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Jan 19, 2015

TRUCKERS' UNIONIZATION * USA: Doubts

* New Jersey - Court ruling could affect trucker unionization

(Photo by Daniel Acker/ Bloomberg News - Trucks drive through security checkpoints at the Port Newark Container Terminal in Newark,NJ,USA) 
Trenton,NJ,USA -JOC, by Joseph Bonney -Jan 16, 2015: -- Efforts to unionize owner-operator drivers in New Jersey could get a boost from a state Supreme Court ruling that limits companies’ ability to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees... In a unanimous decision this week, the court ruled that a mattress retailer’s delivery drivers are presumed to be employees unless employers can show that the workers qualify as independent contractors under a three-pronged “ABC” test... Under that test, companies must demonstrate that workers (a) are free from company control or direction, (b) operate outside the company’s usual course of business or location, and (c) work in an independently established occupation or business... The ruling was the latest in a series of court decisions that generally have made it harder for companies to classify truck drivers and other workers as independent contractors instead of employees, who are eligible to unionize... The court ruled that the proper test was the ABC test, which the New Jersey Department of Labor had traditionally used in interpreting wages and hour laws. The case now returns to the federal appeals court...

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May 5, 2013

* USA - UNIONIZING TRUCKERS at L.A. & Long Beach Ports ?

* California - Teamsters persist in drive to unionize truckers at L.A. and Long Beach ports

(Photo by Brittany Murray/Press Telegram - Trucks back up into a virtual parking lot on the westbound Gerald Desmond Bridge in this 2009 file photo due to a new toll system that some drivers had not yet signed up for and were then turned away from terminals until they got the proper card) 
Los Angeles,CAL,USA -Daily Breeze, by Brian Sumers -5 April 2013: -- For decades, the docks at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have been organized labor strongholds, dominated by the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union. But as dockworkers have negotiated lucrative contracts, other workers handling imports and exports have mostly been left out. That includes most of the truck drivers who haul goods to and from port terminals to rail yards, stores and warehouses, many of them in the Inland Empire... But that may be changing. For six years, officials with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have been quietly laying the groundwork for an ambitious truck driver organizing campaign, one that could change the economics of the industrial supply chain... And recently, in part because the union agreed to its first contract with an employer in January, officials have become more open about their intentions... Teamsters officials estimate as many as 90 percent of drivers are considered independent contractors - not company employees - and federal law makes it impossible for contractors to form a union. (A spokesman for the trucking industry called that estimate high, saying 70 to 80 percent of drivers are contractors)... That means before the Teamsters can achieve success, they must persuade trucking firms to change how they conduct business. Trucking companies have balked at that, with many executives saying the independent contractor model - in which drivers own or lease their trucks - is more appropriate. Teamsters officials insist most of the contractor relationships are illegal... The Teamsters have responded by pressuring state and federal regulators to audit port trucking firms...

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Nov 15, 2009

TRUCKING JOBS * WORLDWIDE - DHL employees fights global battle for fair work treatment

London,UK -Road Freight News (Australia) -12 November 2009: -- Employees of multinational giant DHL will be challenging the company to honour its promises of fair treatment for all workers as part of a worldwide week of action from November 9 to 13... According to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the event is part of an ongoing joint campaign with UNI Global Union for fair work rights for all DHL workers globally... Currently activities are planned in Austria, Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Panama, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago...


* USA - Transport workers file labour violation complaint

New York,NY,USA -ITF Global -13 November 2009: -- Transport workers in the US have filed a complaint with the International Labour Organization (ILO) concerning New York state legislation, which bans strike action among public sector employees... The ITF-affiliated Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) submitted a complaint to the ILO’s committee on freedom of association over New York state’s Taylor law, which bars public sector workers from embarking on strike action. Flouting the law is punishable by extensive fines, imprisonment and suspension of union subscription payments... The complaint it also calls on the ILO to recommend that the Taylor law be amended to ensure it complies with international labour standards and that the union receive a full reimbursement to cover the fines they were forced to pay... (Photo: Sanderk, CC-by-sa: TWU picket in NYC in 2005)

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Sep 14, 2009

Truckers' Unionization * USA - Battle is loaded with controversy

Contra Costa,CAL,USA -The Contra Costa Times, by Gene Maddaus -13 Sept 2009: -- Jerry Moyes flew out from Phoenix to quell an uprising. The owner of Swift Transportation, one of the country's largest trucking companies, Moyes had made a big bet on the Port of Los Angeles. He invested heavily in the new, clean trucks that had just been mandated by the port. But by February, that bet was not paying off... Demand for freight hauling had collapsed along with the national economy. Moyes was losing $500,000 a month, and had lost $4 million since the Clean Trucks Program began the previous fall... Worse yet, his drivers were agitating on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters... Over the previous week, tensions between employees and management had boiled over. The terminal manager had been threatened and a tire on his vehicle been slashed. Two drivers leading the union campaign had been fired. There was also talk of a walkout - the last thing the company needed as it was trying to build up a customer base... When Moyes arrived at the Wilmington yard, he was upset. Addressing a crowd of drivers, he said he wanted to put an end to it... The Teamsters filed a complaint against Swift with the National Labor Relations Board, demanding that the four drivers be reinstated and given back pay. A hearing was held in August, and both sides are awaiting a ruling from an administrative law judge... Meanwhile, attendance at union meetings has dropped. Some pro-union drivers said they are trying to avoid giving the company an excuse to fire them. With the injunction in place, Teamsters organizers fear that any move to unionize Swift's employee drivers will be met with a wholesale shift to owner-operators. So all eyes are on the civil trial, scheduled to start in December in federal court...

