Speaker 2: 0:09

Welcome back to that's Delivered. I'm your host, trucking Ray, and today we have a returning guest. I'm excited to have this conversation. If you've been following the show for a while, you may have remembered the last time we sat down with Scott Wilkie, a business agent for Teamsters, local 638. Down with Scott Wilkie, a business agent for Teamsters Local 638. Last time we talked about the transition from education to union advocacy, what Local 638 is all about and some of the projects and initiatives that they've had to had the initiatives to work with.

Speaker 2: 0:38

Since then, a lot has happened in the world, in the trucking world for unions and workers' rights. So today we're going to dive into what Scott Wilkie has to do with current events, union new projects working on for you know, the Teamsters making it all work. So we appreciate his work also with the DRIVE program, which plays a key role in advocating for workers' rights and reshaping policies and the impact that drivers and union members have. Also, of course, we're going to dig into deeper some of the topics that we touched last time on how the industry is evolving and how the union is adapting and what's next in the future for labor as far as for trucking. So let's get right into it, scott, welcome to the show. Trucking. So let's get right into it. Scott, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 1:36

Yo Scott, how you doing. I'm good man. Thanks for having me back. I'm excited. The topics today are some things that have been in the news recently and affecting uh, you know, affecting a lot of people. You know, I always say that everything starts and stops with labor, you know, and, and labor kind of touches every aspect of uh, of uh conversation in America. So, um, yeah, I'm excited to touch on, uh, touch on some of these topics with you today. Thanks for having me back.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Yeah, it's a pleasure. Uh, I mean you've been busy ever since then too. I mean just telling me about some of the things that you deal with in your day. What's been going on with Local 638 since the last time we talked?

Speaker 1: 2:09

What are some of the big events and major updates that union members can kind of listen for and say, hey, this is what we should pay attention to Sure, but a lot of the political stuff right now we're having to be more involved in because the policies at the federal and state level are affecting workers and affecting unions. So we've been involved a lot in that Um and maybe some people at their work not feeling like they're getting treated the best or or the wages that they have aren't reflective of the work that they're doing, or are reaching out to us um because they want uh to be um represented by the Teamsters at their workplace Um. So we just had a? Uh another vote recently of uh of a work group that reached out to us called Pack Edge edge um local business some you might have heard of here in the twin cities um 100 vote to to become union and be recognized by local six or eight. So that's exciting um. I think since we spoke last um, we've had um, if you've heard of, like saint ben's and saint john's college uh or university, excuse me um up just north of saint cloud. Um the bus drivers, since we represent drivers um and you know bus drivers as well um, the bus drivers at the college um have voted to become Teamsters Local 638 members. So that's exciting Um, and some small businesses in North Dakota as well.

Speaker 1: 3:40

So I think right now you know maybe a silver lining, I suppose, to you know what the pressure folks are feeling to try to get an advantage in the workforce is. You know unions can provide that. So we've had a lot of interest in folks reaching out to us, and you know we're always reaching out to different areas of labor just to see if they're interested. We've even had daycare centers reach out to us, which is, you know, something that would fall under our jurisdiction, so as locals for local 638. So that's kind of cool. You know something different that you know we can be supportive of, and then you learn more about these people's jobs too and the and the stresses that they have, and you know some of the unique contract language that they would want in their workplace. So, yeah, it's been exciting to see, you know, because of the tough times that folks are in right now, the I don't know maybe excitement or energy around union labor, as you know sort of a reaction to those struggles.

Speaker 2: 4:44

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think about all the changes that are happening. People wonder you know, can I get more security, can I get more something to depend on, versus feeling like man? I got to do all this myself, so, joining up as a group. I think it will be an advantage. I mean, that's huge, you know. Is there anything else that uh behind the scenes that people shouldn't? Maybe they just don't know about? Maybe there's something people didn't realize that that goes on for unions and and what's what you've been doing recently?

Speaker 1: 5:15

Yeah, we're always, you know, we're always trying to build relationships, um, you know, whether it's in politics, you know, with businesses. You know sometimes people who don't, you know, understand the inner workings of unions and how we operate don't understand that we're not out to put stress on an employer, you know, sometimes it's. You know, when you see a strike line, you know those get the sexy headlines and people feel like that's what's, you know, taking place, but it's really not what's going on taking place, but it's really not what's going on. But one of the things that you know our local represents, you know we're a general local so we represent a lot of different industries. But films, like TV shows, movies, you know a lot of people saw that. You know, love is blind came and filmed here and that was cool because, hey, it puts Minnesota on the map, right. But as Teamsters, we look at that as that's bringing jobs. And in Hollywood Teamsters we look at that as that's bringing jobs. And in Hollywood, teamsters make up a huge part of Hollywood union labor. And so does, you know, sag-aftra, and a lot of people are aware of that union. But the Teamsters are the folks that are operating those crews on set and kind of making the operation itself run. You know there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and so we looked at that as an exciting opportunity.

Speaker 1: 6:25

That know, maybe more film work is coming back to minnesota because that's essentially an injection of um funds into an economy. Right, you think about how much money had to be spent locally here to make that show run. I mean, every single morning you need to feed the people on set. You know they need coffee, they places to stay, they have to gas up their vehicles. They have. You know all of our businesses are getting a bit of a jolt right and back in the.

Speaker 1: 6:51

You know, in the 90s I was a 90s kid here and remember the Mighty Ducks days and Jingle All the Way and all those movies and Grumpy Old Men and those movies that were all filmed here in Minnesota Fargo, you know it was filmed in Minnesota. We've gone away from that because back in the day we had a tax credit here in Minnesota that allowed movie producers to get some of the money back that they spent, you know, by making the film here, and so we kind of incentivize people to tell their stories in Minnesota and then film and bring that work here for our workers and after Jesse Ventura was in office that film tax credit went away. We've since got back a bit of that. In the last legislative cycle we got a bill passed to incentivize Hollywood to come back to Minnesota, but it really isn't enough because other states have better tax credits than we do still. So I think if we can get that moving in the right direction or even do what they did in St Louis County up north and do their own tax credit just for the county, duluth is now seeing movies coming back to St Louis County up north. And so I say all this because you asked what's going on behind the scenes.

Speaker 1: 8:03

I met with Mayor Fry recently and a couple of movie producers about a few weeks ago about working with the mayor's office in Minneapolis City Council to maybe mirror what they're doing in Duluth and incentivize Hollywood to come back to at least the Twin City. You know Minneapolis, specifically Melvin Carter. Maybe they can do their own. You know if Minneapolis takes off, but seeing what's out there as far as you know, showcasing what's going on, you know around the Twin Cities showcasing our landscape and our people and our businesses and bringing some of that work here to inject surplus into our businesses, you know, fill up up our hotels, fill up our restaurants and and utilize our resources and give these business owners, um, you know, more of a profit for for these work, uh, for this work that's, you know, available in this looking for a place to film.

Speaker 1: 8:57

So, um, that one was kind of exciting, just because it's so different than what we normally do is, you know, as drivers, you know, which is a lot of our local but, yeah, a lot of folks on the local six city represents people in the film industry, and so when we do get film work in Minnesota and they have union labor, you know, teamsters are the ones who are driving the flatbed trucks, hauling props around and and, like I said, working behind the scenes to help the film operate.

Speaker 1: 9:25

So we'll see where that goes. But I said, working behind the scenes to help the film operate. So we'll see where that goes. But I'm hoping that, you know, with with Jacob Fry in an election year, he's looking for ways. Right, this is mutually beneficial. He's looking for ways to show voters that you know I am, you know, making Minneapolis a better place and so you should vote for me for another, you know, another cycle here and we're looking at it as we're trying to find people who want to help workers, so it's mutually beneficial and so, yeah, we'll see. We'll see where it goes, but that was an exciting thing that happened recently that I'm I'm anxious to see, uh, what develops wow, the wheels are turning, man.

Speaker 2: 9:56

That's awesome. Uh, looking in the future as to potentially what else we can add. You know, help out with, uh, different sectors. So, man, think about that. You know what is the biggest challenge as a in the past year has it been for the union and we can help out with different sectors.

