Teamsters, the New Westboro?

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**Relapse**

I never was a fan of the Teamsters, but if this story is true, they're really showing why they aren't worth a fart in a hurricane:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/01/teamsters-ordered-to-stop-picketing-funeral-homes/?test=latestnews

**timetowaste85**

Disgusting, but why did they do it? The article doesn't even give a reason for the teamsters' attitudes.

**Tibbsy**

A judge ordered one of Chicago's most politically powerful labor unions to suspend picketing against 16 funeral homes last week after receiving reports that striking Teamsters had, among other things, disturbed a child's funeral.

SCI Illinois Services, Inc., one of the nation's largest funeral home chains, asked a district court to intervene after striking funeral directors and drivers with Teamsters Local 727 allegedly harassed grieving families.

"We are grateful that the court agreed to issue this temporary restraining order, and we are hopeful that it will help protect grieving families who are experiencing the most difficult times of their lives," Larry Michael, managing director for SCI Illinois Services, Inc., said in a release. "While we recognize and respect the Teamsters' right to lawfully picket, we have been shocked and saddened by their attempts to make grieving families the target of the cruel and outrageous attacks."

The company testified in its filing that union members blocked grieving family members from leaving its parking lot, used bullhorns to shout obscenities at workers and mourners, and unleashed a German Shepard on a dead woman's daughter and husband.

The funeral home was eventually forced to call the police when picketers allegedly disrupted a child's funeral with laughter. The officer asked the Teamsters to leave, but protesters returned when he drove away.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/01/teamsters-ordered-to-stop-picketing-funeral-homes/?test=latestnews#ixzz2aioDrUnw

The article above; for the lazy/workblocked.

**Rented Tritium**

What do you mean "they"? You know that local chapters have autonomy over things like this. This isn't "teamsters" this is "teamsters local 727"

**Ensis Ferrae**

Yeah, this seems to be pretty local to me. I do have to wonder, why are funeral directors/workers a part of the Teamsters? you'd think that there'd be a Guild of Undertakers or some such for the treatment of the honored dead.

I also wonder what exactly they were striking and picketing against in the first place.

**Frazzled**

timetowaste85 wrote:
Disgusting, but why did they do it? The article doesn't even give a reason for the teamsters' attitudes.

They were striking. Wait, did you think striking Teamsters were nice guys?

**daedalus**

timetowaste85 wrote:
Disgusting, but why did they do it? The article doesn't even give a reason for the teamsters' attitudes.

Because the Teamsters are generally regarded as a bunch of thugs and donkey-caves.

**Relapse**

Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Yeah, this seems to be pretty local to me. I do have to wonder, why are funeral directors/workers a part of the Teamsters? you'd think that there'd be a Guild of Undertakers or some such for the treatment of the honored dead.

I also wonder what exactly they were striking and picketing against in the first place.

I worked in a kitchen cabinet factory and they tried to get us cabinet makers to join the teamsters.

It was probably because they were getting mortician supply deliveries through a non union company or something along those lines. I remember a trucker strike when I lived in Pa. years back where they were dropping rocks from overpasses through the windshields of operating rigs, killing some people.

**dogma**

My parents lived less than a mile from one of the funeral homes that was picketed, and I drove past it many times in the course of moving them to their new residence.

The "picketing" consisted of a few fat people sitting under a tent, occasionally walking to the VA to buy beer.

Relapse wrote:

It was probably because they were getting mortician supply deliveries through a non union company or something along those lines.

Well, you could form an opinion on that basis or you could do a bit of research.

**Frazzled**

dogma wrote:
My parents lived less than a mile from one of the funeral homes that was picketed, and I drove past it many times in the course of moving them to their new residence.

The "picketing" consisted of a few fat people sitting under a tent, occasionally walking to the VA to buy beer.

Sounds like they probably should have checked the place out for a future cheap rate.

**Easy E**

I'm shocked that Reklapse would post an anti-union thread! SHOCKED!

**Relapse**

Easy E wrote:
I'm shocked that Reklapse would post an anti-union thread! SHOCKED!

I know, it was a big step for me to do this since the Teamsters are really such likable rascals.

**LordofHats**

Relapse wrote:
Easy E wrote:
I'm shocked that Reklapse would post an anti-union thread! SHOCKED!

I know, it was a big step for me to do this since the Teamsters are really such likable rascals.

Its okay may. Group Therapy Dakka is here for you. One step at time

Not shocked by this at all. My one and only Teamsters experience was rather mixed but while looking around they always seemed off. I sensed the darkness beneath the surface. Evil filled that place

**sebster**

In another thread, one of the healthcare ones, I made a passing reference to the terminal decline of unionism. Then I read this, and well, yeah.

