(The following Reuters article was published in the New York Times online.)
MIAMI — Organized drivers and cargo handlers at top U.S. shared-loads truckers have authorized a strike by a vote of more than nine-to-one in the event that one is needed to win a new labor contract, the Teamsters union said on Monday.
Bargaining between the union representing 65,000 full-time freight workers and a trade group representing companies such as Roadway Corp- and Yellow Corp began in October with an eye to an early renewal of a contract due to expire on March 31.
Both the Teamsters and the companies were eager for an early agreement in order to avoid a repeat of the last round of talks. Down-to-the-wire bargaining in 1997 cost unionized truckers lost cargoes and an estimated 5,000 jobs as shippers worried about a walkout shifted loads to nonunion carriers.
Agreements on many secondary issues such as seniority rights were reported by both sides but talks broke off two weeks ago in a dispute over wages and health care costs. Bargaining is now scheduled to resume on Wednesday in Chicago.
On Monday, the Teamsters said more than 95 percent of members had voted for a strike authorization at more than 200 local meetings during the last 10 days. The vote gives union leaders the power to call a walkout.
“This strike vote shows that our freight members are solidly behind our negotiators,” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said in a news release.
Shared-loads, or less-than-truckload, carriers transporting cargoes under 10,000 pounds in recent weeks reported strong late 2002 profit jumps following the September collapse of Consolidated Freightways, a unionized LTL carrier blamed for weak haulage prices.