Speaker 1: 10:10

So, man, think about that. What is the biggest challenge in the past year? Has it been for the union? I think the same thing that it's been for most people is just battling some economic downturn right now. I mean, as we're talking right now, the tariffs have gone into effect and that's pretty much. If you open up a new browser tab, that's the first thing that's going to pop up on your news headlines is what's going on with the stock market. And you know, because, like for us UPS guys, this UPS stock is down right. So then what happens? Ups has to cut costs.

Speaker 1: 10:39

Well, the biggest cost that they have at their company is their people, and so you know they've automated, you know, their HR department, they've automated their payroll department and they've even automated a lot of their new buildings and the work that used to be, you know, people touching packages, is now being done on belts and tray systems and you know the scanning that used to be done is different. But now, what we've seen in the last few weeks is for me, as a labor, the representative of the workers, if somebody gets fired for something and maybe they did, maybe they didn't cross the line Things that we used to be able to get people back to work with a phone call and say, hey, you know what? Yeah, they made a mistake, but they don't deserve to lose their job. We should get them back to work with a phone call and say, hey, you know what? Yeah, they made a mistake, but they don't deserve to lose their job. We should get them back to work. The company's been more motivated to put them back to work because they need staffing or the volume's coming in and they need the resources.

Speaker 1: 11:36

But right now, with the volume trending downward because people are spending more money on groceries than they are on goods online know, goods online. We haven't seen the packages at UPS flowing like they used to and then the stock price, you know, dropping again to the pre-COVID numbers. Ups is looking for ways where they can tighten the wallet and you know, unfortunately that means layoffs, right. So we're dealing with that in a lot of our buildings and trying to make sure that people still are getting their hours of work If they're laid off from full-time into part-time, and they know what their rights are, as far as you know, if they want to bid into another building working. Um, as UPS is is shrinking its workforce a little bit due to the shrinking in in their volume.

Speaker 1: 12:30

So that's been a struggle, um, you know, just like every other business is, is, you know, looking at their bottom line right now with, with, uh, costs going up and profit margins not not meeting those costs? Um, so I think, profit margins not meeting those costs, so I think, right, you know, we negotiate contracts. For some of our contracts it's tough to, you know, go to the negotiating table because people want, you know, raise increases, but if right now profits are down, it's tough to get those increases. And you know we're not going to ask for, you know, money for people that doesn't exist. Right, that just doesn't work. So that's been a struggle too.

Speaker 1: 13:06

We almost went on strike with Fargo Paint and Glass recently in North Dakota because, you know, folks are struggling and the business is struggling. So they had to find a way to meet in the middle and say, okay, here's what we can do to be financially, you know, successful as a business, but also make sure that our workers are getting, you know, fair wages and benefits and taken care of. And and they, it took our business agent, shane Block. You know he put in a lot of effort and I think the company had to put in a lot of effort too to get creative and make it happen, but ultimately we got a contract, didn't go on strike, right, worked through it, but there's a lot of fun but uh, but uh, you know it's, it's, this happens, right, economic downturns happen and hopefully, hopefully the damage of this is is, you know, not as bad as uh, as what I heard on npr this morning?

Speaker 2: 14:00

so but uh, let me give uh people something that they can look at. You show me a stack of grievances, man, just put that in there. See how many, how many, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:12

Well, this is. I'll try to make sure I don't show anybody's names on these things here, but this is the last month worth that's. So I'm I'm one of of of the agents on staff here, so I represent about a thousand of our workers, and that's not even including excessive overtime grievances out of UPS, which, if you're a UPS or listening, you might know what that is. So right now, just for one issue which is excessive overtime at UPS in one of my buildings, the Maple Grove building, I'm on track for about 2,200 to 2,400, 9.5 grievances this year for excessive overtime. But for all the other issues, like you know, I didn't get paid properly or on time or I'm being harassed. That was a phone call I took right before we hopped on. Was a driver who felt like they were being harassed this morning by a manager, or somebody got fired for stealing something. You know these things happen and so we're the. You know the response to that Sort of like for people who don't know what a business agent does. We're sort of like you go to court, you've got a prosecution, you've got a defendant and I'm the lawyer for the defendant. We're trying to make sure that if something happened to you, that we get the right result. And there's a lot of issues, you know, right now. So it's a lot. It's a lot. I mean, I probably take about 80 grievances a week and so when I get a phone call from a member like yourself, it says, hey, what's going on with my grievance? Sometimes it's like which one right, because you got a few issues we're trying to fix, you know, and to be, you know, transparent.

Speaker 1: 15:51

I think UPS kind of leans into that sometimes, because if they muck up the system for, you know, justice and equality at the workplace, then you know, some people use the phrase justice delayed is so, uh, you know, if you don't get a quick resolution to your issue, then it doesn't really feel like, you know, justice took place. So, you know, if you. That's why we have some language in our contract that you know forces the company to be more motivated to get things done efficiently. But you know, if, if you have a harassment grievance cause your manager, you know was, you know, if you have a harassment grievance because your manager you know was, you know harassed you today and crossed the line of what the contract says is harassment and it takes me a month to get you a hearing, you know that time heals all wounds.

Speaker 1: 16:34

Sometimes you walk into a hearing like, well, we kind of worked through it. You know it doesn't sting as much. You know that's not. You know we don't want that. We want to be able to get results for people as soon as possible. So it's hard when you know we've got a lot of issues happening all at once and we're trying to get you know resolution on things as soon as we can and and thank you know, thankfully I'm very fortunate to represent folks who who they get it. You know, um, that I'm very open about where things are at and transparent. I've tried to try to be communicating as much as possible with people so they know where things are going. But yeah, it's a lot and we're trying to try to keep up with with what the company's been doing or not doing sometimes at the, at the workplace. So, yeah, well, but you know, like I said, I just remind myself whether it's the economy or what's happening with discipline right now. You know it's ebbs and flows, so right now it's it's it's so tough now.

Speaker 2: 17:30

You know it's ebbs and flows, so right now it's it's it's so tough, but you know we'll get back to even keel, you know, hopefully sooner than later. All right, some upcoming projects. Maybe last time you were on we can touch on what you talked about as a women's committee and how the union is pushing for a better engagement with as far as education for members. Can you give us an update on those efforts as far as those projects?

Speaker 1: 17:48

Yeah. So I think last time we, yeah, we talked about the women's committee and Hannah Bernardson is one of our agents, who she heads that up, and if you want to get involved with that, if you're a local 638 member, you know they have their own Facebook group. So if you know and all of our contact information is on teamsters638.com If you want to find, uh, you know my information or Hannah's information or, um, you know somebody else that you need to reach out with at the local um or just have questions about you know union activities or or how to get involved. Um, but I would say, if you're, if you're, um a female member, member of ours, definitely reach out to hannah because, um, she's got those, she's got those ladies fired up and and I think it's, it's sort of like I I compared it, um not long ago to like it was like a volcano. I was like when we hired hannah and it was like all this, like stored up energy from, from these ladies that they just they just needed to, to, to have that direction, to, to start getting, getting getting things rolling. It's been pretty cool to see Um. So, yeah, they're, they're very active and, um, and that's been, you know, like I said, really really cool to to see this, this new direction. They've been. They've been working on Um.

Speaker 1: 18:57

I think last time we spoke I started the maybe not um we we officially have recognition of um, the Indigenous Peoples Conference, within the Teamsters IBT. So, folks who don't know, me, mixed race, my dad's Anishinaabe from Turtle Mountain Reservation, and so Indigenous issues are something that are really important to me and I very rarely meet a lot of Native American Teamsters and when I do, it's cool because there's some extra connection there right outside of just being a Teamster and we actually in North Dakota represent my family's reservation up in the Belcourt area, our UPS rugby building. It's the one that delivers out there, so it's cool. We'll be out there, I think, a month or so, and get to see some cousins when I'm up there, and that's cool. We'll be out there, you know, I think a month or so, and and you know, get to get to see some some cousins when I'm up there and and and that's we know you exist still and we're trying to create some momentum to get more folks involved surrounding indigenous issues.

