How long can you go on diverting those resources to the Overnite strike, now in its eighth month?
As long as we keep growing. Overnite is the fifth-largest freight carrier. No one has organized a major trucking company in 25 years. Carey sat on it for four years and did absolutely nothing. If we win there, that will have an important benefit in 2003 when we negotiate [a new master freight agreement]. Q: Have you raised strike benefits, as you promised during your campaign? A: No. This was one of the failures of Ron Carey. We took over a union on the verge of bankruptcy. During the 6 1/2 years they were in here, they drained more than $100 million out of the treasury that could’ve been used for strike benefits. Here is a union with an income of about $88 million. So they spent another $100 million on top of the annual income. In our first year, our major goal was to balance the budget. We finally balanced the budget, and we’re getting some money in the bank right now. Of course, we’re looking at tremendous expenditures next year, with regard to the convention and the election. Q: Ho