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Jun 9, 2009

* USA - Railway Labor or National Relations Act or: FedEx vs. UPS

FedEx To Mount Campaign Against Bill Viewed As Pro-Union

New York,NY,USA -Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal, by Bob Sechler -June 8, 2009: -- FedEx Corp. is launching what it describes as multi-million-dollar campaign to derail proposed federal legislation that would make it easier for the company's workers to unionize... The effort targets chief rival United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) in particular, reiterating FedEx's recent criticism of the bill as a federal bailout for UPS... FedEx spokesman Maury Lane said the campaign is aimed at anyone who ships or receives packages, as well as the general public. FedEx contends approval of the legislation would increase customer costs by as much as 30%... If it becomes law, the legislation would remove FedEx Express drivers from the jurisdiction of the Railway Labor Act and put them under jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act. The change would allow FedEx drivers to organize on a location-by-location basis, rather than be required to hold a national election... "We're an airline that delivers 85% of our packages using aircraft, [and] they're a trucking company that delivers 85% of their parcels using trucks," Lane said. "You can't shoehorn an airline into [a] trucking company's rules and still expect critical packages to arrive within hours on the other side of the country," he said... (Photo from thumbs.dreamstime)

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Apr 26, 2009

Bill & Laws * Australia - Union raids to rise

The Rudd Government introduced the Fair Work Bill to supersede the previous government’s WorkChoices regime, which curtailed union access to workplaces

Sydney, Australia -fullyloaded/ATN, by Brad Gardner -27 April 2008: -- Businesses are being told to prepare for a massive increase in union raids from July this year when new industrial relations laws take effect... In a warning to businesses, Cooper Grace Ward Lawyers’, Heinz Lepahe, says “unions are starting to ramp up now a campaign of workplace visitations” in anticipation of the Fair Work Bill’s introduction... Lepahe says the Bill’s provisions will result in greater union presence because union delegates will be able to access non-union employees and demand company records on the basis of a suspected breach... Hughie Williams from the Queensland branch of the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) says he will be paying close attention to non-unionised businesses, claiming they often pay poor rates and have a poor approach to health and safety...


* Registration fees and road user charge to rise from July 1

Canberra,AUST -ATN, by Brad Gardner -22 April 2009: -- Trucking operators will be slugged with higher registration fees from July 1, as the Rudd Government pushes for an increase in the road user charge at the same time... The National Transport Commission (NTC) has recommended a 3.2 percent increase in registration fees, claiming it is justified on the basis of increased government expenditure on the road network... B-double operators will be most affected by the increase, with fees rising almost $3,000, from $9,330 to $12,214. Semi-trailer fees will jump $240, from $5,070 last financial year to $5,310 this year... These increases will coincide with a hike in the road user charge from 21 cents a litre to 21.7 cents, leading to a drop in the fuel tax credit from 17.1 cents per litre to 16.4 cents per litre... (Exchange: 1 Dollar AUST = 0.71870 US Dólar)

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Jan 19, 2009

NEW UNION * USA - Truckers meet to plan

Cite grievances against company

Washington,NC,USA -The Washington Daily News, by TED STRONG -January 19, 2009: -- A group of truckers gathered Saturday in Jamesville to plan how to protect drivers in a new union... The truckers, who pull containers and logs for businesses including Weyerhaeuser Company, are pushing for a number of concessions from the company, and they say they’ve been targeted for layoffs... The United Truckers Union is planning to affiliate formally with the Industrial Workers of the World’s Industrial Union 530... The union had considered formal ratification this week, but decided to make the move a lower priority after drivers were fired, said the Industrial Workers of the World’s representative, Bill Randel, in a phone interview after the meeting’s first day wrapped up... Randel attributed a relatively low turnout at Saturday’s move to fear of company retaliation, particularly because there aren’t many jobs in the region...

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May 29, 2007

Teamster vs. FedEx * USA - Scuffle could pinch local trucking cos.

Despite engine noise, unions may be coasting

Worcester,MA,USA -The Worcester Business Journal, by Matthew L. Brown -28 May 2007: -- The ongoing dust-up between Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester and FedEx Ground in Northborough over whether the company’s drivers should be classified as employees and be permitted to vote on whether to unionize doesn’t have Central Massachusetts trucking companies worried... But perhaps it should... The Teamsters have accused FedEx of threatening, intimidating, punishing and economically injuring drivers who were trying to form a union in late 2005 and early 2006... FedEx considers its drivers independent contractors. The union thinks otherwise, and has been fighting over it with FedEx before the National Labor Relations Board and in courtrooms. The NLRB has previously sided with the union, but that decision is being appealed by FedEx, preventing a vote from moving forward... Central Massachusetts has a number of smaller over-the-road trucking companies that use independent contractors, or a mix of independent contractors and company drivers. Why hasn’t Local 170 targeted them for unionization?... According to the company, it’s because FedEx is a big target... (Photo: The FedEx Ground facility in Northborough)

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