Speaker 1: 20:11

About a year and a half ago it was during peak season, christmas season at UPS we had a Native American member of ours, alexis Whitehawk. She went missing after work. She was a part-timer who was a driver helper. She got dropped off by her UPS driver walking home and was never seen again and was found murdered and MMIW, missing, murdered Indigenous Women Statistics are a big issue in Indian country and it's something that we are feeling here within Local 6ian country and it's something that you know we are feeling here within local 638 and it's something that this conference is going to um work to recognize too.

Speaker 1: 20:51

Um, a lot of people don't know this but this, the second leading cause of death for um native american women is murder and you know we we felt that personally here the minneapolis ups have felt that statistic personally here recently. So that's part of what this conference is going to do is recognize, you know, our Indigenous members, help to work with and, you know, be a part of the solutions to Indigenous issues and create pathways for Native American folks to get into union labor. Most of us, whatever job you have, you know right now, as you're listening, had somebody who either gave you a tip or knew somebody who worked at that place to kind of get your foot in the door, and so that's what I kind of want to be for for Native American kids is, you know, hey, here's a, you know here's some job opportunities and you know I can get you connected and get your foot in the door and then help you be successful. Um, and so I'm hoping that this November um, I'm meeting this summer and we're going to try to craft out something. Hopefully this November we have a a kind of a big um foundation building, you know, event that we can look to and say, okay, now, now we're moving in the right direction.

Speaker 1: 22:05

It's not just, uh, we have a page on the IBT, you know, that recognizes our existence. That's great and that's the first step. But now we're, we're getting things done and we're we're walking there, our talk here a little bit. So, um, that's something that I'm working on, um quite a bit and rolling out and um, and yeah, yeah, hopefully, hopefully next time we chat, you know, in the fall, here at least I can I can point to something significant that we've done with that um.

Speaker 1: 22:31

Also, john jonathan kichek, who's the president of our local, was recently um nominated and voted in as the um vice president of the lgbtq plus caucus for the teamsters, um for the ibt.

Speaker 1: 22:45

So that's a big deal, and this summer we'll have um a huge, huge presence at twin cities pride, our joint council um is. I think they've already raised enough money to go um over budget. So, um, it's going to be huge. The ibt's having their people make this their um kind of their center point I think LA was last year and this year it's going to be Minneapolis for for their big, um centered sort of pride event of the year. So, um, yeah, we're really excited about, about where that's going to, and TMBC is coming up um. So all the the extracurriculars, right the gravy on top of our, of our regular job, um, those things are moving in the right direction and sometimes it's a nice break from the hundreds of grievances that are here that we're trying to get resolved. Being able to do something a little more hands-on with folks is a nice reprieve from that daily norm as well. I'll be honest Wow.

Speaker 2: 23:41

Yeah, that's huge. I mean I saw when you put that out there. Man, that's great starting that for the indigenous. I appreciate you doing that. It was great success. You know seeing that happen for you and for so many others and I know you hold that dear to your heart. Is there any other projects in the pipeline that you're particularly excited about? I know there may be a few, I think, yeah, there's.

Speaker 1: 24:06

So I always have, like you know, like ideas in my craw, you know, and thankfully I work at a local that has a lot of like-minded folks, where we're not afraid to throw darts at a dartboard and just try new things, and if they fail, then they fail right, but at least we're trying. We're not just going to spin our wheels, you Right, but at least we're trying. We're not just going to spin our wheels. You know, one of the things I'm excited for that, you know, I think the members will be excited for too is where we're going with incorporating more technology into into our day to day at the local. So you saw, you know we've talked about before how we have to handwrite. You know all these grievances are handwritten, they have handwritten case numbers and you have to to stamp them as date received and all these processes. And then people call me and say what's going on with my grievance? So, in an effort to try to fix that and be more efficient, jonathan, our local president, got us on Salesforce, which most businesses use for sales, but we're using it to store data about our members in order to categorize, you know, and resolve issues. So I'll give you an example using myself.

Speaker 1: 25:11

So let's say you know I file a grievance because I didn't get paid on a vacation check, you know, on time. Okay, so I filed the grievance. What happened with it? Did it ever get resolved? How much should I get paid? Right, and we're trying to streamline the processes. So that way you know, if we have your contact info, ray, we could give you a text with a PDF image of your resolved grievance or even the. You know the steps, right, you file the grievance? Hey, right, here's a PDF copy of it. We've received it on this date. Hey, ray, we resolved it on this date and you can see at the bottom as that your payout is going to be and you can expect that vacation check plus penalty, in a week from today. Right, creating more communication and transparency. So there's a couple businesses that I've reached out to that I'm one I'm actually meeting with in a couple of days to see how we can digitize the grievance process.

Speaker 1: 25:56

So that way it's easier for members to file a grievance and then it's easier for us to process agreements and also easier for our members to know what's going on with their grievance after it's been processed. So you know, they can not be, I guess, left in the dark and where things are going. So how long will that take? I don't know, but it's got to happen because you know we got to be more efficient because you know we're in an instant gratification society, people you know have, you know, expectations of which we got to be held to.

Speaker 1: 26:27

And then the other thing that I think is kind of interesting we'll see where it goes is a new membership application that's in a digital format. So if you've ever, like, bought a house in the last decade, you probably had to use like DocuSign or JotForm or some kind of digital PDF. You probably had to use like DocuSign or JotForm or some kind of digital PDF. So I put our membership application in DocuSign in order for businesses that we represent to have that on file, to where new members on day one can just simply fill it out by typing in all their info and then it immediately sends the email to our admins, versus the three-part carbon paper. Is that a, you know? Is that a two or an s or what do they put there?

Speaker 1: 27:10

Right, deciphering things snail, mailing it to the office and process right, so we can get people you know in and approve faster, especially if they're coming from. You know, if they're a 120 member, another 638 member, we have to work with those locals to get them transferred, um, streamlining that process. And then you know, nothing gets lost when it's just, you know, automatically sent through email. Um, so, yeah, that's, that's. Uh, you know a little inside and maybe it's you know, some people go, oh, what's up?

Speaker 2: 27:46

that big of a deal, but I think it'll make a big deal in the long run, again, just for us being more efficient for our members. Nice, you think about all those cases, or all those grievances, or I mean, what does the future look like for some of these projects Once you make them streamlined? Do you think there'll be any successful to get a lot of that done, or are we just going to have to keep pushing forward and keep putting it out there in the forefront as something important?

Speaker 1: 28:04

We're just going to have to keep pushing forward and keep putting it out there in the forefront as something important. Yeah, I mean, like with anything you know, you have to be willing, like you know, to fail. Or, like I said, sometimes it's just throwing darts and seeing what sticks. And on these projects that we're working on, I have to remind myself too, like success is never, never, linear. You know, um and whatever, whatever we're working on, it's not gonna, we're not gonna just hit it on the first time, and so to try to keep myself and then the people involved motivated and engaged with it, I think is always the biggest struggle.

Speaker 1: 28:36

It's, it's. It's one thing to have an idea and have people say, yeah, good idea, but it's another thing to have people say, great idea, and I want to be involved and I idea. But it's another thing to have people say, great idea, and I want to be involved and I'm going to give you my time and energy, through whatever struggles it takes to see it through. Um and that's. You know, that might be the labor movement in a nutshell, I guess, but it's, but it's true on these projects that that you know it's not going to, it's not going to hit the mark the first time, and if you're, if you're motivated um, you're going to stick with it, right? So?

Speaker 2: 29:09

I think that's good for a lot of people to see that it's not that you just give up on it, but you keep trying if it doesn't work. But hopefully some of them stick. Like you said, throwing darts Um, good analogy. I like that, um. So yeah, some of those hurdles are just something that comes with being a part of a union or part of life. How can union members get more involved in some of these efforts so that they don't get this kind of fight discouragement? They've got to fight a lot of obstacles just to do what they need to do to be successful at it. What would your advice be for them?

Speaker 1: 29:39

I think with anything, whether it's trying to get anything accomplished, just showing up is half the battle, right? If you're trying to lose weight, just getting to the gym, I think, is 90% of it right, just getting there and we saw that this past weekend with the hands-off protests right, 25,000 people down at the Capitol, right, just people just showing up and making time and energy for is the majority of the work in and of itself. And so if you're willing to put in any extra time or efforts or energy into a cause, um, that you're near and dear to, um, and it's something we're supporting, then let's go like give me, give me a call right now. I can definitely get your point in the right direction. Or shoot me an email. My contact information is is posted in all of our you know buildings I represent. It's posted on our website, um. Or if there's something that you want to engage with that we're not doing, um, you know, let us know. But I mean, even recently, at our last union meeting, we had a couple of people stand up and say, hey, we should be doing this, or hey, I want to support this, or let's move in this direction and put it to a vote and make it happen.

