Tim Milligan wrote:
In reading Steven’s (by the way thank you for sending it to us Steve) e-mail on the proposed contract it kinda seemed like we ventured nothing and that’s about what we gained.1 .A small raise (I am not that good at math but it seems to be a1.4% increase over 3 years)
— Should have been a dollar a year minumum for everybody, none of this 2 & 3 tier crap, we all pay the same dues to the union, so what do they do but separate us into categories. (great!)
5. 401K. This will look good to the “retirement portfolio” longies. I still believe that we are being lead down a path here. Ultimately the path will end with the dissolving of our pension plan. Why only $1 matching funds (wanna bet the foreman/walking bosses matching funds goes to $4 per/hour???) but they’re more than willing to let us contribute more.— When your pension is dissolved, and somebody hauls ass with the 401K money, who are you going to call ?
5. Pensions... All I want to know is why I have to work 35 years for a full pension and 25 years is what is standard in most industries. And NO compensation for those that work more than 35 years. They are working and contributing towards the pension fund and receive NO benefit from it. PMA gets the benefit from their labor and they have to pay a penalty if they retire early.. I see nothing about dropping the penalty for early retirement. We still have a scaled pension. No gains here...— Should have been a minImum of $120.00 per year to start with!
9. Vessel Planner Training..... we’ll see.....— Vessel planning is probably the most important issue in this contract or last, but nobody seems to be going after it. All of these asshole companies that are taking our work out of state to avoid us should tell ya something! In my opinion that was a strike issue in itself.
It appears that if you want a good contract, you have to go get yourself by walking out that gate & let a few of those big ugly ships sit at anchor for a month or two, they will be more then ready to talk to you then. The caucus was a waste of time because nobody listened anyway, hope they had a good time on our money!
Big Jon Said It!
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