Reality Check Ep 043

The Teamster Power 767 Campaign Podcast is dedicated to educating Teamsters. John Cashen, a mechanic, discusses how the automotive department has gone from a five-day-a-week to a seven-day-a-week operation with no additional hires. Mechanics are now expected to answer phones, which is not part of their job duties. There is also a discussion about the number of trucks each mechanic is responsible for and the issues with the layoff language in the contract. The tool allowance increase of $100 is considered inadequate. The importance of respecting part-timers and sleeper team drivers is emphasized. 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. This is how legends are made. This is how legends are made. All right, so we're going to get right into it today. We're going to have an episode about mechanics, and today we have John Cashen, mechanic out of Hazlitt. So, John, we're going to ask you what's going on with the mechanics, what's good, what's bad, in terms of every day and in terms of the contracts. Speak your piece. Well, I guess my biggest complaint is that over the last few years with automotive, we've gone from a five-day-a-week operation to a seven-day-a-week operation, and they haven't hired any more mechanics, and they've slowly gotten rid of managers and supervisors. So now the mechanics are expected to answer the phone, even though that's not in our job duties. Oh, gosh. Yeah, I know. I don't know. I don't know. That's a problem, in my opinion, because you're trying to work on something, and, you know, just like with the package car driver where it's important that they deliver packages in a timely manner, they want us to do PMIs and do repairs in a certain way, and we can't because you have to stop and answer the phone every 30 minutes. But just out of curiosity, how many trucks are you responsible for as an individual mechanic? Well, I believe that what UPS wants is either 33 package cars or 17 tractors. I'm in a bid spot for trailers. You know, you always bid the start time, not the job in automotive. Yeah. And you have to look at every shop individually. Sometimes the mechanics have as many as 50 package cars, which is considerably more than they should have, and then you compound that with them being CNGs because as a package car driver, for sure, Jeff Shinfield knows that the CNGs are apt to have more problems than a gasoline or a diesel. I don't know, Garfield, what's in the McKinney building, and I certainly don't know what was in the Sherman building, but... In the McKinney building, we have, oh, probably around 200 cars. Our mechanics, I was actually just having this conversation last week with one of our mechanics. Our mechanics are responsible for 60 package cars each. Well, that's twice what UPS recommended, you know, 10 years ago. I haven't seen a written number in a long time. Yeah. And Sherman only has one mechanic, and I think they have about 35 or 40 cars. And he... Yeah, well, he's a good mechanic. Yeah. I've met that guy a few times. Yeah. He's a good mechanic. Yeah. Yeah, it's... I mean, of course, they're asking more of everyone like they always do, and they don't want to do their part, and, you know, it's just they try to put the pressure on you. But let me ask you something else. So, you know, with this new contract, I know we've talked over the years, John, and you've always had an issue with the layoff language. What do you think of that layoff language now? It got worse. Okay. So here's the deal. This is just John Cashman's opinion, but I don't feel like I'm on an island here. I feel like a lot of people have this opinion. So the part-timers are our future. Mechanics are a different breed, but most people that we talk to on a daily basis, no matter what position they're in, they started as a part-timer, and the part-timers actually lost contract language, and somehow that was admitted from the stuff we got to make a decision on whether we voted yes or no on this contract. But the contract language is pitiful. All we'd have to do is change one sentence from we'll displace two part-time workers to we'll keep your bid job for the first four hours of your shift. And if we did that as a union, as the IVT, all the layoffs would stop because they couldn't screw you over and cut your pay by half and give you some crappy job. But yes, I was laid off in 2009. I didn't get seven days' notice. I didn't get seven days' pay. I didn't get to bid the job I got. And then when I went and tried to bid the job I got, a steward called management and complained and said I didn't bid that job, I just took it even though I was qualified for it. I have a very bad taste in my mouth over layoff language, and in fact that's what started me as a unionist and put me where I am today, that fire that they lit in 2009 that no one will ever extinguish