August 14, 2008: Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have voted to reject a tentative three-year National Master Automobile Transporters Agreement and all of its supplements, the union announced Aug. 12.
In a mail ballot ratification counted Aug. 11, preliminary results show the master contract being rejected by a vote of 2,939 to 2,076. A simple majority approval is required for ratification. The Central-Southern supplement was rejected 2,555 to 1,500, the East by 316-304, and the West by 184-171. Some 9,500 employees at 14 companies would have been covered by the master agreement.
With the rejection of the contract, the union now plans to talk to its members and local union leaders to "discuss the issues behind this defeat," Teamsters Carhaul Division Director Fred Zuckerman said in an Aug. 13 statement. "We will get our members' input on the issues that concern them. We understand that our members are worried and angry about the difficult economic conditions facing the auto and carhaul industries. We hope to resolve this contract without going on strike."
In early July, leaders of locals representing the workers unanimously endorsed a tentative agreement reached in June by negotiators for IBT and the National Automobile Transporters Labor Division (119 DLR A-8, 6/20/08 ). At that time, Zuckerman told BNA that the agreement would protect members' job security, increase substantially the employers' contribution to health and welfare and pensions, maintain benefits without additional costs to employees, and protect wages (130 DLR A-10, 7/8/08 ). It also called for a wage freeze for the first two years, lower wage rates for employees hired as of June 19, 2008, and elimination of the cost-of-living adjustment for 2009.
"The proposed agreement eliminated various restrictions so that contracted employers could haul more cars, thereby providing additional job opportunities to our members and protecting their job security," Zuckerman said Aug. 12. "However, our members have made it clear that they do not accept the proposal."
A Teamsters spokesman said Aug. 12 the union would not have any additional comment other than what was in the union's statement.
A spokesman for the NATLD could not be reached for comment Aug. 12.
Major carhaul carriers that are members of NATLD include Allied Holding Inc., which is the largest employer in the group, as well as Active Truck Transport LLC, Cassens Transport Co., and Jack Cooper Transport Co. These companies transport new cars and trucks from production plants and rail terminals to dealerships and other retail sites nationwide.
TDU Said Contract Was Concessionary
The Teamsters for a Democratic Union, which worked to defeat the proposed agreement, said it was rejected because it contained a "massive list of concessions, which would have gutted decades of hard-won contract protections."
According to TDU Organizer Ken Paff, the biggest single objection by members to the proposed contract was the elimination of language that called for equalization of loads, which spread work among drivers from different locations. With the elimination of this provision, he said, locals will be played against one another for work.
According to a TDU flyer, the agreement would have required that when work is slow, drivers could be relocated to any other terminal with no option to take a layoff instead. If the driver were to decline, he would be out of work but not laid off.
Another provision would allow locals to negotiate lower mileage rates than provided in the contract, Paff said, allowing one local to negotiate a lower rate to gain work at one terminal at the expense of the other local.
Another concession would have required drivers to be on five "tours" before returning home, Paff said. Proposed language would have provided that when an employee is dispatched from his home terminal he may be required to pull trips away from his home terminal but will be dispatched so he returns to his home terminal no later than the completion of a fifth tour. Paff said a driver who picked up a load in Michigan and took it to Missouri could then be routed to Dallas before going back to Missouri and then to Michigan, putting that driver on the road for at least a week.
Zuckerman earlier said that under the contract that expired May 31, a driver who took a transport out of one terminal would have to return to that terminal, but under the proposed contract would be able to go on "three or four more tours of duty" before returning to his home terminal. He contended that the contract had become "restrictive," not allowing the companies to "use manpower to get more business." The tentative contract would have eliminated some of the restrictions, he said.
By Michelle Amber