Teamsters Gain Certification at Challenger Motor Freight

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Black_Ice

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Teamsters Gain New Members at Challenger Motor Freight
11-08-2010 EST 1
Laval, November 8, 2010 – The Teamsters union has filed an application for union certification on behalf of the 15 or so workers at the Dorval terminal of the Challenger Motor Freight company. The application was submitted to the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) this past Friday, November 5, and represents the union’s first affiliation with this company’s workers.

“The Challenger workers have demonstrated outstanding courage,” explains Robert Bouvier, President of Teamsters Canada. “They serve as a model of perseverance for all those who still remain hesitant to join a union.”

There is currently a campaign to organize Challenger’s workers across the country. Those at the company’s facility in Dorval indicated that the Teamsters union was in the best position to improve their working conditions and to oppose what they said to be their employer’s arbitrary decisions.

“With the rise of a highly aggressive right-wing economic extreme, the question now is to decide what kind of society we want to live in,” adds Mr. Bouvier. “Do we want a society that promotes the enrichment of a minority of corporate managers, or one that treats workers fairly?”

In that regard, Nobel Prize winner in Economics, Paul Krugman, has pointed out that in order to have a middle class, there is a definite need for strong unions that counterbalance the economic extreme right. “Unions help boost the salaries of their members, which are generally situated around the middle of the revenue scale,” he underlines. “They also have a tendency to equalize salaries among their members. More importantly, perhaps, unions constitute a force that counterweighs corporate directions, and they foster respect of social norms that impose limits on extremely high or extremely low salaries of people who are not unionized. ln addition, unions mobilize their members to vote in a progressive fashion.”
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I believe that this quote below pretty much sums up the feelings of the majority of drivers out there who see quite clearly what is going on and are tired of being underpaid or not paid for all of their hard work...

“With the rise of a highly aggressive right-wing economic extreme, the question now is to decide what kind of society we want to live in,” adds Mr. Bouvier. “Do we want a society that promotes the enrichment of a minority of corporate managers, or one that treats workers fairly?”
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I dont think a union will help with trucking companies. Teamsters are just after the dues and that's about it. They haven't saved any jobs over the past few years, and have lost so many members in the mfg sector - they need to get some money to keep going. I hope they fight them off!!
 
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Hmmmmmm I bet the volume of freight through the Dorval dock just dropped significantly........but I wouldn't be surprised if a new dock is opened in Cornwall.
 
I agree with lowmiler - Goodbye Challenger Dorval. I'd expect that terminal to shut down.

Teamsters wont help anyone but themselves. By "themselves" I don't mean the drivers.
 
I had the mis-fortune of working at a company that was unionized for about 7 years. We were with the Teamsters, and I used to call paying dues as "32 dollars a month to my favorite charity". I was a shop steward and had the pleasure of sitting in on contract negotiations. As I remember it, there was nothing they got for us that we could'nt have gotten ourselves. Mind you every six months or so we got a "Lovely" magazine mailed to us showing all the offices and buildings in the US that our dues were paying for. Eventually we de-unionized and created an employee's association, saved ourselves $32 a month and had a more harmonious atmosphere as a bonus. In this day and age do we really need unions? I don't think so.
 
Simply amazing

bull958 said:
I had the mis-fortune of working at a company that was unionized for about 7 years. We were with the Teamsters, and I used to call paying dues as "32 dollars a month to my favorite charity". I was a shop steward and had the pleasure of sitting in on contract negotiations. As I remember it, there was nothing they got for us that we could'nt have gotten ourselves. Mind you every six months or so we got a "Lovely" magazine mailed to us showing all the offices and buildings in the US that our dues were paying for. Eventually we de-unionized and created an employee's association, saved ourselves $32 a month and had a more harmonious atmosphere as a bonus. In this day and age do we really need unions? I don't think so.
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It's still amazing that they brain wash people thinking that they are going to be a benefit and a saviour for their financial well being. As quoted by others "GOOD BYE CHALLENGER DORVAL"
 
I remember when a Union official making 80g's a year was telling me why I should be happy driving a tractor trailer for 11bucks an hour.....been on both sides and wouldn't join another union unless I had too. Protected too many people that didn't deserve to keep their jobs!
 
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