Speaker 1: 30:55

One of the things in fact, this is as recently as this last union meeting we're at is the May Day event. The Mayday event happening um at the Minnesota Capitol on May 1st at four 30. So, um, mayday is um, typically like we've celebrated. It's like a, a celebration of workers day, um, but there's going to be hundreds of cities doing the same thing. I I would imagine probably similar turnouts to what we saw over the weekend, where different community groups are going to be recognizing International Workers' Day and big rallies.

Speaker 1: 31:33

So, may 1st, here's an opportunity, right, if you're listening and you want to be involved and be engaged, low-level effort, right, just showing up and you being in that space is support enough. You know, supporting Right now, as I can imagine, as it's always been and probably will be for the rest of the time, people want to make sure that workers don't have everything that they ask for in the workplace, whether it's safe working environments or fair wages or respect Go down the list of reasons it's always going to be a fight. So if you want to be involved, I would suggest and you're in the Twin Cities here, I'd suggest going down to the Capitol in the afternoon of May 1st and like I said, just showing up, that's half the battle. Show up and get involved that way.

Speaker 2: 32:23

Yeah, I mean you want your voice to be heard or you want your opinions to matter. How important is it that they do it the right way? I mean, there's quite a bit of you know in the air of hitting the news, more so of how, how to do it the wrong way. I could actually take attention away from the topic. Um actually can make it worse. What would your advice be for those? Uh that maybe um say hey, what's the use, cause look what happens.

Speaker 1: 32:49

Yeah, I mean it's that's. That's a complicated question, man. You know it, cause different issues have different levels of temperament for folks. Um, I tell you what it's. I always try to find silver linings in everything and the energy at least you know for for how people have been handling themselves, depending on. You know what your issue is. Um, it's nice to see people pissed off again. You know, I think it's so easy and maybe we've gotten fat and happy as as Americans because we haven't had to fight like this for so long. It's nice to see people pissed off and fighting back.

Speaker 1: 33:26

You know, cory Booker's filibuster was, I think, inspiring, for for me at least and for a lot of folks. You know, I watched back a lot of what he said and you know just reminders that the power is always with the people, not with the people in power. I think that was my biggest takeaway is, you know, reminding Americans that the power is not within these elected officials. Right, the power is within you and ultimately we have to make sure, you know, we're holding them accountable and using our voice and resources to remind them. You know who they work for, and maybe it's because of social media, or you know just media streams in general or how we communicate these days that we've sort of pedestalized politicians and informal leaders in our society is holding more power than the average folks, and that's just not true.

Speaker 1: 34:19

And it could be that, you know, we're union workers and we understand that, because every day we understand that we hold the keys to the business that we work at right as a collective. But I think more people are realizing that and then showing that across the world right now, on different issues that they're passionate about, and however they're protesting. You know, I guess I can't speak to people who are out there fighting for their issues, because you know, if there's a cause that's greatly affecting your life, you're going to have a different level of temperament for how that issue is being handled, of temperament for how that issue is being handled. So I guess I'm just at the end of the day. I'm really excited that people are getting active and people are organizing in order to get the results that they ultimately deserve, not just rolling over and taking whatever we're told to take.

Speaker 2: 35:10

Yeah, I mean it's nothing wrong with peaceful protesting. I mean, man, people get afraid of that and then they just don't do anything, right, yeah? Yeah, I mean it's nothing wrong with, uh, peaceful protesting.

Speaker 1: 35:17

I mean, man, it's well people get afraid of that and then they just don't do anything, right? Yeah, I think, and I think you know, like, what's going on at, you know, tesla dealerships, right? Um, you know, I don't think anybody's gotten hurt so far. I'm not going to condone, I guess you know people committing crimes, but I, you know people are afraid even to, I mean gosh, you watch some of these people at town halls. If they speak out a line or they're too loud or boisterous, they get hauled up, hauled off in cuffs, right, and I think a lot of people are afraid of that because you know, having an arrest on your record can negatively affect your ability to get a job later, and so people are worried about, you know, the side effects of engaging.

Speaker 1: 36:04

So I mean, I can't, I can't blame anybody for not wanting to be, you know, involved, but I think we all have a threshold that we have to see where we're at engaged, whether or not we're going to, we're willing to to say, yeah, I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to go out and and peacefully protest and use my voice and hey, maybe if, uh, you know, it pisses some people off, so be it.

Speaker 1: 36:22

But I'm pretty pissed off right now too, and I'm not, you know, being treated fairly and and things aren't going the right direction. And I'm going to stand up for, for my rights and use my first amendment um, freedom and and voice my opinions and needs today, and I think that we can all find a baseline there that says, uh, we need to be, we need to be engaged at some level because, um, we can't stand by and just say, you know, these atrocities are okay, you know, even if we're not being harmed by them, right, even if something's not affecting you directly, if something's doing harm to somebody else, I think we all have a duty to and a responsibility to do something.

Speaker 2: 37:01

Think about union advocacy. You've got policies. Politics like DRIVE. We're going to talk about a little bit of that the DRIVE program. For those who may not know, can you break down DRI drive and why it's for union members or even uh even taxpayers?

Speaker 1: 37:20

yeah, so drive is an acronym, um, it's. It's essentially our, our fund, and all it stands for democrat, republican, independent voter education, and that can encompass a lot of things, but, but essentially what that means is the Teamsters are not tied to any political party whatsoever. You know, traditionally we support more Democrats and Republicans, but that's shifting a little bit for a lot of reasons out that they have a lot of, like, blue collar voters in their, you know, their area that they represent that aren't voting for them because they're not taking care of the single most important issue in their life, which is their job. You know, um, everything starts and stops with your job, right? If you don't have one, then you don't have, you know, financial security and stability and affects your health and everything else, um and so, if I live in and I'm just going to use we were talking about St Louis County earlier in Duluth, which is a very polarizing, interesting area of politics, but a lot of folks up there are finding out that they've got voters in their area that would vote for them, republicans that aren't voting for them and voting for Democrats because the Democrats are supporting workers, right? So now I've got and I interview these politicians that are at our meetings and we screen them because they'll come to us and say hey, you know, I'd like to be able to put your Teamsters logo on my flyers that I send out as an endorsement from the Teamsters. So we screen them, we ask them dozens and dozens of questions how they feel about certain things and certain topics and how would they react if they were presented with a bill on this issue. And then, once they become elected, we hold them accountable to those answers. But a lot of those folks that we screen already know who we are and what our needs are.

Speaker 1: 39:13

But sometimes we've got politicians that will scream with us and they find out pretty quick that we can agree on a lot of issues. I can agree with Republicans on different topics, but on the topic of labor there's no swaying. For me You're either all in or you're all out, and I think that's what's happening with a lot of constituents is, maybe they agree with Pete Stauber up north on gun rights and they agree on things surrounding the sexy things that make headlines, like abortion and legal marijuana and all these different topics, but when it comes to the topic of labor it's like can we trust you? Because everything starts and stops with that, and if they can't trust him, then they're not going to give him their vote Right. So we've got a lot of politicians that are starting to come to the table from the Republican side that haven't before in the past, and some new, younger Republican candidates that are more towards the middle and more pro union, which is, I think, is really interesting and exciting, which I think is really interesting and exciting. But at the end of the day, the DRIVE program within the Teamsters essentially makes sure that anybody who has a Teamsters logo on their flyer or has been endorsed by the Teamsters has been vetted by folks like myself and other trustees on the board, so that you can trust that when you fill in the circle next to their name, that they're going to be fighting for workers' rights on legislation that comes across their desk.

