a damper on my plans for the day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It always does. It always does. But the show goes on, right? Oh, yeah. Always. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. So today we're going to talk about extra contract agreements. That's Article 6, Section 1, and extra contract agreements. That is something that just bothers me. It does. The company tries to get into it, into agreements, and they'll get with someone who might be like, okay, and then they'll agree to, well, if a combo, you reduce the second part of my job and let me do something else, then I'll do this for you. We can't do that. We can't do those things. I mean, the language is the language. You bid on a job, you do it, no matter what it is, like anything else. You know, it's like package, like Peters, like, you know, combo, anything. You've got to do that job. You can't try to make it better for yourself, you know. But, Dr. O'Farrell, why don't you read the language? Oh, yeah. Let's see here. Article 6, Section 1, except as may otherwise provided in this agreement, the employer agrees to not enter into or attempt to enter into any agreement or contract with its employees, either individually or collectively, or to require or attempt to require employees to sign any document, either individually or collectively, which in any way conflicts with the provisions of this agreement. Any such agreement or document shall be null and void. Any such agreement or document may not be placed in any employee's file or used by the employer as a basis for discipline or used in connection with any disciplinary proceedings, nor may any such agreement or document nor the contents thereof be divulged to any person or entity. In addition, the company will not discipline an employee for refusing to sign any company form related to the principle of a fair day's pay, a fair day's work unless the signing is required by law or by this agreement. Now, so I guess we'll talk about it. Since you're going through it now, one extra contract agreement is the lunches, them telling you to clock out to drive. Yes. To lunch. Now, did you get clarity yesterday at the meeting? Kind of. I mean, I got clarity on what I was supposed to do, and I believe I got clarity on what's expected of the drivers. But, I mean, it wasn't 100% clear, but, you know, I'm going to do what I can with what I have. But, you know, asking me as a steward to come in and represent a member and sign a document that's extra contractual, I'm not going to do that. Like, that's my right as a steward. I have to sign disciplines for no other reason than to prove that I was there for the issuing of the discipline. Me signing a discipline doesn't mean I agree with it, but I'm required to be present when a discipline is issued. So I have to sign it, much like a member of management has to sign it, and then as a steward, RTS for the member. But like the lunches, I don't sign those. Those aren't disciplines. It's a policy that we don't recognize. It has a small section of it has contractual language, but the rest of it does not. So to me, that is an extra contractual agreement, so I'm not going to put pen to paper in that. If they want to do something now, I think that these are being put in their files, which would also violate Article VI. That's why – that's much why – many reasons why we're encouraging everyone, if they get approached by management with these papers, to file an Article VI because it needs to be – it needs to be stated that, hey, this is an extra contractual agreement. I don't agree to this. It shouldn't be put in my file. I shouldn't have to abide by it, you know, for many reasons, least of all the fact that it's illegal to ask me to drive a commercial vehicle off the clock. Another one, though – They're trying to make the policy, but it's not going to be policy. Yeah, it's – And here's the thing. They're trying to do this. They're trying to intimidate people like, oh, we're going to fire you. You know, we're going to write you up. It's all management evidence. They're trying to get enough people to do it to be like, oh, people are doing it, so let's be okay. And that's why you have to – people have to fight back about this. And people have to file their grievances. People have to – like, once again, I'm not going to ask anybody to possibly put their job in jeopardy. I'm willing to do that because I'm a fighter. I always have been. I don't take that bullshit. And other people have more important responsibilities that they go to work every day and deal with that stuff. You know, I'm not asking anybody to put their neck out. That's what I'm here for. I'm willing to do that, so I'm going to do it. But another example of this was last year. They were trying to get everybody to sign a piece of paper at the end of their day if they were coming in under eight hours so that they could be changed to Code 5, which, if you're not familiar, is the pay actual code, which means you only get paid for the time you worked. You don't get your guarantee. And now we actually – our local won a big case on that