because they didn't follow the contract. And I expect UPS to not follow the contract at every opportunity, but I expect the union to use the contract as a tool to protect me and all my brothers and sisters. And when we were facing all the layoffs in the McKinney building this year, when they were laying off, at one point I think we had 16 people on layoff, 16 drivers on layoff. And I tried to argue the seven-day language that says, hey, you're supposed to give them seven days' notice before they do that, and I was told by members of our current local leadership that because they were being laid off to preload and not laid off as in back on to the street, that that didn't count. And I was like, well, they're still being laid off, you're still using the term laid off for them, so they should still get seven days' notice. Oh, no, we don't have to do that. Well, it's ten days now. Yeah, ten days. Yeah, it's ten days now. Yeah. Yeah. So, they did do that. They jumped it up. They did do that. Yep. Two weeks. Yeah. But, yeah, it's, you know, it's always a matter of, you know, the company's going to do stuff, we have to hold them to the contract, right? That's always the thing. Well, yeah. Yeah. And that's a given. So, one other thing I wanted to talk about, what about the tool allowance? Would it only go up, like, $100? Okay. So, oh, boy. I don't – yeah, so, everyone's different, right? If we go poll three mechanics, you're going to get three different answers. And if you'd like, I could try to call a half a dozen, even a dozen mechanics over the next week or two, and specifically ask that question, if you'd like, for an answer that you could put on another podcast. But for me, I won't say it's a slap in the face, but it's ridiculous. I mean, you're going to say $400, so, okay, let's digress. So, I started in 04, and the tool allowance has always been $300. And so, at a union meeting last year, they asked me to go into a business agent's office and ask me for some ideas on some contract – I don't know what word they used, I don't remember now, that you could – I'm drawing a blank, but changes to the contract. And so, I have a lot of changes. What? Contract verbiage? Language? Well, they don't call it that. It was a contract suggestions. I don't remember. Proposals? Yeah, proposals. Contract proposals. Heck yeah, man. I got like a dozen contract proposals, and if you'd like, right now, I could go over a bunch of them with you, but I know for a fact that Jeff and I have had conversations about these for the last five years, and I just wear them out about them because they're simple changes that would change the way we treat people. But it goes back to, we don't respect our part-timers, and we should. And then, my other big concern is about our sleeper team drivers. A lot of our sleeper team drivers are high-seniority drivers, and we just let them get screwed with their language. And I don't understand because I hope that us all three one day are 30-year seniority employees, and I don't want us to get screwed, but I had proposed a $1,000 tool bonus. It wasn't – it was partially my idea. It was the idea of other mechanics, and I'd been asked by a business agent for some contract proposals, and that's the one they wanted me to do. So I helped them with the wordage, and we ended up actually calling a sleeper team driver a couple days later and talking to him about better language and making it where it looked really nice. Did that change the contract, or did other people make that same proposal? No one ever got back with me. I didn't ask them to, but we did get $100 a year out of that, and I mean, okay, great. But I mean, you'd have to go online and look, but a set of Snap-on wrenches, they're not $400. They're more than that. So $400 won't even buy a set of sockets on the Snap-on truck. So is UPS responsible for buying my tools? No. Am I fairly compensated as a mechanic in this area? Yes, I'm drawing a good salary. Is it the best salary around? No, but if you include my benefits package, I am fairly compensated. I'm not complaining about a tool allowance, but a $100 tool allowance is kind of ridiculous. I mean, you added $100 to the tool allowance. Why didn't we get $100 a month for all the part-timers? I'd much rather the tool allowance go away and we get two more option days. Much rather. Yeah, no, and it's – no, we appreciate that, you know, because, you know, the part-timers are – you know, everyone's important, and yeah, the part-timers have been left out. But you know, John, I just want to say I appreciate you coming on to the podcast and being honest like you always are. I mean, just brutally honest, and we love that. We love that, brother. We do, and we wanted to make sure we covered the mechanics. So for myself, Garfield, and John Cash, and we want to thank you, and everyone have a good day.