Trade Shows (mostly the Teamsters) Suck
It’s hard to escape the fact that trade shows suck. Sure, lots of people look forward to shows like CEDIA (Consumer Electronics) and geeks love anything Microsoft or Sony decides to hype up, and for good reason. Trade shows, especially those that feature top-notch semiars, can be really fascinating for interns, especially if you get to hobknob with some guys that have been in the business for awhile and can give you some good insight. It’s a perfect opportunity to see the newest and best products, and to actually get a moment to get some hands-on time with really pricey equipment.
But when you’ve gone to trade shows for a while, they become some of the most grating, irritating places on earth. This year marks the third year that I’ve been going to trade shows and I, as an intern, attend about eight a year.
And nothing like dealing with the Teamsters Union–those lazy jackasses that run the trade shows. Don’t get me wrong–I’m sure there’s plenty of people that work hard for the Teamsters–they just don’t work at trade shows. No, what you get at the McCormick Place in Chicago, for example, is a bunch of knuckle-dragging, waste-of-sperm neanderthal degenerates who know somebody that knows somebody that knows somebody, so they shouldn’t (and don’t) demean themselves to even lift a pinky to help (which is what they are hired for) and get utterly offended when you ask them to do so–or they mutter something and say “I’m on break.”
Fuck the Teamsters. I invite anyone to tell me one good thing about them…other than the fact that Jimmy Hoffa got what he deserved.
And when the day comes that your ass gets fired for looking crosseyed at the wrong person at the wrong time – you’ll be wishing you had the job security of a Teamster. Have fun at your next trade show.
I’m glad to see that some things don’t change. I used to work lots of trade shows
and my biggest complaint was always the teamster!
Teamsters protect the lazy and habor the weak. They are an economical cancer that we should invest in finding a cure for no matter the cost. TXTeamster is right though, he can get away with fucking off while the rest of us have to work hard to keep a good job. FU Teamsters
Im a teamster and not proud of it I came from a job where you had to put out and shut up (not asking to much if you ask me) then changed jobs making same pay as other but this one being teamster union and all i can say is what a bunch of lazy fuckers that sit around here and dont do shit they for the most part are not qualified for the job (government work) take to long to get it done and are whiners that cry about job protections (THE LONGER YOUR A TEAMSTER THE FUCKIN LAZIER YOU GET) dont want to be teamster any more. 631 TEAMSTER
I’ve been a Teamster for 17 years and I have a job where I’m held accountable for all of my time and efforts. I treat my customers well and most do not even know I’m in the union or an officer with my local. Your comments about characterizing all of our members in such a poor light only shows your ignorance and prejudice towards those who are willing to stand and fight for keeping the middle class alive and well.
I find it ironic that most non-members criticize and chastise us as being overpaid and underworked – that is until they realize that the problem is not with us – but their own shortcomings at their job. It is far easier to try to pull someone down rather than to bring yourself up.
you are best a moron
Proud Union, you have the misfortune of having given up your individuality by joining a union, and thus have subjected yourself to being lumped in with your brotherhood, many of whom are lazy, overpaid, under worked, and perform shoddy work if any work is performed at all.
If you are serious about treating your customers well, you would open your own business and crawl out from under the soiled semi-protective baby blanket of union membership. Join the free world. Reject the communist doctrine that has taken over your once proud union and turned it into the purely political beast that it is now.
if you think this is bad. try delivering to mc cormick place. the teamsters are the laziest fucks on earth. fuck the teamsters and balless daley
The complaints about the Teamsters are mostly from people who are not in the union (or any other union), which is interesting alone. The comments seem to claim that all union people are lazy because of one person’s experience at a trade show. Keep in mind that if it were not for the unions, you would not have a weekend, eight hours a day of work, and a some over-time, if you ever do any.
While there are lazy assholes in every trade in every sector, it is totally absurd to claim that because of your experience with one group, that the whole of unionized labor in the US are this way … it is absurd because it cannot be further from the truth.
Someone else mentioned that the next time you get sacked for something insignificant — like 10 minutes longer in the bathroom than what is “allowed,” let me know how you think of a collective bargaining agreement.
Anyone with a hint of HR or labor law knowledge could tell you that you can’t fire someone for ridiculous things like taking (1) bathroom break too long or looking at someone the wrong way. Having a habit of taking ridiculously longer breaks than you’re supposed to can get you fired with a CBA or not. A CBA can’t stop progressive discipline and documentation.
