Good Solid Unionist's

Brother President,

Looking in, from out here on the prairies where we have little impact on Fred Green's "Movie" I must tell you it makes me proud to say "I'm am Teamster". Once upon at time, nobody who knew me would ever expect to those words to come rolling off this keyboard.

From the beginning of this dogfight the Company initiated early in the Negotiations, right down to the very moment I sit here writing this. When Fred's Industrial Relations Negotiators arrived approx. one and one half hours late first session in Ottawa ( if my memory serves me correctly) and promptly informed our guys they would need the rest of the day off to do some preparation,day one was in the can and from what we have seen since then the rest of the sessions never had a chance to climb out.

Over and over pattern bargaining , all we hear is we have to follow the pattern set by the other Unions. It appears it's the only class in high school these gentlemen paid any attention to.

However, as recently as last week Fred Green said "He will not give in to this Union Leader, later in the week he said " We may have some flexibility on the percentage increase if we showed some flexibility in our work rules". Today I'm hearing Brock Winters spoke to a group of Temp Supervisors and indicated the next pay stub would have a 1-800-scab line listed for those whom would choose to betray the very principals we have fought for to this point, and he further indicated " We will not be dealing with this Union Leader", contrary to what Fred had said to all the media the end of last week. I learned a long time ago, someone who can't consistently tell the same story is most likely trying to deceive. Perhaps a course these people might look into by correspondence would have content in the art of successful story telling. Might make for a break in the action while they are flying around in the corporate jet counting their money, laughing about the lies they told at the Shareholders meeting. One thing I know about telling stories, and god knows I've told many " It's important to tell the same story to the same group everytime" a fundamental this bunch obviously never got a hold of. Twelve Years and two months ago I was on strike for 3 weeks. Fred Green told the Shareholders meeting " In the last 12 years his IR people had negotiated 99 contracts with only 1 short strike 4 years ago". Well Fred that " "Short Strike" lasted 7 weeks. Abundantly obvious to me at this point is the top Management of this Company thinks the rest of the world will believe whatever they say. I said to my wife the other day the Americans looked the other way while Eron Execs robbed the place blind while the Company hit the toilet, I don't see much different here.

I like to think of it this way, the Company is obviously grievously concerned 1 week doing our jobs and the Office Staff is hurting and they want to reassure the Temp Supervisors the real workers will be back soon and they won't have to carry the office staff lunches much longer. One can only imagine how these poor individuals feel once in a place of power where they looked out the windows and down their noses at the Track Guys and now are fed their just desert, getting a taste of the jobs they not so long ago thought to be unimportant.

Looks like the old adage rings true "Better watch who you crap on your way to the top, those people will be there on your return to the bottom".

One thing I like about our side is the subject matter of this mail, like I said at the beginning I know we can't make a big impact on informing the public from here but, God Dam it I'm proud of the work my Brothers are doing all over the country.

In Solidarity,

Gary McDougall