Speaker 1: 40:40

Other issues you know sometimes there's a spillover effect into labor, like when we talk about green policies. Right, if we're going to raise taxes on glass bottles and plastic bottle use in order to curb people from using those things and hopefully that helps out the environment in some way, or recycling plastic bottles and glass bottles, okay, that's great, but how does that affect our folks who deliver cases of water, or cases of soda or beer industry. How does that affect labor? So sometimes those, those issues aren't, you know, in their own little sections, and so we have to have those conversations too. But at the end of the day, when you go into the ballot box, if you see somebody on our list of candidates who's been approved by the drive board, you can know that that person is going to support union labor. And that's the, you know, the crux of the Teamsters, right?

Speaker 2: 41:38

So yeah, yeah, it's important to understand that. You know, like I said, starts and stops with a job. That's one way to look at how the economy keeps going. I mean, so yeah, the role that DRIVE plays in organizing these rallies and news conferences and also just building support for the issues that affect the working people, I mean, I think that's huge. How did it get initiated to you?

Speaker 1: 42:03

Maybe a little history on that one, sure. So essentially, you know it started years and years ago and you know being on the drive board. I guess I should know more of the history behind it. I kind of fell into this role because we had a retirement and I've been somebody who's been passionate about politics my my entire life, and so they said, hey, I think you should, you know, get involved in this. I said okay, and I tell you what I was one of the better thing when Tom Booker asked me to start getting involved with the drive work, me to start getting above the drive work. It's one of the better things that happened in my career because, um, it it showed me that we had we, we as union workers, we have a seat at the table with these politicians and they work for us.

Speaker 1: 42:41

Um, and I think being able to build relationships with these folks in ways that, um, it's not just okay. Well, the teamsters, um, you know their drive pact gave us, you know, five hundred dollars to buy yard signs. So now I have to make sure I take care of the Teamsters when it comes to their issues. It's not really like that. It's having Lieutenant Governor Flanagan come speak at our steward seminar and talking about how her grandfather was trying to organize his workplace. Her grandfather was trying to organize his workplace and the company had some thugs take him out at the knees and basically had him put him in a wheelchair because he was trying to fight for his rights and his co-workers' rights. You know, learning about these elected officials and what their stance and how they truly feel about our cause, and, you know, being able to support the people who are going to support us. That's, I think that's what gets me motivated to to be more involved in this, because politics affects, you know, every aspect of our lives these days. But if we don't have the right people in office, a lot of these things that maybe we take for granted right now, they won't be here.

Speaker 1: 43:53

And I always, I always tell folks too, like when it comes to drive, you know I, you know I give weekly out of my paycheck, as do a lot of folks, right, and essentially, that that money is what. It's not a ton of money, but it's enough money to where we can say, hey, we're going to support some people and, just, you know, help them in their fight, right, I say, a bigger strength for us politically is that we have, you know, 77,000 active and retired members in Joint Council, 32. That vote and those votes are what's going to get people, you know, keep their jobs right and so they have a duty to support. You know, thousands and thousands and thousands of Teamsters, let alone even more union workers. But politics and the drive work that we're doing here, right, when you're, if you're a local 638 member or you're in the Midwest, what's your money? You know your $5 a week. You know, donation going towards it's going towards local politics first.

Speaker 1: 44:41

Right, I'm never going to get to sit down I mean, we as an organization do at the top, but I'm never going to get to sit down with, you know, the presidential candidate. I'm going to sit down with the people running for your city council. I'm going to get to sit down with people running for Hennepin County Commissioner, mayor, governor races, local state and Senate races, house of Representatives races, people that are doing things that are affecting you on a daily basis. The things that are happening at the federal level right, important, they're going to affect you. Level, right, important, they're going to affect you. But I would also say that if we're trying to get people in your city council that are labor friendly is going to affect you so much more. Those people who you might not even know the names off the top of your head, because they're going to decide whether or not an Amazon hub is built in your town or an or a Walmart is approved for a building, and how that dynamic is going to shape labor and your local economy. Right, who's repairing the roads, you know. Who's providing the infrastructure labor in your community. Those decisions are going to affect you so much more.

Speaker 1: 45:49

And so when you support drive, really you're supporting local politicians first, which, again, is going to affect you the most. And we, you know we we've seen that time and time again or we can put people who are pro labor to work for us, and how that spills over into other issues. When we're just, you know, we're just supporting workers at the end of the day, but we have people that support workers. Now you're supporting them in their entirety, right, we're not just thinking about, you know, safe work environments and making sure people are paid fairly yes, always important but we're thinking about the impacts that decisions that we're making on the city council are going to have on our workers potentially right and how it's going to have on local businesses that employ our workers right, and it all affects one another.

Speaker 1: 46:35

So, um, that's why I'm passionate about drive and that's why I think it's important for our members to be involved in. It is because, even if you think you know Donald Trump's great or Donald Trump's awful, and you know the Teamsters didn't endorse Donald Trump and we didn't endorse Kamala Harris, so I don't think drive is great anymore. Um, you know, that's a conversation that I've had a lot with people and I can understand the frustrations, but really, the, the, the, the. The core of drive is starting from the bottom up and I can say with you know, a hundred percent certainty that we are absolutely, um, pushing forward with with pro-labor candidates, no matter what party they're aligned with at our local and state governments, and I'm just really excited about the security that's going to provide for union workers in the Midwest here for, hopefully, years to come.

Speaker 2: 47:28

Yeah, you're more for the people, the labor. You know when people think about the local hall, I mean if it's in the name, the local. You know when you're people think about the local hall, I mean if it's in the name, the local 638, right. So I mean the fact that you're able to put those differences aside. A lot of people have a hard time with that, you know, saying you know, I've been always this way, that's always all I ever known, or this is all my family ever done. And then you know, you see somebody with different values coming through and they're just like I don't know if I don't know what to do now, you know. But, like you said, if you just keep it local and keep it with, uh, the union, no, the workers, no, that's uh it makes it a little more simpler, it seems like what do you?

Speaker 1: 48:09

well, it starts for me when I, when I go on I mean everybody's different, right. I think when most people go into a voting booth, they've got a few issues that are on their mind, or maybe they start and stop with a couple things. For me, I vote with labor first and then everything else has to come second, because everything, like I said, it starts and stops with workers. If we're not taking care of our workers, then nothing else really matters, because it's all going to be negatively impacted. All those other topics, those hot button issues, right? So you know, I just think that if people start with the bottom up, that they were probably going to be better served with the people we're putting in office Nice.

Speaker 2: 48:49

What do you think? Do you think is enough union members that understand the importance of engagement or the DRIVE initiative? Do you think we always need more right?

Speaker 1: 49:03

I think our local selfishly, I think our local does more than others. Here's a stat I'm really proud of we have a higher percentage of DRIVE participation than any other local in the Midwest and it's not even close. We have 16%. Over 16% of our members are in drive. And it's not just that we have people in drive, we have people that are making, I would say, sizable donations to drive every week because I think our members get it.

Speaker 1: 49:36

We're not like Thanksgiving dinner where it's like don't talk politics, right, it's like we talk politics a lot. You know, at our meetings we talk politics. It's uncomfortable and it's uncomfortable for me doing the drive work. You know I'll take my union head off for a sec. You know a guy like Jim, jim Abler, right Republican from Anoka. I invited him to come speak at our steward seminar this last year. Jim and I probably disagree on the vast majority of issues that he would vote on, and it doesn't matter because he loves the Teamsters. That guy, when we're at the Capitol it's like he can sniff us out and he loves the Teamsters. And he was so huge in getting our bill passed to get our school bus drivers unemployment insurance in the summer. So it was a bill that was well over a decade in the works and Jim was crucial in getting that across the line.

Speaker 1: 50:33

We look at stats all the time. Jim was crucial in getting that across the line. We look at stats all the time. It's like, okay, how many Democrats and how many Republicans and who's got the majority? Right now at our Minnesota state legislature, the Teamsters have a huge majority, right, because if I take the Ds and the Rs away and I just look at who are our endorsed candidates, I think we're like and I should know this off the top of my head but it's over 65% of our endorsed candidates are in office, right, so the Teamsters have a majority at the state capitol.

Speaker 1: 51:00

And that's what I, you know I care about first. And you know I can disagree with you. Know I was. I love Tim Walsh. I was critical of him the other day when you know they made this. He made an executive order to force all these state workers back to the office, so that was never part of their job recommendations and that hurt AFSCME workers, another union and so, yeah, I can think he does great on some policies, but then I can.

