Reality Check Campaign Ep 01

The Teamster Power 767 Campaign Podcast is dedicated to the Teamster Power slate running for local 767 office in November 2024. The goal is to educate as many Teamsters as possible. The speaker, Jeff Shenfeld, talks about his experience with the current administration. He offered his help but was rejected. He started hearing negative things about himself from others and decided to run against the current administration. He criticizes the current administration for not doing their job, lack of transparency, and communication. He believes they are more focused on flashy things rather than addressing the problems. He accuses them of not having a plan and relying on the International Brotherhood of Teamsters for guidance. He claims they are not addressing issues promptly and just advocating for filing grievances. He plans to expose the current administration and promises to provide the truth. Welcome, everybody, to the Teamster Power 767 Campaign Podcast. This is a new podcast solely dedicated to the Teamster Power slate running for local 767 office in November of 2024. Regardless of the outcome, we intend to continue the Reality Check Podcast dedicated to the education of the members locally and across the country. Our goal, in or out of office, is to educate as many Teamsters as possible. I hope everyone's doing well today. So today we're going to have one of many episodes that we do that we'll call a campaign episode. It's going to be separate from the regular episodes, the educational ones and whatnot. So today what I want to talk about is I want to go way back to the beginning when this administration got in. So I was a BA in the last administration. We ran against these guys. For whatever reason, we lost. That's what happens. So what I did, like a good union member, like I've always done, I asked them if they needed help. They didn't want me as a BA. That's fine. You need help training your BAs. You need help doing anything. Dave says, I don't need anything. I don't need anything. They don't want anything from me. I offered it. I have text messages offering it to BAs, to members of the executive board. Because that's what we do. And when these guys won, no matter what I feel, I congratulated them. And here's the thing. When you have a campaign, you go all out. Because what you're doing is the people who win are going to be running your local for three years. And if it's not the right people, like I believe it's not the right people, this is what happens. So you've got to bring out everything. All truths, but you've got to come hard and just bring it. So we did that. We lost. And congratulated them, like I said. Offered my help in any way possible. But what I got some feedback was they just don't want any part of me, this and that. And that's fine. I don't like them. They don't like me. But we've still got to work together in the union. And I said to myself, okay, I'm going to give these guys a chance. So I gave them a month, two months. And all of a sudden I started hearing things. I had friends of mine at different buildings saying, Jeff, they're saying this about you. Specific things. And they would all come out. Because we'll have those people on the podcast. Specific things that they're saying. And I'm saying to myself, these guys won and they're coming after me? I don't have thin skin. I don't really care. But the point is, you guys are in office and you're coming after me. Whether it was a BA or a BA who happens to be the vice president, who happens to be my BA, or other people. They want to say stuff great. You want to lie? We're going to show you that you lied. And there was a lot of that going on. I'm like, okay. So now I'm like, all right, these guys are coming after me. Do I just sit there? No. I was holding them accountable no matter what when they would do certain things. But I stepped it up. I'm like, no, no, this is not the way this is going to go. As time went on, I said to myself, you know what? I never wanted to run. I never needed to run. But it was time to run. There were things that I learned over the years that it was the right time to run. And I'm not perfect, but I have a plan that I've been just putting together. And I was willing to give it to the last administration that I was with and wanting to help. But people want to do their own thing. That's fine. People have their own way. But all along the way, I'm still getting people coming to me, Jeff, saying this about you. And I'm public what I say. I go on Facebook. I say it. I'll say it to their face. But there's been no, okay, it's not the time to, hasn't been the time to say it to their face. We will have town halls. We will have those, okay? And then we'll be able to say things. We'll be at the gates and we'll say things. I don't have a problem with that. I'll back it up anytime, anywhere. And what I've watched is all I wanted this administration to do is do their job. And what have they done? They've done the opposite. They've gamed the system. They've gamed it. Instead of just doing their job, they have just, it's been a smoke and mirrors. Whoa, we're going to do flashy things, but we're not going to do the everyday thing. If you're listening to this, everyone in that administration and the BAs, I see what you're doing, okay? And so do a lot of other people. A lot more people are seeing it each day. And it's not right. If you just did the job, that's all this membership needed, but you didn't, okay? And, you know, not doing shop visits, not really speaking the truth, not answering questions at the meeting. And, you know, someone would ask a question at the meeting, a very simple question, and then it gets answered with 15 minutes of whatever. I mean, it's not even the answer. And then the members at the meeting get mad at the person who asked the question when it was the person answering the question who wasn't really answering the questions who caused the problem. There was nothing. There's no transparency. There's no communication. And it's not right. So I'm done, you know, I've been done dealing with these guys thinking they know what they're doing. They never had a plan. New vision? What? What plan? What new vision? There was none, okay? And they did a contract campaign. They were told what to do by the IBT. You know, other than that, when the IBT is not telling them what to do, they don't know what to do. I've offered my help up. Again, I continue to offer my help up. And I told them about situations that were happening, not just in my building and other buildings. And what do I get? Nothing. They don't want to help, you know. And when members come to me from different buildings, I always say, make sure you get with your BA. But their BA doesn't get back to them. And it's just been one thing after the next instead of just doing their job. So, you know what? Yeah, I'm going to do everything I can to get these guys out because they're doing nothing for the members. They're going to do flashy things. How about doing the job? How about, you know, working the problems, okay? You want to just file this, file this, just file a grievance, file a grievance. Everything's just file a grievance. Sure, you got to file grievances, definitely. But how about working the problem, getting with labor and dealing with the problem? Because when you just say file grievances, months and months go by instead of dealing with the problem right there when it could have been fixed right there and people being violated left and right, so they have to wait months to file a grievance, file a grievance, file a grievance. And the grievances aren't getting settled. I get it that management, you know, labor doesn't want to settle all the time. I get that. I know that, okay? But I never used it as a crutch. I kept pushing and pushing. All I hear is, well, labor's not meeting, labor's not meeting. I get that. But what are you going to do about it, okay? It's just been nothing. What's the substance here? Tell me what these guys have done. Tell me the important things that these guys have done. And I can tell you, whatever someone may tell me, I can tell you. I can flip it and say, no, they didn't do that. And people need to see it. They really, really, really have done nothing except for themselves. And I'm not saying they don't care. I'm not saying certain ones don't care over there and whatnot. But, you know, if you're just going along to get along, then you're still part of the problem, okay? I'm going to end this episode here, because there'll be plenty more to come. But I think that people need to know the road so far, we'll call it. It's the road so far. And we'll talk about certain things along the way. We'll have people on the podcast, on these campaign episodes. And we will expose these guys, all with truths, with nothing else. Once again, I'm Jeff Shenfeld. Have a good night. Who needs a reality check? I got a check in reality. There comes a time for everyone when they need a reality check. You know you are out there. It's time for your reality check. These are the campaign episodes. Who needs a reality check? I got a check in reality.