and got a bunch of people paid out for it because that was an extraconductual agreement. But to me, this is much more difficult because, like, they're not going to be able to track that. If people are clocking out to drive to lunch, you know, you're talking, like, are you going to – is the company going to go back and check and see how long you spent driving when you filed that grievance? No, people are just losing out on wages at this point. And then on top of it, with us going into summer, people are, you know, losing time on their break. When time they would be in a cool zone, you know, getting recharged to go back out there and continue doing it in a hot day, they're losing that time because the company is saying, oh, well, you've got to clock out to drive to lunch now. That's the stress too. I mean, you know, people get stressed about things, you know. And it's – you know, they come at drivers, and they just, you know, oh, let's just go with the drivers. Let's just, you know – you realize there's a lot of things going on. You know, you just want to do what you want to do. And, you know, that's another thing. I mean, it's everything. It's everything during the day. And we have to try to minimize – help minimize what the company does, you know. You want to go with someone and tell them, like they told the driver, he could have made it there, you know. Everything came down late, but he could have made it there. But the supervisor who was riding with him said, no, just do – we're going to have you do ground and air together. And he's like, well, no. But then he's like, I instruct you. Okay, well, let him – if they instruct you, then do what they tell you, as long as it's not unsafe or unethical, you know. But why would they do that? He could have made the air. So it was that supervisor's judgment to do that, which is not the methods, right? No. So – and that changed – that's like, okay, so you want us to follow methods, but you're breaking the methods, you know. And it's – everything – you know, there's root causes for all this stuff. And, you know, it's, oh, you want us to sign for lunch for this. You want us to, you know, sign that you, you know, you read this. No, we're not going to sign anything. They want us to put our name to everything. So, you know, they want us – do they have you signing your computer after they do a ride-along with the driver? Not to my knowledge. It's in a computer, right? Yeah. I mean, I have Adobe fill-in signs, so I said to my supervisor, okay, I have my grievance in here. Will you sign my Adobe fill-in sign? He goes, sure. And then he goes, wait, what, what, what? Yeah, I mean, you're having – you want me to sign on a computer? I'll have you sign on my phone. It's like a computer. Why don't you just sign my grievance? You know, and he's like, well, wait a minute. Well, no, wait a minute. You're having me sign – you want me to sign a computer. Well, it's good for you. You know, it's not just good for you. So, but we talked about it, and, you know, he understood. He understood. And, I mean, they can't just do what they want, but it's everything. You see, it's everything. It's the little things. And with the summer coming up, with the heat over the year, actually, it gets to people, and they don't realize it. And that's what I try to tell these supervisors and managers. You know, the stress they're putting people under adds to everything on top of it. And, you know, it's – but people have to resist trying to do the extra contract agreements. You know, it's going to benefit them and, you know, do certain things. We just can't do that. It means you're – if that's the case, if you do that, you're possibly violating someone's seniority, right? I mean, you just have to – you just have to do the right thing. You always have to do the right thing. So it's – you know, and the stewards – I mean, a lot of stewards aren't trained to deal with this. And that's a problem also, you know, speaking with the members, speaking with management, speaking together, you know, trying to get these things resolved where it's not combative. It's like, wait, look what you're doing here. You know, you point these things out to management, and if they don't want to listen, then you escalate it a little bit. You know, and you do what you have to do. It's just – everything is – and they're so afraid of losing their jobs, management. They're taking it out on, you know, on the employees, right? Yeah. I mean, it's bad all over. But, yeah, I just wanted to talk about the extra contract agreements. And we can't be doing those, and especially with the lunches, like you're saying, by you. But, you know, that's it. So if anyone wants to take a look at it, Article 6, Section 1. Yep. So, but – all right. Well, for myself and Garfield, I just want to thank you on another episode for watching, and we will see you soon. All right. Bye. 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, 767realitycheckatgmail.com. That's 767realitycheckatgmail.com. And remember, strong people stand up for themselves, but the strongest people stand up for others. Thank you.