Teamsters shot themselves in the foot.

If your employer is in bankruptcy and trying to restructure, what is the best course of action? Why a strike of course! That'll teach them! They'll have to pay us more then! Ummmm, right?

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/BUSINESS02/613296211/-1/BUSINESS

The president of Performance Transportation Services Inc. said the car hauler and its related companies were ceasing operations Friday, five days after 1,250 Teamsters members went on strike.

Allen Park-based PTS is North America’s second-largest hauler of new vehicles and was operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In a letter to employees, company president and CEO Jeff Cornish said the bankruptcy court on June 4 authorized a 15 percent wage cut for Teamsters-represented employees for two months. The company anticipated negotiating a new, long-term contract during that time, but the Teamsters instead went on strike Monday.

Teamsters chief negotiator Fred Zuckerman said that PTS’ financial predicament stemmed not from the union’s demands but from the company’s problems in securing credit.

PTS delivered more than 4 million vehicles annually from 24 facilities nationwide with its fleet of 1,800 trucks for many North American automakers.

Makes me think of a Bob Newhart monologue:

"so they went on strike. Yeah, well um, well if we don't make any money, we can't pay them at all. ................... They still want to strike. Well we can't very well make more money if we don't have people. Well just close up the show. That's right, close it."

That's sad. Really sad. How stupid can a whole group of people be? "They don't have enough money to pay us full wages, but they can keep paying us. We'll get our full wages again (or very close to them) in the very near future. berkeley that. Let's go on strike. We want a RAISE!"

It's a UNION. That's kinda like saying a committee.

You can split the blame amongst so many people that no one is ever wrong.

Boy, they're squeezing that stone for all it's worth, but no damn blood is coming out. Must be the fat cat executives stealing it all.

never play a 2 7 off suit if there are face cards on the flop.

I read about this on AutoBlog. As it turns out, the "big 21/2" are shipping fewer cars at the moment (due to lagging sales) so that even tho PTS is now "bust", they won't be missed in the short term.

Supposedly, there are companies, and I'm not saying PTS is or was one of them, that welcomes a strike in this situation because it proves to creditors that the money really is needed to keep the company afloat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRm1aEvZgCo

scotaku wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRm1aEvZgCo

Classic!