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Teamster UPS Driver Dies In Tragic Workplace Shooting
By Teamsters Joint Council 32 MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 2, 2012 — Union Establishes Memorial Fund for Family MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Thursday, September 27, 2012, UPS Driver Keith Basinski was tragically killed while making a pickup in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was one of the victims of a workplace shooting by a disgruntled employee at Accent Signage in Minneapolis. Unfortunately Keith was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had absolutely no connection to the company or the shooter. He is survived by three children ages 19 to 25, his parents and five siblings. “Keith was a great member of our Teamster family who will be sorely missed. Our heart goes out to his entire family and friends for this terrible loss,” said Trevor Lawrence, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 638 in Minneapolis. “This was a senseless tragedy that will forever weigh heavily on those who had the honor of knowing and working with him.” “The thoughts and prayers of the 1.4 million members of the Teamsters Union are with Brother Basinski’s family today,” said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President. “Entire families have been devastated by this tragic event. We must all remain vigilant to ensure that no family ever experiences this type of tragedy again.” “We pray for all of the families impacted by this tragic event and ask that you take a moment of reflection in memory of these victims,” Lawrence went on to say. Funeral services have been set for Thursday, October 4, at 1:00 p.m. at Emmanuel Christian Center, 7777 University Avenue NE, Spring Lake Park, MN. Visitation is set for Wednesday, October 3 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. at Miller Funeral Home, 6210 Highway 65 NE, Fridley, MN. A Memorial Fund has been established for the Basinski family. Contributions may be sent to the Minnesota Teamsters Service Bureau, 2828 University Avenue SE, Suite #100, Minneapolis, MN 55414-3384 in care of the Keith Basinski Memorial Fund. SOURCE Teamsters Joint Council 32
A Link to the Current Proposals by the Teamsters to the Company
Proposed Contract submitted by the Teamsters for the 2013 Contract.
The UPS/IBT Pension Plan and Contract Negotiations 2013
Here is a discussion of the guarantee for benefits posted by George in 2009. The guarantee applies to drivers that retire prior to the 2013 contract.
While it is assumed that the guarantee will continue under the newly negotiated contract, that assumption is not for sure.
Any of you drivers that will not retire prior to August 2013 better be on the phone to your Local Union Officers to make sure that the National Negotiating committee has this discussion with the company. If the guarantee is not continued, many of you may be subject to pension benefit decreases with the failure of the Central States Pension Fund.
Please note that the CSPF is not failing, but due to federal law, they have been forced to reduce benefits to maintain solvency. Posted by Bob Sep. 2012
When UPS set up the UPS/IBT Full Time Pension Plan for employees covered by the Central States Plan (CS), it covered active employees only. You have to work at least one day after Jan 1. 2008 to go with UPS out of CS and into the new UPS/IBT Plan. People who retired before Jan 1, 2008, or for any reason were not able to work one day after that date remain in the Central States Plan.
So for retirees who voted for the new Pension Plan and will retire under the new Plan, it’s a pretty good deal. It guarantees a full pension for life. But what about oour brothers and sisters who retired prior to Jan. 1, 2008? They stay with CS and have no guarantees.
Should we have stayed with Central States and rejected the UPS offer?
Did UPSers sell out their own UPS brothers and sisters who retired prior to 2008? There was surely no reason to hang with the ailing Central States other than Brotherhood.
Granted, Brotherhood is a noble cause. It’s the very foundation of unionism.
But at what price??
Romney, “The Second Luckiest Dude on the Planet”
What Big Corporations Feel
Slammed for Using Food Stamps: Ga. Woman Seeks Apology
By Alice Gomstyn | ABC News – Wed, Sep 26, 2012 8:10 AM EDT
Is a $15 gift card enough to compensate for public humiliation at your local grocery store? According to one Georgia woman, the answer is absolutely not.
Cindy Nerger, 28, who relies on food stamps to feed her family, said she was brought to tears after being embarrassed by a manager at a Kroger store in Warner Robbins, Ga.
“He said, ‘Excuse me for working for a living and not relying on food stamps like you,'” Nerger said the manager told her.
The man’s comment came after Nerger and two other store employees disagreed over whether her total purchase was eligible for food stamps – the employees had insisted that roughly $10 of her bill was not covered. She said the manager ultimately told the employees to “just give it to her.”
After Nerger then stressed that she had been right all along, the man made his “working for a living” remark, she said.
“I turned around and realized how many people heard him and how many saw that happened and I was so embarrassed… I started crying,” she said.
In a statement to ABCNews.com, a Kroger spokesman said, “We deeply regret our customer’s experience. The comments made were not reflective of our company’s policy. We value all of our customers. Please know that we have taken immediate steps to make sure something like this never happens again.”
The spokesman did not reply to a follow-up message asking for more information, but a local Georgia television station reported that Kroger had transferred the manager at the center of the controversy to another store.
Nerger said the reason she and her family – she is married with a daughter – must rely on food stamps is because her husband’s carpentry business isn’t profitable enough to support the family.
Meanwhile, Nerger must devote 12 hours every night to a dialysis treatment to combat her kidney disease, which she’s struggled with since the age of 11. She’s been on a kidney transplant list for five years and hopes that someday, after a successful transplant, she can become a working member of society. She would like to attend college to major in child psychology.
“There’s just so much stigmatism put on people on food stamps. They’re just some losers who don’t want to work. That isn’t the case in every situation,” she said.
Nerger’s account of her run-in with a Kroger manager went viral after she posted it to her Facebook page, prompting friends to encourage her to post a message to a local television station. The station ended up contacting her and doing a story.
Kroger, meanwhile, responded to a complaint Nerger passed on through the store’s national customer service line by apologizing and offering her a $15 gift card. Nerger said she rejected the offer because she doesn’t plan on shopping at Kroger again.
What she wants, she said, is an apology directly from the manager, whom she also believes should be demoted from his job and trained how to treat customers properly.
She stopped short of saying the man should lose his job.
“I didn’t want anybody to be in the food stamp line with me,” she said.