(Bloomberg circulated the following story on May 22.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Teamsters workers for trucking companies that deliver about 80 percent of new cars sold by dealers in the United States authorized a strike as early as May 31 if a new contract isn’t reached.
Union spokesman Rob Black said 97 percent of the 9,000 workers who drive for Allied Holdings Inc. of Decatur, Ga., and 14 closely held companies approved the strike. Talks to replace a 4-year contract that expires at the end of the month have been under way since March, Black said.
The trucking companies carry the vehicles from U.S. plants directly to dealers or from intermediate locations between the manufacturing plants and dealers, such as railroad yards or ports where the cars arrive from overseas. Black said the union’s members delivered about 14 million vehicles to dealers last year.
“Any interruption in the flow of components to our plants or finished product to our dealers could disrupt GM’s operations and impact production workers,” said General Motors Corp. spokeswoman Renee Rashid-Merem. “We are hopeful that the car haulers and rail loaders represented by the Teamsters will ratify a new contract.”
Black said the companies are trying to boost health care contributions from workers and pay lower wages to new hires. He wouldn’t discuss wage issues.
The union is negotiating separately with Allied and the other companies after the Georgia company pulled out of a multi-employer bargaining group when talks began in March, Black said. About half of the union drivers work for Allied.