Union
relationship By Mr. Bob Gumbinner
Even
though our starting wage scale was usually ten per cent above the
federal minimum, we had a good relationship with the Teamsters Union.
We may have had one strike for a few days. Although we spent
considerable time with our employees who represented the union, the
real negotiations were carried out by Marshall Miller, our labor
consultant, and the secretary of the local, who was not an employee.
One year we gave the employees a 25 cent per hour raise and nothing
to the union welfare. A few months later the secretary came to us
very shaken. He told us the people who ran the welfare threatened to
kill him. We then offered 10 cents to the welfare that year and 10
cents the next. Bernard Gold and I visited the locals head-quarters
in Fort Lee NJ several times. Once we invited the bosses to dinner.
We went to a well known Italian restaurant. When I asked for a table
for five, I was told there would be an hour wait. When the union
members came in, the maitre de said “give me three minutes and I
will have a table for you”.