The Teamsters are a cancer on organized labor. While other Unions can promote the skill and trining of their members the Teamsters seem to take great pride in wasting time and money -expending more effort on accomploshing as little as possible with less quality than just doing the job at hand.
If there is ever a backlash against Unions in this country it will be because of the Teamsters.
I’m a Teamster and can honestly say that they are without a doubt, the biggest bunch of retards I’ve ever seen. Fags.
i worked for a movie catering company and was shocked to see what fat slobs the teamsters are. I actually overheard two of them talking about how the movie just couldnt be what it was without them. and they all were obviously unintelligent as could be. That is why they drive trucks for a living. and are morbidley obese for the most part. fuck them
Thank you for your blatent ingnorance of the accomplishments of the American Labor Movement, AngryIntern. And for wasting everyone’s time, including your own- (Interning??, as in working for FREE?!) Bunch of whining ass crybabies you are, Do you suck the Boss’ ass for a living or what? Do any of you have any “BALLS”? While many of my Teamster brethren have had the misfortune of acquiring a less-than-substantial education, they have managed to become productive members of society who earn a good wage and can support a family. None of you pocket-protected pussies would ever have the balls to say any of this in-person to a real Teamster, anyway. You are the type of pricks we’ll be taking on in the future…. SO BE IT!
you and your lazy brethten are true pieces of shit
by the way… come see what it means to be a real Teamster:
http://www.myspace.com/ratbuster133
to be a real teamster you have to be one of the laziest pieces of shit on earth.then you will be a real teamster. overpaid,overfed, and useless. then you can be a proud teamster. in other words a lazy piece of shit
Lisa C. is a dumb ass apprentice teamster I will never use again! Why train if they dont learn!!!Never use this one for a big show
Fuck yeah that fat bitch is a clepto if its not bolted to the booth she will steal it
I have been a strong supporter of the labor movement and also held the office of president of our local union for six years. Six years ago we affiliated with the Teamsters Local 118 in Rochester and our union is now in ruins because of our lazy ass officers who do absolutely nothing but take our dues and keep increasing them every time we get a raise. All they look forward to is spending our money going to Las Vegas and every other conference that comes along. Our 700* members spend over 300,000 a year for representation that we don’t even see. In my opinion most of the unions have just plain gotten fat and lazy and don’t give a crap about their members because it’s all about them. We have even tried running for office and all that happens is your then blackballed for not going with the flow. I was recently kicked out for leading a decertification from the teamsters to reform our own union again. I am still a strong supporter of union rights and the labor movement, but in my opinion the teamsters suck. If Jimmy Hoffa Jr. cared at all he’d try talking to some of his own members.
Angry Intern,
I am one of those “knuckle dragging wastes of sperm” you referred to – I am a Carpenters Union shop steward working in the trade show industry in New York (if you’ve been an exhibitor at a show in the Hilton, or the Marriott Marquis, or the Grand Hyatt, or Madison Square Garden or the Javits Center, I’ve been there too)
Us carpenters, and our brother and sister teamsters, electricians, stagehands, laborers, housekeepers, hotel workers and security guards are the ones who bring in your freight, put it where it needs to go, set up your booth, keep your booth clean and safe during the show, take your booth down, pack your freight and send it where it needs to go at the end of the show.
WE do all this on very tight deadlines – we sometimes have to get up at 3AM to get your show moved in on time, and sometimes we don’t get home til late in the night.
And unlike you corporate types, we only get paid for the hours actually worked if it only took me 4 hours to build your booth, that’s all I get paid!
So you really need to calm the hell down!
Yes, we take our breaks – if you worked hard physical jobs like we do, you would to.
And yes, we have our union rules – and remember, if it wasn’t for unions, you and all the other non union workers wouldn’t have the benefits you do.
So quit being su ch a jerk, and THANK US FOR THE HARD WORK WE DO ON YOUR BEHALF.
Oh and by the way, I didn’t get my job because I “know somebody” – I enrolled in a union apprenticeship program in September 1992, and graduated in 1996. While I was in school, I took a 50 hour class in trade show work.
