And that part of your comment is technically correct. Union Joe can be fired for reasons outside his contract. He files a grievance, the union files an unfair labor practice (a 483 or 583 maybe? It's been about eight years since I dealt with the Teamsters), and the company (if found guilty) is responsible for reinstatement with back pay. So yeah, they can violate the agreement, but it just circles back to them and they have to pay restitution. Trust me on that one, I had to do it for four guys I fired in the mid-1990's. What got me was I didn't inform the union that I was going to fire them, so their union representitive found out from them instead of me.