WASHINGTON — In a unanimous opinion, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rejected an appeal by Overnite Transportation Company, the trucking subsidiary of Union Pacific, and affirmed a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) order demanding that the trucking subsidiary immediately recognize and begin negotiating with the Teamsters at four additional Overnite terminals — in Lexington, Kentucky; Buffalo, New York; Detroit, Michigan; and Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Workers at these four Overnite terminals voted for Teamster representation (Detroit – 3/15/1995; Bowling Green – 2/1/1996; Lexington – 4/17/1996; Buffalo – 10/10/1996), only to have Overnite subvert the democratic process through a deceitful misuse of the legal process to deny those workers a place at the contract-negotiating table.
For example, workers at Overnite’s Detroit terminal won their election with 63 percent of the vote on March 15, 1995. Overnite challenged the results of the election.
On September 8, 1999, after a lengthy appeals process, the NLRB certified the Detroit workers’ 1995 election victory for Teamster representation. Nonetheless, Overnite still refused to allow the Detroit terminal to participate in contract negotiations.
The NLRB General Counsel issued a Summary Judgment ordering Overnite to comply. Overnite appealed to the full NLRB and lost.
Overnite appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and lost in a decision issued yesterday.
Therefore, the Detroit workers, who voted overwhelmingly for Teamster representation, have had their certification delayed for more than seven years because of Overnite’s legal tactics to stall the process.
Overnite’s “appeals scheme” to deny its workers’ basic bargaining rights is well documented. For example, workers at Overnite’s Bedford Park terminal in Chicago won their right to engage in collective bargaining in 1982 — nineteen years ago — and are still without a contract because Overnite refuses to bargain in good faith.
This ruling adds to UP/Overnite’s pathetic record as one of the nation’s worst labor scofflaws. Overnite lamely attempted to convince the court that the workers were coerced into voting for the Teamsters. The Court responded, writing, “Overnite’s examples of ‘express or implied threats or coercion’ are exaggerated.” Overnite’s strategy is simple — spend millions of dollars to stall, delay, demoralize, and subvert the workers’ federally protected rights. In short, to create a self-fulfilling prophecy that proves to their workers that seeking collective bargaining rights with Overnite is futile.
The Teamsters hope to begin contract negotiations with Overnite for the four terminals, which should have been recognized years ago, as soon as possible.
The Teamsters represent approximately 2,500 UP/Overnite workers at twenty- six (26) UP/Overnite terminals across the country and another 1,000 workers at eleven terminals are under bargaining orders from the NLRB. Another eleven represented Overnite terminals, which are under bargaining orders from the NLRB, are undergoing a similar appeals process. Overnite falsely claims that only 2,000 some workers at twenty-two (22) terminals are represented by the Teamsters. Overnite arrives at this figure because those are the terminals that have made it through Overnite’s gauntlet of endless appeals. Overnite appeals each victory to the Regional Director of the NLRB, then to the full NLRB in Washington DC, and then to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
The full decision is available online at:
http://pacer.ca4.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=011388.P
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States and Canada.