Route issues
Ok I need some union/contract knowledge help here. I'm a bid driver for 9 years, have had my route for 7 years. I'm the A route in my loop. Today for the first time, they eliminated my route..put ad cuts on the other routes in the loop and added more than 50% of another drivers route onto the largest chunk of mine. And then sent me home saying they had no work.
According to the contract they cant do that. Or I might be wrong. I dont know. The contract says that if a route is temporarily eliminated 1. They have to notify me 90 minutes before my start time do I can decide if I want to be a utility driver or bump someone in my loop based on seniority. Which they did not do. 2. The contract says I can bump the lower seniority driver in my loop, which in this case, was the one that was following his 50%.
I was told by my shop steward...who, plot twist, is ALSO the lower seniority driver following his 50% in my loop, about this contract issue and he told me I couldn't bump a bid driver for over 50% of their route. Then management said the same and they said no utility driver work today due to volume and they said i couldn't grieve any of this.
I dont believe any of them when it specifically says in the contract that a temporary elimination of route goes seniority based not necessarily who has the 50% change.
Am I missing sonething?