Teamster-FedEx scuffle could pinch local trucking cos.
Despite engine noise, unions may be coasting
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.
Gary Chaison, a professor of management at Clark University in Worcester, said if drivers at FedEx’s Northborough facility are allowed to vote to join the union, the Teamsters would be encouraged to take that union drive to other smaller trucking companies in the area.
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.
"Fat and slow, the chubby kid in dodgeball," said Robert Boulware, a FedEx Ground spokesman.
According to Chaison, the fight should’ve gotten the attention of other businesses that use so-called independent contractors rather than company employees.
"It would give (business owners) pause," Chaison said, because some contractors "probably feel it’s not worth it" and would be happier as union employees.
But so far, truckers in Central Massachusetts said they hear nary a word from the Teamsters.
"At some of the terminals, they hand out pamphlets, propaganda," said Brian Fish, manager of Jarvis Trans Inc. of Franklin. But he said that’s as much effort as the union has put into it.
Jarvis has 12 drivers. All are company drivers, but none are union.
The same relative silence was reported by ICI Trucking in Worcester, which has between 77 and 80 drivers at any given time, said manager Charlie Pasternack. He said 18 of them are company drivers. The rest are independent contractors.
"To my knowledge, they have not approached anyone within our company," Pasternack said of the Teamsters. "A couple of years ago they were up at the port in South Boston, but that’s a couple years," and all they were doing was handing out union literature, he said.
Competitive pressures
Rainbow’s 22 drivers are contractors. Rainbow is a family owned and operated franchise of North American Van Lines, a household mover.
"I don’t think anyone wants any part of the union," McEnaney said. She said "the cost of unionizing," including increased wages, paid time off and paying into the unemployment insurance program would be too much for Rainbow.
"We wouldn’t be able to operate," she said, adding, "Competition in this business is so fierce, we haven’t gone up in our rates in five years because the competition hasn’t. We have to have the lowest price, and if we were to unionize, we’d have to raise our rates."
The fact that smaller over-the-road truckers are virtually left alone by the Teamsters is striking, Chaison said, because some of them could be easy targets.
But the Teamsters are in a bit of a rut, and a victory at FedEx could be the a way to dig out of it.
Chaison said, "the problem for the American labor movement is they only know how to do one thing: represent employees in their workplace. They’re not too good at recruiting workers in non-traditional environments."
A Teamsters victory in getting FedEx to reclassify its drivers as employees, and getting those drivers to join the union, could encourage other independent contractors to approach the union, and encourage the union to try organization drives at other places, Chaison said.
"If you can do it in one place, you can do it somewhere else," he said. "If the Teamsters win a major campaign, there’s probably less to be gained (by other trucking companies) in resisting. It doesn’t make (organizing campaigns) easier, but when you make a heavy investment of time, money and resources beyond the size of the bargaining unit, it’s seen as an opening of the door."
Independent benefits
To save money, and possibly block union involvement, large companies like FedEx use independent contractors who buy, fuel and maintain their own trucks, run their own routes, and get paid by the number of packages they deliver.
FedEx doesn’t provide for any holiday pay or other benefits, but certain providers offer FedEx drivers discounted rates on insurance, tires and gas. The drivers are required to follow certain company rules.
How businesses craft that distinction between employee and independent contractor "worries the Teamsters tremendously," Chaison said. "They worry that workers will be redefined as independent contractors."
When they are, they’re out of the union’s reach, Chaison said.
But being technically "out of reach" hasn’t stopped the Teamsters from going after FedEx. In particular, the union cites the rigors of the work.
"It’s a tough job, and you get paid for what you deliver," Boulware said.
As a target for the Teamsters, FedEx has ready statistics on its highest paid drivers, who hire employees, manage fleets of trucks and make as much as $400,000 each year.
For all intents and purposes, they run their own ground shipping business. They just happen to be required to wear and display the FedEx logo on their uniforms and trucks, Boulware said.
But the story isn’t the same at all shipping firms. For example, UPS drivers are company employees represented by the Teamsters.
If FedEx drivers were unionized, "one labor union would be controlling 86 percent of the ground shipping in the country," Boulware said.
Mike Hogan, secretary treasurer of Local 170, said FedEx drivers want to be union. FedEx doesn’t pay into government unemployment insurance plans for independent contractors and doesn’t provide paid time off or insurance benefits, Hogan said.
He said the Teamsters didn’t have to go after FedEx, and doesn’t plan on going after other trucking companies.
"They came to us," he said of the FedEx drivers. "It’s very difficult to find out who’s having a problem out there, and who’s not."
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments