teamsters

How do we go about voting them in or at least asking them to come and explore St. Pete.

The TEAMSTERS are not coming and only a select few want them. You can pay their hefty dues if you want but I'm not interested.

i guess you get what you pay for and we all have seen what we get we all of these great contracts. maybe if you asked for 7% and the city comes back with 3% they should have gone with a 6% counter offer instead of 5%. all the people employeed after 2008 lost their paid insurance after retirement thanks to our genorous city. this city has nothing to offer, leave while you have the chance and make more money somewhere else. i wonder what kind of recruits were going to get in the next five years. like i said before, you get what you pay for.

[FD Bro']

How do we go about voting them in or at least asking them to come and explore St. Pete.

Have you ever heard the saying, "I wouldn't be a member of a club that would have ‘me’ as a member?"

I'm not picking on the originator of this thread, but if you'll recall, you might remember reading some of the same rhetoric on this website more than three years ago, before you all ratified your most recent collective bargaining agreement.

I was present last week when Brothers that you elected to lead your Union, along with your Union's labor attorney, sat at the negotiations table with third tier city diplomats who’ve yet to negotiate in person. I don't recall your Union officials leaving with any tire tracks on their bodies - - to mean, they certainly weren't laying down on the job! They were vociferously fighting for your rights at every turn. They were doing your bidding! What many of you who weren't there need to know is that Karen Richardson is very emblematic of her bosses. She doesn't know sh!t about you or the job that you do and I'll go so far as to say that she has never given an indication of being the least bit interested in either of our job’s.

The few, who were in attendance, were simply floored by her naïveté. It was painfully obvious to all of us that she knows nothing about your job, or for that matter, little about the world outside of the MSC building. What she ‘does know’ is what’s spoon-fed to her by your chief officers. When your Union officials speak on YOUR behalf, she totally dismisses YOUR point of view; YOUR opinion and any facts brought to the table that may bolster YOUR position! She is oblivious to all matters that aren’t of primary concern to Mike Connors and Rick Baker. She is smug and condescending to Police Officers, Fire Fighters and Fire Fighter Paramedics. She acts with impunity because she is a mere tool of the machine.

With all of that said and knowing the mindset that those in city hall possess – do you really think that another name on the Union letterhead is going to scare these goober smoochers into giving you or me anything more than the back of their hand?

I started out by citing the colloquialism, “I wouldn't be a member of a club that would have ‘me’ as a member." Your Union is not failing you. YOU are failing you. Your Union doesn’t exist simply to collect your dues money. It exists to provide you with a lawfully recognized framework to build your political engine; conduct collective bargaining and safeguard you future. Collective bargaining doesn’t begin at the table. It ends there. It starts on the street corners; at neighborhood association meetings; in phone banks; political rallies; while walking neighborhoods; on the picket line; in each Council person’s office and in your Union hall.

Each of you needs to ask yourself if you’re pulling your own load. If you’re not, then someone else’ job in the Union was just made harder. If this upsets some of you - then you can be mad at me for mentioning it, but truthfully, that would be no more productive than the war you’ve been waging with the League of Cities elitist’s who run this city.

It’s not enough to make some remarks on a website or to discuss union business in isolation during a dinner break with another squad member or even to hold a political sign for thirty minutes every four years. Each of you needs to call your Union representatives and find out what is going on and what it is that you can do to empower yourself. If you aren’t doing this regularly – you do yourself and your Brothers and Sisters a disservice. If you can’t spare a few spare hours here and there to be proactive in your Union, then you have a Union in name-only. If you and your Local offer anything less than 100% support to those politicians (who you deem worthy) who come courting your endorsement in the hope that it will propel them into the winners circle - they will recognize this lack of conviction on your part and soon forget about you when it really matters. In their mind, you will have done all the good you can do for them and you’ll certainly pose no future threat if they oppose you on matters that concern you most. Reread the previous few lines if bells aren’t going-off in your head, yet!

In talking with some of my Brothers and Sisters in green, I’ve been told that you recognize the conditions described in the paragraph above. I guess a question remains: What are you going to do in the next two years to develop a rapport with potential Council persons who are Public Safety minded – not just lifetime bullsh!tters? How ‘bout a Mayor who will break this pathetic chain of kowtowing to the uhuru – ultimately spending tons of taxpayer money on that vacuous facade known as Midtown?

We all have a choice… continue kissing the master’s ring or embrace the secret handshake that others will never share with you and me.



FD Bro'

FD Bro, you are right on target. Well stated post. I hope its read by all.

it is tough to get people organized when you have 90 officers leaving a year. in theory the department turns over every five years. i dont know 60% of the people in this department because they are all new. we have senior guys on squads with only 2 1/2 years on. maybe this is the cities plan to keep us from reaching pension and uniting against them. we just had an officer who dropped their tazer during a struggle with a suspect and the suspect picked up the tazer and tazed the officer for a 10 second ride. the streets are becoming more dangerous and the experience is almost non existent. we need leaders that can mobilize brand new people who at this point dont care about the unions because they really dont know any better. there only concern is to make it off of probation. the fto program is passing every person that comes along. how many classes can have 17 people in the program and not one of them get rephased through the whole program. wow, it is getting pretty scary out there

Who got tased with their own Taser? Never heard about it, sounds like BS.

It's very true. Ask someone on mids.. Or I'm sure someone will post a summary on here before too long. It's actually a decent training opportunity to discuss what led to the officer losing his weapon and having it be used against him.

Daytona Beach P.D. has the teamsters and love them. Thy have been dealing with labor issues for decades and know what they are doing and have the resources to get the job done unlike the FOP and PBA

The TEAMSTERS will not do anything different then the other unions except charge you more for dues. Remember the city doesn't care so there is the nothing the TEAMSTERS can do. You act like we are up North.