Speaker 1: 51:25

You know we can be critical of these folks too. You know we don't have to ride or die with politicians. Right, they work for us and so we can shift from. You know, we can shift our support as well, and I think our members understand that. If you've been to one of our meetings, you know that, yep, we're going to talk politics and, yep, it's going to be uncomfortable, but ultimately, at the end of the day, we support workers and we support people. That's our one commonality. We can disagree on all the other issues up and down the board, but we're going to make sure that we're fighting for, for, workers' rights, and I think that's the common ground that gets us through those tough political conversations.

Speaker 2: 52:01

Yeah, I mean you got to be uncomfortable to grow when you're comfortable that's when you're you're probably not doing much growth. So that's true.

Speaker 1: 52:09

And I mean that's true in everything, right, that's true in everything, which and that's true, I mean that's true in everything, right, that's true in everything. Which is also why you know, kind of coming back full circle there on what we're trying to do is, you know, local with these different initiatives, like, hey, you know it's not comfortable to try new things because there's a potential for failure or embarrassment or just the struggle of trying to do new things. But if you're not right, ultimately eventually something's, you know, kind of fail. Right, you can't just continue to the same thing over and over again because, um, you know something's going to fall apart, right, you're going to miss somewhere, or you're going to fall behind, or you're not going to, you know, be able to serve your members needs, and so, uh, we have to, we have to be pushing forward and everything we're doing.

Speaker 2: 52:50

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's the huge part is being uncomfortable, like you mentioned earlier. You know, sometimes we get too comfortable. Maybe we're eating too good, you know. So, man, that's great. Member engagement, education One of the things that we touched on last time is the importance of educating members and also keeping them engaged with their local or just with labor. What strategies have you been working on to help members get more involved?

Speaker 1: 53:18

So one of the things I, you know we talked about this before too, but if people hadn't heard the last episode, so I, you know, I went to college to be a teacher. Everybody in my family is teacher and you know I I wanted to do that too, but I ended up making a career out of my summer job, which was a UPS driver, and you know so glad that, you know, what I thought was a tough decision, maybe a possibly, you know, a decision I'd regret at the time, turned out to be, you know, absolutely incredible. But I still have this passion for education and a passion for kids, for education and a passion for kids, and so we spend a lot of time at schools, and not just, um, you know, high schools, but we, we go to. I'll go to middle schools. I went to Brooklyn park um middle school. It's a steam school and they do the coolest career day every year, um, where kids are super, super engaged and ask really good questions. And um, forest Lake does another high school does, and they one where kids can sign up to go to the classes that they're interested in. They bring in like a hundred different, you know, career options, and so we've been, at least during the school year, every school year, which from September 1st all the way through June, we're in at least one school a month. Last month we were in three, and so this month, let's see we've got I'm just looking at my calendar across the way here. We've got two this month and I finally a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 1: 54:48

I was really excited we got to go to Fargo, north Dakota. So most of I guess up until that point, that point of the schools that we had visited were all in the Twin Cities metro area. But I went up to Cloquet up north a couple months ago for their career day and talked to a bunch of kids about union jobs. That was awesome, partnered up with local 346 out of Duluth, and that was really cool. But yeah, I got to go to West Fargo High School recently and talk to some kids who signed up to learn more about the Teamsters.

Speaker 1: 55:24

And I think you know for me, I grew up in a union household. My parents were union workers, so I knew like, oh, mom and dad are in a contract cycle so we could go on strike this, you know, it's like that's just a dinner table conversation For a lot of kids. They don't know what a union is. They don't know who the Teamsters are, they don't know that there are better job opportunities. And I think what's been really fun is finding schools that our members have kids at and then going to those schools and talking to the students, where we have some of our members who have kids there already, and so I'll give you a quick example of this in my little call to action here. So Tom McQuay is one of our UPS stewards. His daughter goes to Andover High School, and we had a couple other drivers whose kids went to that school too.

Speaker 1: 56:12

So, um, I went to a career investigation day, um, and there's all these kids that are talking I'm talking about ups jobs and I didn't realize that some of my members kids were in the audience and one of them goes do you know my dad, do you know my dad? I'm like, yeah, I know your dad, I know your dad, and like he really makes that much money. I go, uh, yeah, he does like so. So next time, next time he's being cheap, you tell him. You know, scott said you fork up the money Right. So that was pretty cool, because I think a lot of these kids are like you know, like, oh, my dad does you know, or my mom does this and my mom works at you know this business or whatever. And then they find out, wow, I didn't realize, like everybody in this room thinks my parents have a really cool job or you know a really coveted job or benefits or whatever, or I didn't know that and and that's been really cool. So getting to go to the schools where we have members that have kids, that has been has been really fun and and branching out to different areas.

Speaker 1: 57:11

And I think what's been really inspiring is, you know, at 16, when I'll talk to like a class of juniors, like it's a junior business class, those kids are oftentimes getting their first jobs and typically your first job is you know nothing to write home about, right, it's. You know you're doing grunt work or getting your feet wet, just doing whatever you're told, and to find out that, wait, there's jobs where I have rights in the workplace and I can, you know, demand my shift. I can't just get sent home whenever my boss says and I have, there's jobs that pay that much, right, or these different pieces of labor that kids don't even realize exist and they're just starting on the workforce. So I guess, as kids are getting their first jobs entering the workforce, helping them understand that you don't just have to take what's given to you and you know there are jobs out there where you're not just. You know you have a seat at the table, you're not on the menu every day. It's been pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 58:17

And then I'll give you one more quick example. It could go on forever, but I had a kid in that class. One kid was talking about how they're a busser at a restaurant and they're like yeah, I show up for work on a Friday and it's a slow night. So my boss says oh, you can go home. Well, I only worked for an hour so I didn't really make any money, and so you can go home, while I only worked for an hour, so I didn't really make any money and I didn't get to go with my friends and do whatever. So you know, I just have to, you know, suck it up and that stinks.

Speaker 1: 58:43

And there was a kid in class who was talking about on their their foods worker at Union worker, I think it's local 63 at Cub foods. And they're like oh yeah, you know, I'm union at Cub and that would never happen. I just get to demand my shift. If I want to go home I can, but if I don't I get to keep my full shift. Like that really happens. You can tell your boss that he's like, yeah, you know a 16 year old getting to tell you know a 30 something year old how it is right. That only happens in a union. So that's been pretty cool is just kind of see the eyes open up a little bit and hopefully it's a small thing that you know down the road will help. You know these young folks as they're entering the workforce after high school. You know just understand the full scope of what's out there to help themselves out later.

Speaker 2: 59:33

It's okay to be engaged. It's okay to be engaged, it's okay to be involved, and it's okay to have disagreements and be uncomfortable to hopefully find a solution that works for everyone. Yeah, yeah, you know that's. That's great, that's that's a huge work that you're doing there, getting involved in and putting that out there, so that's great. So do you think that young drivers are interested in unions or, as past generations were, or do you think that things are kind of changing? What would you say?

Speaker 1: 1:00:04

Well, let's see, that's a tough one. I'm thinking about a few different situations I've been in recently. You know I wish you know we hear the phrase make America great again all the time. You know, I wish you know we hear the phrase make America great again all the time. When I think of that, I think of I wish we had the level of union engagement, involvement we had back in, like the 50s and 60s Right, where 10 percent of American households were not only in a union but had a role with, had some sort of role within their union. Right, and getting back to the level of union labor that we had before.

Speaker 1: 1:00:37

Right Now, coming from somebody who works for the teamsters that's going to, you know, seem obvious. But the quality of life that people have, when you know a huge portion, if not a majority of the country has a seat at the table in their workplace, right, then we, then we lose out on these. You know stories from you know Amazon workers just getting fired because they don't hit these imaginary production standards. Or Amazon drivers having to urinate in bottles because they aren't allowed to take breaks and pull over. Or Amazon drivers getting hurt because they're sprinting up icy driveways in the winter to trying to make their make their quotas in order to just not get fired. I think if we can get to a standard of work where the worker is respected and all work has dignity, then we're going to see more young people want to get involved in union labor.