How much formal training do you have for YOUR job, intern???
you and your chicago brethren are a joke. if you lazy fucks put in 4hrs a day it would be a miracle.fuck you and the mccormick teamsters. the laziest and overpaid fucks on the planet.bring in the mexicans and you and your union brothers can beg for change on lower wacker dr
Teamsters do suck! I am a teamster. It is extortion, plain and simple. The mafia and the like shakedown owners of neighborhood restaurants and offer to protect them. When they don’t pay, they burn their place down. Well, these people have insurance. When we don’t pay (our dues), we can’t work at that establishment anymore. We LOSE our insurance, our wages, etc…. I pay $20+ a month and for what? The right to work? The company treats us like shit,a nd the union doesn’t do anything about it. I swear that some of the stewards are actually on the company’s side. It is disgusting. I am one of the hardest working people at my place of employment, and becase of my low seniority, I would be one of the first to be let go while Lazy Joe keeps his job. Man, it pisses me off to no end. If someone with higher seniority needs more hours, they can bump you. And they stand around!!! All the while, I would be busting my butt. My boss understands and wants to give me the hours, but he can’t. The Teamsters are a bunch of extortionists. And the sad part is, they are doing it legally. Unions need to go. They are outdated, and they don’t work. They are taking my hard earned money. Bunch of lazy, no good, taking my money and going golfing pieces of shit. Fuck you Teamsters. One day, you are going down!
I would agree for the most part but, I bet you are mostly referring to the East Coast. I spent many years on the west coast as a Teamster on the loading docks for conventions and we would hear of the horror stories about the east coast. I did not really like the job I had or the company I worked for but I can honestly say that our teamsters in San Diego really made an effort to make sure we did a great job as often as possible. If we slipped up, which is possible, I can assure you it was unintentional. No matter how hard we tried, the outrageous rates that the companies(GES,Freeman) would charge makes it difficult for anyone to live up to what you would expect.
Teamsters are out dated. We don’t need you anymore, you have out worn your welcome. You say you keep jobs, well tell that to the people in Detroit that have lost their jobs because of outrageous union contracts that have kept the auto companies from remaining profitable. But hey you guys got your health insurance, a lot of good it does you when you run the companies into bankruptcy. Hoffa needs a good punch in the mouth that corrupt son of a bitch.
Unions have turned themselves into a cancer. We are all better off if a job that used to cost $25 can now be done for $5. An organization that stands in the way of efficiency and progress needs to move aside or drag the whole country into economic irrelevance.
I have been in the trade show and special event industry for a little over 20yrs, I too am a union member (labourers local 506 Toronto). I have traveled extensively throughout the US, Canada, Asia and Europe supervising the installation and dismantle of our clients exhibits. I have to agree that the Teamsters are a bunch of lazy ass dimwits, although i must say that you will find most of these cretins working for the show contractor ie: Freeman, GES. I have just returned to my hotel in Chicago after the dismantle of the HIMSS show at McCormick Place and decided to google “Teamsters assholes” and came up with this site…thank you!! What brought me to this frame of mind was an experience with a fat fuckin goof of a forklift driver, this guy was the most arrogant jerk i have ever met on a show floor, while dripping pizza down his fat gut he informed me that lunch was coming up and he was going to take his 1/2 hr break. Well…after an hour and a 1/2 this jack ass shows up again to finish my load out. what gets me most is I was playing the game too…polite..joking..etc. I explained to him that my trailer has to load a certain way and with the same contents it arrived with because it was traveling over an international border…simple??? easily understood??? finally I got the job done!i just had to pull out the old trick of buying coffees and talking about tits…People like this guy ruin it for all the efforts the show organizers and city staff put into attracting a world class show to their venue..Unfortunately a lot of exhibitors are exposed to this kind of treatment and along with the regular price gouging have expressed to me that they are really wondering if the whole thing is really worth it!
youre right. at mccormick place the unions are a joke. fire them and hire mexicans. at they will put in 4 or 5 hrs of actual work.it starts with the marshalling yard and continues through the clerks and the laziest of them all. the fucking teamsters.
I like this page. I have finally found an outlet for my hate of the teamsters. I used to work at a Dairy and was trained by one of the shop stewards a.k.a. (a complete figure head who’s just there to look like the Union does something, but is usually on the companies side) who bid on another job. About a year later, I started getting threats by my bosses that I wasn’t doing enough production and that I was going to be taken off the machine eventually…AFTER ABOUT A YEAR AND A HALF OF ALREADY RUNNING THE THING!!! I was also so “bad” at my job that the man who came in after me to run the machine, finished the run for the day and was cleaned up in 5-6 hours…out of a 10 hour shift. So yeah, I was really fucking off BAD that he could be that backed up with work. One of my bosses even yelled at me once because I went to the bathroom for 15 minutes out of a 10 hour day…and on my job, I didn’t get ANY break at ALL during those 10 hours!!! Keep in mind this was during the summer, when I had no fan at my machine (EVEN THOUGH THE NIGHT SUPERVISOR PROMISED ME HE WAS WORKING ON IT…Three months later nothing…) and my machine wasn’t in an open space, but a small and nasty space (Not an open space where air can flow.) So it’s either keep drinking water and feel sticky when you go home or don’t drink water and eventually fall the fuck over…Hopefully not into the machine. The best thing though? I went to my grandmother’s funeral and then had the next week off. (Scheduled vacation week) When I got back the night supervisor told me so and so ran my machine and he got a HUGE number and that’s what I needed to do. Later, so and so told me the reason the machine did so much production…because the night supervisor went and got so and so EVERYTHING , caps and labels, and ran the label machine (THE WHOLE NIGHT), so that so and so only had to hit the start buttons and prevent shit from jamming up. I also checked this with other friendly workers at the plant, there were only a handful of them, and they had seen the whole thing and confirmed it. So after I got back, I got hour and a half long lectures about twice in a week about running the machine better and not wasting company time. These lectures were basically to have more of a “This is MY machine type of attitude!!!” You know, get more of a team spirit, type thing? THERE WAS NO SOLID, PROBLEMS HE BROUGHT UP!!! HE JUST RAMBLED ON AND ON!!! SO I MUST HAVE BEEN DOING SOMETHING RIGHT, LIKE MY JOB!!! I’d get lectured about “Not wasting company time, yet numerous times I’d come upstairs to figure out what supplies I needed for the night and there would be the same asshole night supervisor who’d give me pep talks, sitting around with about the same 5 or 6 workers talking about property lines, satelite TV, and other stuff that had NOTHING TO DO WITH WORK!!! Yet remember, I was the one WASTING COMPANY TIME!!! Anyway, so eventually I was going to be taken off the machine and the same shop steward mentioned before was going to handle my case. After the meeting with the bosses, he asked me like I was crazy, “So why didn’t you take their threats seriously and get off the machine? There was a job in the cooler you could have taken!” …Maybe I didn’t get off the machine because I thought the Teamster union would do something about it…like protect me, right? Because that’s what I pay for. Besides, the cooler job was a job that switched from 3rd shift in the middle of the week to 2nd shift for the rest of the week and my machine job was a straight 3rd shift. YEAH, SIGN ME THE FUCK UP!!! (SARCASTIC)
Anyway, I eventually met the head Shop steward and the business agent (A fat and slimy Italian guy, who at the diner we met at kept talking about how hot the waitress was) The top shop steward told me the best thing to do was get off the job because once the company wants to do something they usually have their mind set on it.The business agent promised me I wasn’t going to lose my job…So eventually the company worked something out where I could get off my job, float around and fill in where needed, and had to land on a job before so many rounds of bidding or I’d be fired. So I had a choice to make and I said, “Fuck it.” If I hadn’t I would have been written up constantly until I would be fired from the company completely…that’s what the company was threatening to do, if I didn’t get off the machine job.
So at the meeting where I decided this, one of the bosses said,”We have done this before and we haven’t lost anyone yet.” Then the shop steward handling my case, who was smiling a lot and unusually jumpy, threw in out of nowhere,” Maybe you’ll be the first!!!”
So after that I floated around for 7 months…and landed a job. Having to float made me miss Christmas Eve with my family (I cried so hard over it that night over, and there should be no tears on Christmas eve. I was just so upset about getting picked on) I also missed New Years Eve…completely. While 9/10’s of the rest of the plant was at home. The whole time I kept talking to the head shop steward and he kept telling me it would be okay, just keep working hard. I even told him a month before I would be fired, ” My girlfriend just lost her job! I can’t lose this job!”
I also found out the shop steward who handled my case wanted to go back to third shift for awhile (before I got kicked off my job) and that he had bid on and landed my old job. The one he trained me for…and that he was doing the EXACT SAME AMOUNT OF PRODUCTION I did on the machine…sometimes less. I also didn’t have a lot of half filled jugs like he did. Numerous people told me they had checked the production sheets and also friends of mine at work had seen him get to about the same spot product wise I did. My one friend even caught him asleep at the machine and went and told the plant manager. The manager just chuckled and made some comment like, “Oh, these guys!” The thing is though, another supervisor even admitted this to my friend while they were talking, the shop steward practically blows that supervisor..that’s why he’s still there. That other supervisor also told my friend NUMEROUS times, I would have been fine on his shift. So I was really at fault, huh?