Picketing funeral homes, and therefore picketing funerals... I mean, it doesn't matter if your point is valid or not, strikes are an exercise in PR and therefore this can only backfire.

**Easy E**

Having once been part of the Funeral Industry, there is nothing sacred about it. In fact, it is one of the dirtiest businesses I have been a part of; and I have also worked in Insurance and Finance. So, that's saying something about how dirty the Funeral Industry is!

**Frazzled**

Easy E wrote:
Having once been part of the Funeral Industry, there is nothing sacred about it. In fact, it is one of the dirtiest businesses I have been a part of; and I have also worked in Insurance and Finance. So, that's saying something about how dirty the Funeral Industry is!

PUSH OFF. ITS SACRED TO THE FAMILIES OF THE DEAD.

**Easy E**

No argument there, and those services should not be disrupted, but the funeral homes themselves should still be the targets of picketing,

**Frazzled**

Only if the families have the free option of making the picketers on the spot clients.

**Easy E**

So unions picketing a business should be met with lethal force?

I agreed that during a service the Teamsters should be quiet and respectful. They should not block the entrances of the business. However, I feel the Teamsters could still stand around and hold their signs.

**Ensis Ferrae**

Easy E wrote:
So unions picketing a business should be met with lethal force?

I agreed that during a service the Teamsters should be quiet and respectful. They should not block the entrances of the business. However, I feel the Teamsters could still stand around and hold their signs.

I agree with you that they should be respectful. The problem however, Is that I think they've taken a page from WBC in order to gather more attention. Because any attention is good attention right?

**Frazzled**

Easy E wrote:
So unions picketing a business should be met with lethal force?

Sure, no skin off my back.

**Easy E**

Okay Frazz, you got me. Troll accomplished.

**Frazzled**

The honor, is to serve.

**Orlanth**

Another way to look at this.
Management sees unions are obstacles to maximised profit for owners and shareholders.
In the funerary transport business there is a narrow range of circumstances as follows:

1. Unions have few tools against management other than protest or industrial action.
2. Industrial action can be bypassed if anyone else can drive a hearse.
3. Picketing funerals will be considered abhorent by the majority of the populace, even those sympathetic to unions.
4. So there is no reason why management can't squeeze harder than other industries can get away with.

**Frazzled**

When did you need the Teamsters union to represent morticians?

IN fact I thought they even had their own union.

**Relapse**

Frazzled wrote:
When did you need the Teamsters union to represent morticians?

IN fact I thought they even had their own union.

We wondered why we needed Teamsters to represent us cabinet makers when they tried to force their way into the place I worked at. The reason I got was because we transported our cabinets by truck.

**Ma55ter_fett**

timetowaste85 wrote:
Disgusting, but why did they do it? The article doesn't even give a reason for the teamsters' attitudes.

From the site dogma linked

SCI forced the unfair labor practice strike after the Teamsters’ contract expired on July 1, following more than 40 hours of negotiations. Throughout bargaining, SCI proposed approximately 40 regressive changes to the contract, including the elimination of the funeral directors’ pension fund, increased costs to health care premiums and zero wage increases for new hires after years of wage freezes for current employees.

Pickets began one month ago on July 2 at 16 Chicago-area funeral homes, which SCI operates under the Dignity Memorial brand name. Since the $4 billion corporation walked away from negotiations, 59 Teamster funeral directors and drivers have been fighting for parity with other Chicago funeral industry professionals.

**DIDM**

the teamsters are nothing short of large unseemly bastards, who have nothing but themselves every on their minds

I was born in 1980, and my dad has always been in the shipping industry, he was a regional manager for Yellow freight, and he darn right hated the bastards.

oh yea, ever put on a trade show booth in Las Vegas, or hell, anywhere in the US? the hoops you have to jump through, a union member has to move EVERYTHING, even if it is a foot adjustment.

they are exactly like a sly hot wife who gets her old husband to sign an unreal prenup and then proceed to suck the wealth right away.

**whembly**

DIDM wrote:

oh yea, ever put on a trade show booth in Las Vegas, or hell, anywhere in the US? the hoops you have to jump through, a union member has to move EVERYTHING, even if it is a foot adjustment.

they are exactly like a sly hot wife who gets her old husband to sign an unreal prenup and then proceed to suck the wealth right away.

That's only in closed Union shop states and/or contracts negotiated by the hosting facilities.