by Charles Walker

Overnite Agrees to Pay Workers $1.6 Million for Anti-Union Actions

On June 9, the Teamsters Union announced that Overnite Transportation Co. made a settlement with the NLRB, requiring it to pay back $1.6 million in back wages, plus interest, to union workers whose rights under national labor law had been massively violated by the firm.

The union said, “The Overnite workers may soon have to stage unfair labor practice (ULP) strikes at Overnite. Each worker is going to need personal strike funds to help them through...The settlement money, while not enough, will help get workers through the course of a ULP strike.”

The union wanted much tougher action from the Labor Board. “The Labor Board’s acceptance of this settlement is deeply disappointing to the Teamsters and the Overnite workers. The sworn duty of the NLRB is to prevent employers from destroying the workers’ rights. When a company like Overnite repeatedly demonstrates that it will thwart those rights regardless of what anyone says or does, they should not now be taken at their word on the assumption that there is no likelihood of recurrence of the unfair labor practices.”

The settlement requires Overnite to post notices at work sites promising to cease and desist from its illegal activities. Overnite is the nation’s largest non-union less-than-truckload, or LTL, trucking firm. (An LTL carrier consolidates shipments at centralized terminals for shipment and delivery.) Overnite is owned by Union Pacific Corp. The Teamsters and Overnite are scheduled to begin bargaining June 15 on a possible first contract covering at least some of the company’s drivers and loaders.

Hoffa Continues Aid To Detroit Strikers

The Teamsters new executive board has agreed to increase payments to the Detroit Workers Justice Committee, which since September 1998 has done much of the Jimmy Higgins work needed by the 44-month-long strike and lock-out. The union had been paying out $10,000 a week. The committee will now receive $15,000. The IBT is making up for the Communications Workers union, which suspended its help after its typographers Local 18 broke with the five other unions locked out by Gannett Co. and Knight Ridder and accepted a 10-year contract. Reportedly, the CWA contract was ratified by the ranks with a lop-sided majority.

The IBT resolution stated in part, “Whereas, negotiations are in a critical stage; management could interpret termination of the Workers Justice Committee as manifesting a lack of will; and should that embolden management to continue its posture of a lock-out, out-of-work benefits [strike pay] over many months could easily cost more than funding the Workers Justice Committee during this important period.”

In early May, unionists and clergy took the workers’ case to Gannett Co. shareholders. A locked-out reporter told shareholders that management fought unions and pushed decertification drives at its plants around the country. “There is a pattern at Gannett papers,” he said. “There’s a pattern of union cleansing going on with this company.”

Possible Beer Strike Looming

Budweiser brewery workers in Baldwinsville voted June 9 by a 76 percent margin to authorize an unfair labor practice strike. Earlier the union charged that the brewery threatened two stewards who spoke up at a shop meeting. The NLRB has determined that the firm violated federal labor laws. Budweiser has imposed a concessionary contract at its 12 breweries.

Wildcatting Teamsters Get IBT Approval

Meatpacking Teamsters in Pasco, Washington, walked off the job June 4, and set up a wildcat picket line. Reportedly, 500 workers were on the line. The workers’ contract with the notorious IBP meatpacking firm expired March 30. The in-plant negotiating committee is led by Maria Martinez, a member of Tom Leedham’s 1998 slate, and a national TDU leader. The workforce includes Mexicans, Bosnians, Laotians, Chinese and others. On June 8, the IBT sanctioned the strike.