Speaker 1: 1:01:28

I do see right now, just because I do get to spend a decent amount of time talking with young people about union jobs, I do see to spend a decent amount of time talking with, you know, young people about union jobs. I do see the light bulbs going on with kids who are, I would say, curious and maybe even excited about, you know, it's the potential of of working in union job, because they're looking for a way to level the race, so to speak. Like my brain works in metaphors. So, like right now, if you're a senior in high school, it is scary because you're entering into um. You know, I do. I want to go to college and take on a ton of debt at a high interest rate that I'm gonna have to pay back one day and hopefully I get a decent paying job when I come out and hopefully I can live on my own one day, because it's so damn expensive to just live, let alone will I ever own a house, because interest rates are so like they're. They are running this race uphill with hurdles right now and they're trying to figure out a way where they can give themselves an advantage.

Speaker 1: 1:02:25

Um, and I think good paying union jobs and trades jobs right now are a way to do that right. They've seen maybe they've had older siblings who've gone to college and took out, you know, a hundred thousand dollars in student loans and then had to live with mom and dad for eight years until they could afford to live on their own in some regard, and they don't even own a home yet and they don't want that for themselves. They want to figure out how can I do it, you know, in a way that's going to make me successful. Well, you know, if you want to go work at you know we'll use UPS as an example again, right out of high school, the part-timer. Do that for a few years.

Speaker 1: 1:02:59

Sign a driving bid at 21. You can be 25 years old, making well over a hundred thousand dollars a year. Retire with a 35 year pension at you know, 56 years old and, you know, not have to go into debt to do any of it. Get your CDL for free, and if you want to go take another job later on or go to work for yourself, guess what? Go do it. I think a lot of opportunity right now in union labor that young people are seeing as a way to be successful as an adult in what's a very, very uncertain, stressful trajectory for their adult life. So that's where I think the Teamsters and other unions come into play is like hey, you know, here's some stability, here's some financial security that we can offer you as you're trying to figure out how to be successful.

Speaker 2: 1:03:53

So, as far as the trucking industry for the future of labor and we mentioned drive and some of the initiatives that they're doing and getting involved in as far as technology, the regulations, even how companies hire drivers how do you see these shifts affecting unionized trucking jobs?

Speaker 1: 1:04:11

The conversation I have most often with politicians is automated vehicles, and right now we're seeing companies like Tesla, waymo, these other businesses that are, these big tech companies that are just having automated vehicles drive all over, whether it's hauling you know Bob Taylor and semis across Texas and South Dakota, or bringing people to and from places of work in Tesla's in San Francisco in order to collect data to bring to politicians to say it is safe. Now, are automated vehicles cool? Yeah, it's cool that a vehicle can drive itself and that it's relatively safe. It's not that safe. We have a lot of data that shows these automated vehicles driving through active crime scenes or not yielding to police officers in emergency vehicles or hitting people. So they're not that safe. But if they can prove them to be safe enough and these big tech companies can line the pockets of these politicians enough to allow them to service different industries, that would be the downfall of our economy. If we lose logistics jobs, I mean, I tell people all the time if you're not in the trucking world, then you don't know that when you're driving down the highway, all those semi trucks and everybody in freight is making a lot of money and, um, that's a tough job and it's a job that is paying for infrastructure in your community because of the tax dollars that those folks bring in. And even if, like a company like ups in in just the Maple Grove building, automated 10% of their drivers, that's like $3 million in tax revenue per year for just that hub that we would lose out on. And so that's the way I frame it to politicians to make it a bipartisan issue, because ultimately they have a budget and they have to make sure that they can afford to pay for the services that are required to help a local state economies move.

Speaker 1: 1:06:14

So when we're at the Capitol and we're talking to these politicians, it's one thing to talk about. You know folks like us in the industry who would lose their jobs because of automated drivers. But it's another thing too to bring up. Well, and, by the way, we would not only be losing these jobs, but the money saved would be going back to big tech companies not even close to Minnesota, going to billionaires who don't care about the fire department here in your hometown. They don't care about the resources that your school needs or that your roads need, because those tax dollars are no longer in your community. And how do you find you know folks with CDLs, you know like paying jobs in another industry. You know, after you've been, you know in the trucking industry, for you know decades, right.

Speaker 1: 1:07:01

So I think, when you can frame it to politicians as an economic issue and by by the job loss that would come from automating and having driverless vehicles delivering freight, not only the safety issues but even if they don't want to look at the safety issues what that would do to your, your economy. It would be detrimental. And, frankly, if we don't have people driving vehicles, whether that's, you know, packaged drivers or freight drivers or anything in between, um, that losing that to automation, um, I don't know how we, I don't know how I would recover because to this point you know automated jobs that have been automated. I think for the most part we've been able to find those folks like paying jobs, but we're we're growing, we're growing population with shrinking job opportunities through automation. I mean we can go on and on, but I don't know anybody who's a paralegal anymore because of chat, gpt, right. Or you know Uber drivers in San Francisco and now Nashville because they just approved it down in Tennessee. You know those jobs are going. So then what do those people do? If you've been, if that's what you've been doing every day. Now your work is disappearing due to automation. Are you able to find a like paying job, and are we still creating new jobs and new industries that will support young people coming up needing labor?

Speaker 1: 1:08:28

So automation is the single largest topic I discuss with politicians, because it's something that's it's happening right now and, um, I don't think a lot of people understand it and I think when people understand it from what it'll do, um, and the economic damage it'll do, um, but also the, the, the regards to safety, um and the long-term effects I think when people understand it they go oof. Not quite the same concept I had prior, and maybe it's not this idea we should be supporting. So that's the future of what we're doing, at least with local 638's efforts right now, with politics especially, is making sure that we have good working relationships with our politicians and people who care about labor in office. So that way, when things like automated vehicles in minnesota should that be, you know, allowed? Should businesses be allowed to slash their workforce in order to buy a bunch of teslas and say good luck on the job line?

Speaker 2: 1:09:31

um, you know, I don't think it's something we should support yeah, I mean it's a difficult conversation to have, um people, you know it was like that in school, right, you had the cool kids and you had the kids that were good at the books, and you know it's like, well, it's one way to be cool. But uh, does it make sense logically? Is it actually going to work? I mean, I mean it's you know saying is the teslas, they look cool, sometimes I've even but yeah, I love tesla don't get rid of my mustang.

Speaker 1: 1:10:05

Oh no, I'm, I was, I was, I was joking, I was making fun of I love tesla. It's all computer. You know, I think, like my, I'll give it real quick. You know, my, my dad, owned a tesla and um and then, after you know everything that's taken place, you know he sold it, took a, took a financial hit to do it and then bought a uaw made vehicle.

Speaker 1: 1:10:25

You know, I think a lot of, I think a lot of folks right now are like the the shine of, like, you know, an automated vehicle and you a vehicle that has all these computer screens. I think that's kind of worn off a little bit. You know it's like, okay, I get it. Yeah, that's great and technology is cool. But at the end of the day, we also need to make sure that we're not implementing anything but you know, implementing technology that's going to do harm to folks, right, we shouldn't be implementing things that do harm to other areas.

Speaker 1: 1:10:53

And what's the sacrifice that we're making here? You know, to have automated vehicles great, you know, that's really cool. But are we also willing to say that's something we're going to do in order to not allow my school to be able to pay the electric bill this month because you, you know, we've lost so many jobs in our, in our community to automation, right. So, yeah, there's a there's a lot of big factors at play in the next probably decade here when it comes to union labor. That'll be very interesting and we'll we'll see what, um, what the community says about where we're going to stand on these issues and and and hopefully people still have that same energy that we saw over the weekend here when it comes to those fights down the road, because it doesn't look like they're going to let up.

Speaker 2: 1:11:40

Yeah, so think about unions and you know, as far as the changes for the industry, what are they doing to prepare? What do you see that's being done to prepare for the future? Anything you could speak on to give an eye opener as to what's going on?

Speaker 1: 1:11:56

Yeah, well, we're always. We're always organizing internally and externally Right. So you know, for me, a big part of what my you know my job is is building relationships with not only the places we represent but, you know, like, like I said, going to schools, talking to the future labor, talking with our politicians and just making sure that when our issues have, you know, a cause that needs to be fought for, that people understand what that cause is and why they should be supporting it.