So later I landed on another job…after being picked on while floating as well. As part of the agreement, I couldn’t do anything technical, which was most of the jobs. So I was also picked on, on my new job. (Despite the fact, that there were guys in my department who were REAL hard workers who got someone else to do their jobs for them!!!) I was also loading trucks for 4 weeks BEFORE they decided to certify me as a power jack operator. A little late don’t you think? AND I NEVER FUCKED ANY OF THE ORDERS UP!!! EVERYTHING THAT WAS ON THE TRUCK WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THREE!!! Then I got fired and the top shop steward told me to let it go because if I came back I’d be picked on and they’d try to fire me again. He even asked my bosses when I was getting fired (THREE TIMES) if they’d give me unemployment, and every time they kept changing there answer to basically say, “Yeah, maybe…” Seeing as how fighting to get my job back would have taken numerous months and would’ve kept me from collecting unemployment…WHILE MY BILLS KEPT COMING IN….I just said fuck it.
The top shop steward said he’d let me know when other teamster jobs were hiring. So far he’s taken me out to coffee once. He hasn’t tried to call me to see how I am doing or anything, like he said…and it’s been 6 months that I’ve been unemployed and trying to find a job with my house and family hanging in the balance.
Also, I found out from my friend at work that right after I was fired. They cut out numerous truck driver jobs and that caused MAJOR bumping to go on. Then I found out that they have people from one job go finish someone else’s job so that no one gets over time. So other people are probably going to get the boot soon. So…yeah, thanks for letting me get downsized, ASSHOLES!!! I also appreciated when my company fought my unemployment for about a month… You think 40 hours a week of work is a living Hell? Wait until you have to try to stay sane while NO INCOME WHATSOEVER comes into your house yet you have to keep eating and the bills keep coming. Eventually, the State ruled in my favor.
Lastly, while I’ve been unemployed, I started talking to someone at one of my girlfriend’s job interviews and he started telling me about how he used to work at the state turnpike (A TEAMSTER UNION SPOT) until he was fired. He was fired because someone threw him a $20 bill and went right through the toll gate, when they had an E-Z pass in the car. So he stuck the $20 in a spot of the folder where he keeps his money. The company then accused him of stealing, and he was like,” No the money is right here!” So he paid for the Teamster lawyers and everything and STILL LOST HIS CASE and the Teamsters were like, “Oh, well…” Then was also denied unemployment by his company. So he wrote to a Congressman and his former employer was going to be in pretty deep shit, if he won,and he said it was looking good for him. I told him I was in the same situation and when I told him where I worked at his eyes lit up. I asked him why and he said that my old company was trying to do the same thing as UPS…AND THAT THE TEAMSTERS WERE WORKING WITH THEM TO LAY PEOPLE OFF!!! He said it was in some of there literature, which I’ve never seen. But I don’t find it that hard to believe. So I called my former union man and he said, “The company knew nothing about my unemployment hold up.” I then told him, I’d be writing my Congressman if this shit continued. I got my unemployment then!!!
Sorry, for taking up so much space, but I’d like to give the Teamster goons that threw me under the bus and had a full damn knowledge about what was going on, yet couldn’t give two shits about what would happen to me… A FULL HEARTED FUCK YOU!!!!!
I’d also like to add… I worked there for two years and missed two days. First, my grandmother’s funeral. (Fully excused) Second, I took one day off when I was too sick to come to work. (Fully excused. You were allowed one day a year to call off) I had gotten sick the previous day at work from working in some pretty cold conditions. (No heater running in that part of the factory and most of the time I was in a trailer, in late January.) My point is there were assholes who took off WAY more than I did, so I wasn’t a bad or lazy employee who never showed up for work or slacked off. I was fired because “I wasn’t going fast enough.” (WOW, a real SOLID reason!!!)Yet I’d be finishing up one task as a new batch of product was rolling into the plant and I’d have everything done when it was my time to go. Also, when the guys that came in after me rolled in, things were in place and organized so that they could pick up and carry on. Also, my job wasn’t piece rate and I NEVER LOADED AND SHIPPED ANYTHING THAT WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE!!! One guy told me the bosses were on my shit to go faster because they wanted me to fuck up so they could fire me.
So in closing, make sure you write to ALL your elected officials to support this “Employee Choice” horse shit that’s being thrown around in the government so that you too can have all the wonderful perks and “JOB SECURITY” of having a union on your side. Just like I had!!! I am still pissed because I didn’t DO ANYTHING to deserve the shitty treatment and the boot I got at the end of it all. Despite going into work practically everyday (Even when shit got bad) and holding my head high and doing my job like I was supposed to do, I was still fucked in the end. I think the Teamsters need to change their name to “The Waste of $500 a Year Club.” The $500 is what a member pays every year in dues.