Speaker 2: 1:12:29

All right, so what do you think we should do as far as for the future? One thing that we wish drivers would keep in mind unions or not understood what unions actually do, and I really appreciate you taking the time to be on the show and to come back on the show as well.

Speaker 1: 1:12:48

I mean the support that the hall also has for and I appreciate you, ray, because I got this right on my desk every time anybody walks in. Yeah, it's that top episode award, baby, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:13:00

That's right, that's awesome. Appreciate it. Yeah, you got it, man. Yeah. So I think a lot of people just need to know more and continue to have these conversations and continue to keep learning about. What we need to do is to advocate for the worker, for labor. I think those are huge. So, looking ahead, what is the biggest goal for Local 638 next year or the year to come?

Speaker 1: 1:13:29

Well, there's we got quite a few. We sat down. We sat down recently and there's a lot taking place right now. So we've got a lot right in front of our face and there's, you know, a lot coming down the line. You know, where do we want to be in the next, not only year, but where do we want to be in the next five years?

Speaker 1: 1:13:52

Away that everything we talked about, that kind of boiled down to, is being a more member-led local um. You know, I talked about a little bit ago about how, you know, about 60, 70 years ago, more people were engaged and had roles, like actual roles and titles within their union that they were responsible for. And how can we be more member-led um? Because, don't think and this is, you know, like a thought from you know, not just me, but others here in our local top-down leadership doesn't always work. It's simple and it makes sense, right, because there's a hierarchy, right, and there's a chain of command, right, and how you know, and that makes it makes sense. It's simple, but I don't think, for the success of the labor movement, that it's the best option, and so I think what's the direction that we're already heading, that I hope we can continue to grow out is having different committees, right so, and different sort of like groups within our local that people can be involved in, like, yeah, I'm a local 638 member, but I'm also involved in this Right people can be involved in. Like, yeah, I'm a local six 38 member, but I'm also involved in this right Um, whether that's the women's committee or whether that's the um LGBTQ plus caucus, or the indigenous conference or um, maybe you know I hold on. I'm going to, if you can see this here, this jacket was gifted to me. We used to have a teamsters Local 638 broomball team back in the 90s, right, you know? And so, yeah, I got it. I'm like I thought it was going to smell like cigarettes or something. It actually smells pretty good, but it was an eBay purchase, but somebody threw it on there you know who knows whose it was. But Local 638 used to have like a broom ball team back, you know, 30 years ago, and I that just made me think of like, trying to be more engaged and having things for people to be involved in. So, you know, working towards being a more member led local and giving people more roles and more of a voice.

Speaker 1: 1:15:46

I think you know you attend our union meetings. I think you know folks who've attended our union meetings for a long time could definitely agree that we've seen more engagement and more people. I mean literally standing up and saying I'm passionate about this, or we should be doing this, or why don't we try this, or what are our thoughts on this. And that is, you know, stressful because it's you know it can be hard conversations to have, but it's so inspiring to see people active and involved and engaged, right and taking a role and trying new things and caring, because we have well-attended meetings where people are, you know, voicing their opinions, and that is great because it means our members give a damn and they're engaged and they care.

Speaker 1: 1:16:29

If we had low attended meetings where nobody said anything and people were apathetic, that would be concerning. So I'm excited to see the momentum that's being created and hopefully where that goes with the level of engagement and the growing numbers of people going to meetings, the growing numbers of people asking questions about whether it's our bylaws, how do they work, and maybe we should look at this, or um, hey, we've never done this before, what if we tried that? And um, that kind of energy is contagious and I think that kind of energy is what's going to be able to, like I said, push us over the next year and five years into a direction. It's, you know, more of a member-led local than what most I'd say, what most locals have, which is, you know, just traditional top-down leadership, giving people more of a voice and finding ways for people to have outlets where they can engage and be involved. I think that's what I'm most excited about for the next year or two.

Speaker 2: 1:17:29

Well, I champion you on that. I mean, you know, coming on the podcast and taking that that risk everything comes with a risk, right, and I think a lot of locals can hey, I think they could do the same. Also, you know, talk about these conversations and and we touched on quite a few things that are actually very huge topics that affect a lot of people, like layoffs, automation politics, layoffs, automation politics and also, you know, even like Tesla's. So there's a lot, of, a lot of things that people may not want to actually talk about, but it's just a simple conversation. Having that gets the ball going right. And what would you be? What would you say for those that you know, your union members? What would be the takeaway from this conversation? What would you say?

Speaker 1: 1:18:13

Well, I'd say right now, you know it's, it's hard because a lot of us don't have a lot of energy at the end of the day and and our mental load probably feels like it's at max capacity. But I guess I would just ask that if you feel you know like you do have a little more room on the plate or maybe there's, you know like you do have a little more room on the plate or maybe there's, you know you have a calling to get involved, because you know putting energy into something can also, you know there's give and take right, there's reciprocity in this union work that we do. And so I would just ask folks that if you feel like you have, you know, some room to get involved or you want to be a part of you know some change or you're pissed off, that's great. Use that energy, that frustration, to build something and to you know, to be part of molding something better. And I I would just you know I can't say all the details here because it was part of, you know official or official union meetings, business, but you know we had a.

Speaker 1: 1:19:15

We had a tough conversation at one of our last meetings and some people that were frustrated about it. And you know, one of the things that was part of the conversation after was you know, right now we're forging ahead and we're plowing a path for, for young people who don't even know they're going to be teamsters yet one day, right, and if we stop because we're frustrated about how things are going or we, excuse me, say okay, well, I give up then because it's too stressful or it's too hard or I don't have the time or energy for this, we're letting down people that don't even know what we're up to right now and the things that we're doing. We are literally forging a pathway, um, for the next generation of labor with everything we're doing. So just because we're met with a robot here, we stumble here, doesn't mean we should stop or give up, because there's a lot of people counting on us that we don't even know about yet, um, so that's my call to action.

Speaker 2: 1:20:07

Nice, I like that. Don't don't going, and then you never know what the rewards might be in the future, especially if you have good intentions. So I appreciate that. Where can people go to learn more or to get involved or put the shout out for call to action? Where would you send them? Where would you send?

Speaker 1: 1:20:28

them. Well, so you know, for our members, you can go to Teamsters638.com. That's our website and it does have links to our socials on there. No-transcript and most of our members are on Facebook, so that's where we spend the majority of our time with and put out the most of our content and the events that we have coming up for our members, whether it's we're doing an annual golf outing, we're going to go to Valley Fair at the end of the summer, a family day, so you can bring family out there. It's covered by the local, lunches covered by the local, and it's just like a big get together, just social gathering. But also, you know, like we were at hands off over the weekend at multiple locations in North Dakota, here in around the twin cities.

Speaker 1: 1:21:27

I put that out on social media beforehand with the link to sign up to find an event near you. Or you know I'm going to put something out on social media beforehand with the link to sign up to find an event near you. Or you know I'm going to put something out on the social media regarding May Day, if you want to go down and hang out with us at the Capitol. And, you know, make your voice heard. You know things that you can get involved in. I'm always going to put that content out there. If you have an idea, you know you can shoot the Facebook page a message too. You know you can shoot the Facebook page a message too, and we can help you. You know make that, you know dream a reality, so to speak. As far as you know something that you think we should be doing that maybe we're not aware of yet, and we can champion that cause too.

Speaker 2: 1:22:02

All right. Well, hey, thank you so much, scott. I mean you've given enlightenment to a lot of things that you've got going on. And for everybody else that didn't get their phone call answered while we're doing this recording, I apologize, he turned his phone off Just a little bit. Man, that's like wow, that's amazing. Thank you for doing that, scott. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 1:22:22

And so for all of you listening, if you got something out of this episode, make sure to hit the follow button. If you didn't follow us last time, follow us this time. You know I appreciate it. And if you have any reviews or anything like that or any questions you'd like to ask us, we welcome it and we also appreciate if you share it with another driver or someone else. Tell them about what you've learned and hopefully we can spread that good message to all of those to get involved with their local and to be an advocate for labor. So I appreciate you, scott. Thank you so much. Thank you, ray. Yeah, and so we'll catch you next time on the next episode. Until then, drive safe and stay informed. So that's Delivered.